John Jeffrey Hodges and the BigBoys

Check out the collage of photos from the Village Toy performance of John Jeffrey Hodges and the BigBoys.  The BigBoys will be performing at Maire Elementary School in Grosse Pointe, Michigan on February 11, 2010 - and at Bruce Collins Elementary in Sterling Heights, Michigan on February 12, 2010.

John Jeffrey Hodges and the BigBoys adds Guitarist Frank Marinello

        We're proud to introduce guitarist Frank Marinello, John Jeffrey Hodges and the BigBoys newest band member. Frank's impressive resume includes performances with many well-known groups and artists. As  a graduate of the Musicians Institute, Frank was mentored by such greats as Joe Pass, Robben Ford and Joe Diorio. Frank’s guitar sounds have appeared on many recordings, including those of such artists as Grammy-nominated Dave Kimbers, Keyna Darlings, Brazil and Beyond, as well as many other rock, jazz, country, and R&B groups. He recently performed on the soundtrack for Enteraktion Studios Animated film "The Dwegons" slated for release in February, 2010. Frank has also performed with numerous well-known artists including Marilee Rush, Peggy March, Frankie Ford, Dicky Lee, The Sangri-Las,Troy Shondell and Steve Smith.  We'll keep you posted as to future performances.....stay tuned!!

More Airplay - Spokane, WA

Garbage Day and Your Father were recently played on Spokane Public Radio's kid's show, The Nacho Celtic Hour, KPBX 91.1-  Spokane, WA.   Also, a big thank you goes out to Gwyneth at Gooney Bird Kids for playing Skating Rink on her radio program GBK Radio! 
Jeff is gearing up for a couple upcoming performances in GP - at Caribou Night - Caribou Coffee in the Village on Tuesday, October 20 - 7:00 p.m.   Come in and support Jeff and Jack's school - Maire Elementary.  The following Saturday, Jeff will be appearing at The Village Toy Company in Grosse Pointe with his group The BigBoys at 12:00 noon for a concert and CD signing.  The BigBoys will be with Jeff at Caribou as well.  Amazing musicians and music. 
Hope to see you there. 

CD Review of KiddyDittys

Amber Passey, through her great blog: Becausebabiesgrowup.com is giving away two copies of KiddyDittys as prizes during her Fall Fling event.  Amber's mommy blog offers advice and tips to moms as well as lots of fun information for everyone.  Check out her blog and review @ http://becausebabiesgrowup.com/ !  We love reading Amber's fun stories and reviews.  We truly appreciate Amber's great review.  Keep up the good work!  

Concert at Village Toy Company

Jeff and his band, The Big Boys, will be performing at Village Toy Company  http://www.villagetoycompany.com/index.html on Saturday, October 24, 2009 at 12 noon.
They'll perform a few songs from KiddyDittys and Jeff will be autographing CD's.  We hope to see you there!

KiddyDittys giveaway on Because Babies Grow up Fall Fling

A really great mommy blog, http://www.becausebabiesgrowup.com/ is offering a couple copies of KiddyDittys as prizes in her fall fling contest this fall.  Amber Passey created this beautiful website offering information, tips and lots of fun tidbits and recommendations for moms.  We're proud to help sponser Amber's fall fling!!!  Give the site a visit! 

Coming Soon - KiddyDittys Videos

We spent Saturday filming video footage for KiddyDittys.  The weather was gorgeous and we had a great posse of musicians, kids and friends contributing and just hanging out with us.  Jim Oliver, who put together Jeff's video for The President (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dSQQ88Ww7I) and who also made my play, How Jackson Saved the Sea into a beautiful little film, will be editing and creating videos for KiddyDittys.  All we need to do is figure out which song to do first.  

KiddyDittys on iTunes

KiddyDittys is now officially available through iTunes - http://www.itunes.com/.  We're still in rotation on http://www.rummiradio.com/ and they're playing KiddyDittys on a pretty much constant basis.  I'm working every day on this and learning a ton.  It's an uphill battle, but I have so much faith in this record and its marketability.  Stay tuned friends, keep the faith and spread the word.

And on to the next best thing....

John Jeffrey Hodges is at it again.  He's already started working on his NEXT children's album.  I got a taste of the first potential cut this afternoon and was BLOWN AWAY.  Exciting!!!  But can't lose focus on KiddyDittys. Back to work tomorrow.  We had to take a break today to get the child's school shoes.  Mission accomplished. 

War and Peace

Jack and 9 of his best buddies are having a Nerf war in my yard today so not much time to work on KiddyDittys.  One observation - I hope and pray that this war is the closest any of these kids will ever come to fighting in a war. 
Peace and love to all.

