[Dixielandjazz] FW: New Songs for Dixieland

[Jim Kashishian]

Steve wrote:
>surprisingly, they do recognize Saints, Muscrat Ramble, Hello Dolly, What A
Wonderful World and a whole host of songs we all know)

I gather, Steve, that by "they" you are referring to U.S. kids?  Other than
Muscrat Ramble, the other 3 songs you mentioned are so well known in Europe
(Ok, at least in Spain) that the kids in our audiences sing along to them.
They also know three others we do (that I can think of at this moment):  The
Flintstones, In the Mood, and Mister Sandman.

During The Saints, I often pass the microphone around in the audience &
various people add their own, very accented versions to this extremely
well-known number.

I still stick to my guns on the fact that the energy gets to the kids more
than doing some "cover" of a song their favorite groups might be famous for.
Going after those songs just with the hope of getting your crowd seems a bit
lame to me.  Now, if it's a great song, and you're inspired to make it work
for your band, then that IS a good reason to go for it.

Jim