Hello all!
Well, we are SO pleased to announce that the latest Bobbledy Books Club item should have arrived in all of our club members’ mailboxes by now!
We’ve already gotten some rave reviews, so without further ado, we introduce you to this year’s musical installment, “Where’s My Chicken?”:
For those of you unfortunates who are NOT in the Bobbledy Books Club, you can buy your copy of it HERE. Or, even better, you can sign up for club membership and not miss anything we send out for a whole year! (Okay, sales pitch over).
The yearly album is always one of my favorite projects, because, well, #1: I kind of think of it as time off, because it’s not a book I have to illustrate, which usually means #2: I totally forget about it, until #3: Drew sends us a few rough tracks in an email with some excuses about how they aren’t that great, but then #4: They’re TOTALLY AWESOME!!! And that was the case again this year. I LOVE this album. I love EACH SONG on this album.
For those of you who don’t know Drew, well, he’s a songwriting genius. Here he is, with his dream band of his two kids and our friend Brian and his kid (also card-carrying Bobbledy Club members):
I don’t want to spoil the ruse, but the fact is Drew did most of the work himself, with some essential music-making help from Brian in spots, but no help at all from the kids, who were, in fact, probably demanding that he feed them or clothe them or some such. And in spite of having two kids and an incredibly demanding job (minister) he still was able to whip up a top-notch album of songs about chickens and fish and moles and potty seats and almondine crackers (well, technically that’s a cookie). So, 1,000 cheers for Drew. This album is the bomb.
Okay, so now back to me: I also really enjoyed doing the album art. The title track is “Where Is My Chicken?” so I had this idea of drawing a rooster for the cover, looking for his babe. I did a process post about it HERE, if you’re interested.
And then, of course, I got to draw said chicken (on the back).
I have to admit, I love this chicken. I also have to admit that I was 1000% tempted to draw the chicken beating the drum with drumsticks. I mean, like, chicken drumsticks. You know, THESE:
But Matthew insisted that it was too morbid for a kid’s album. Ah well. It would have been awesome, I’m pretty sure.
And since I’m talking about things I love about this album, I also loved doing the art for the liner notes. Drew wrote up a few things about each song – where the song came from, what he liked about the song, etc. So we made up a little leaflet that included his notes and some illustrations. I tried out a different style, using my computer, and had a really good time. Here’s one of my favorites, for the incredibly sweet lullaby which almost makes my heart break every time I listen to it, “Ducks on the Millpond”:
(It DEFINITELY makes my heart break when I hear Kato singing along with it in the back seat of the car)
Of course, last, but CERTAINLY not least, the magnum opus of this album (as far as I’m concerned): “Cracker in My Pants”. In case you are unsure, it is a Beastie Boys-inspired rap featuring a ripping bass line by Joe Bass (aka Joe Dejarnette) and the vocal stylings of Brian Slattery. My flimsy illustration for the liner notes just does not even do this song justice. But I will put it here for you to look at, while you listen, slackjawed, to Cracker in My Pants.
Go ahead. Be amazed. Be very amazed.
Cracker in My Pants
(click the play button, dawg!)
[sc_embed_player fileurl=”http://www.robbib1.sg-host.com/assets/03-I-Woke-Up-With-A-Cracker-In-My-Pants.mp3″]
And, one final thing that I love about this album is that I got to draw Brian Slattery (who was pretty much 90% of Drew’s backup band on this album) as a Banjo Superhero:
In his normal life, Brian is a super-distinguished award-winning writer of post-apocalyptic literary science fiction (while also doing good work for humanity as an editor of public policy publications). He’s just someone who begged to be dressed up in a superhero costume (not literally. He didn’t beg at all.) – since he’s going down in history as the next Pynchon (and that one I mean literally. The guy is a literary genius.).
So all of this is to say: this album is great. You guys should totally go out and buy it, if you haven’t already. BUY IT HERE, in fact.
And the other thing that all of this is to say is this: man, oh man, do we feel grateful and lucky to just happen to know such fricking talented and amazing people. There is nothing that makes us happier than being able to give Drew a place to lay down his tracks, and give Brian and Drew a chance to sit in a room together, cracking up about rapping about crackers (in your pants!). I don’t know, dawg, I feel like I have the best job in the world. So thank you all for supporting Bobbledy Books, so that we can support the creative output of some incredible people.