Monday, August 31, 2009

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.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

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.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

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.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

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. 

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

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. 

Monday, August 24, 2009

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.