Brace Up

Today I took my 8-year-old son to get braces.  After waking up at 5:30 a.m. and spending two hours trying to erase the "thought loop" running in circles around my brain that questioned whether I was doing the right thing by subjecting my poor baby to the horrors of the evil, sadistic orthodontist, I finally fell back to sleep for  10 minutes before the alarm jarred me back to reality.  Jack was nervous -NOT NEARLY AS NERVOUS AS HIS MOM - but put on an incredibly brave game face.  Two hours later, we walked out of the sweet, gentle orth's office with smiles on both our faces (albeit one a little more silver-y than the other).  I swear, the "what ifs" of life will kill you!  Jack's doing great and actually thinks he looks BETTER with his braces.  Just one of the joys of being a boy. 
Meanwhile, KiddyDittys continues in rotation on Rummi Radio and I continue my quest to find bigger and better venues for my hubby's amazing music. 
He did come up with a great name for his back-up band -  John Jeffrey Hodges and the Big Boyzz.  My girlfriend Kate has agreed to design the logo - so all we need is a date and we're good to go.

ALL AGES SHOW - PRINCETON, NJ

Thanks to WPRB - Princeton, NJ - for playing "Learn for Yourself" on their kid's program "The All Ages Show".  Visit the website: http://www.wprb.com/ .  The show airs Saturdays from 12-1:30.  You can listen to their streaming broadcast @ the website above.

Alaska!!!!

Okay, I really think Jeff's made the big time now.  We just discovered that one of his songs "Garbage Day" featuring back up vocals by 'yours truly' was played on August 23rd's edition of  KRNN kid's radio show: "We Like Kids" , located in Juneau, Alaska.  Hey KRNN, we like kids, too, and we LOVE you, for playing our CD.  Thank you SO MUCH.  Keep those tunes rollin'.  I've been thinking about an Alaskan cruise for a few months now.  Maybe we'll have to take a trip and do a concert in Juneau.  Talk about a win/win!  Tune in to "We Like Kids" Sunday mornings @ 10 a.m. @ http://www.ktoo.org/.

Another Great Saturday for KiddyDittys

KiddyDittys is on the air again today in the first hour of The Saturday Morning Cereal Bowl's podcast.  Here's the link to take a listen to "Gumdrop" , as well as a TON of other fantastic family music: 

http://saturdaycerealbowl.podbean.com/

Rummiradio.com continues to play every song from KiddyDittys in their rotation and we couldn't be happier!! 

Thank you everyone for your support and keep spreading the word about KiddyDittys.

More Airplay

Jeff was sitting at the computer and clicked on Rummi Radio's streaming website to hear his OWN MUSIC wafting through the airwaves...they were playing "Bike."   SOMEBODY OUT THERE LIKES US!!!  To listen to Rummi Radio, click on my link on the left of this blog.  Then just click the "play" button.  Fabulous kid's music station. 

We are in Rotation!!

What a way to start the day!!   Turned on the computer this morning first thing and clicked on http://www.rummiradio.com/ and there it was... John Jeffrey Hodges ....It's Hard To Be Cool.  The CD is definitely in rotation on this station.  Awesome.  Thanks Rummiradio!  Keep 'em coming. 

Tweet Tweet - Let's all Twit (ter)

We have a Twitter site now, too!  Check it out and follow us at :  Twitter.com/kiddydittys.  This is SOOO fun.  Almost as fun as the music on KiddyDittys!!

More Good News

KiddyDittys appears to be in rotation on Rummi Radio out of Tampa, Florida.  I'm still trying to figure out how to listen to the kids program.  As soon as I do, I'll post a link!!

No rest for the marketing department

Yesterday we entered 4 songs from KiddyDittys in the Great Lakes Songwriting Contest. Jeff has been awarded several honorable mentions in this contest in recent years, so we thought we'd give it another shot.  In my opinion he's a shoo-in to win some more accolades!  How could they not LOVE KiddyDittys???  The biggest challenge was figuring which songs to enter!!  They're ALL so darned good.

It seems the more I research children's music sources and resources and artists the more I find.   The interest in children's music is infinite which is a fabulous thing for us.  It's a win/win situation here, because in the course of my quest, I continue to find amazing children's songwriters and music.  I'll post my own favorites as we continue this journey.  One particular songwriter I really love is Peter Himmelman.  The guy is just plain cool.   Check him out @ peterhimmelman.com. 

Jeff and Jack Hodges

John Jeffrey Hodges

Jeff's CD is now available for purchase at Village Toy Company (http://www.villagetoycompany.com/) on Kercheval in Grosse Pointe City. Jeff will be performing live at Village Toy sometime soon with Rob Emanuel on drums and keyboardist Dale Grisa on the 88's. Both Rob and Dale played on KiddyDittys and their contributions are indescribable. The show is slated to be scheduled for a date sometime after the kiddies return to school on September 8th so stay tuned.

Wow!!! Sending out a big huge THANK YOU and shout out to The Saturday Morning Cereal Bowl in Chatanooga, TN. for playing a song from KiddyDittys - "Hey, I'm Over Here" - in hour one of their 8/15/09 internet podcast.

Check out their blog @ smcb.blogspot.com. We are definitely big fans here in Michigan!!

Here's the link to the podcast -

http://saturdaycerealbowl.podbean.com/

check it out.

As far as I can tell, that was the first airing of one of our songs - so kudos to SMCB for that milestone.

By the way, we really loved the song "I Gotta Rock" featured on this same program by a group called Eve & Mare from their CD "Green Means Go." Check out their website: http://www.eveandmare.com/. Good luck girls.