| Gillygaloo, The Fabled
Critter....
In days gone by, Paul Bunyan, the legendary giant
lumberjack, and his mighty big blue ox, Babe, roamed
the great forests that once covered much of America.
As they traveled from coast to coast, Paul Bunyan and
Babe encountered some pretty strange creatures living
in the woods, such as the Roperite, who had a lasso-like
snout with which it snared rabbits, and the backwards-flying
Goofus bird.
Rarer still was the Gillygaloo, a rather
peculiar bird that laid her eggs square to prevent them
from rolling down the steep mountain slope where she nested.
The Gillygaloo was also noted for her very colorful
plumage and fine singing voice. As Paul Bunyan and his
fellow lumberjacks toiled in the forest, far from their
families and friends, Gillygaloo would entertain them
with sweet songs as they set about their lonely, back-breaking
work....
Presenting--
Gillygaloo, The Band....
Photo by W. Weinstein
GILLYGALOO is a Brooklyn-based
acoustic folk ensemble with one goal: to "edu-tain"
kids of all ages and abilities with grownup-friendly roots music that really rocks the house!
Our repertoire is a rich musical gumbo, made up of
fun songs and dance tunes, drawn primarily from many
different ethnic and regional folk traditions. It runs
the gamut from African
American ring dances and Hawaiian
mele to old-time country classics and early blues favorites; from Jewish klezmer and Norteno/Tejano
(Texas-Mexican)
dance music to rollicking fiddle tunes from Upstate New York,
Appalachia,
French Canada, the British Isles, Scandinavia
and the Tohono O'odham (formerly known as the
Papago Indians) of Southern Arizona.
Spicing up this flavorful mix are our own
roots-inspired original songs and instrumental compositions, which reflect a
wide array of influences: Caribbean calypso Jamaican
mento, Louisiana Cajun/ Zydeco, New England
contra dance tunes, and jazz and swing from the 1920s and
'30s, to name but a few.
Gillygaloo serves it all up, hot and tasty, on a variety
of acoustic instruments: fiddle, mandolin,
guitar, banjo,
button accordion, concertina, ukulele,
dulcimer, cuatro,
double bass, dumbec drum and more!
We strive to make our performances fun and
accessible for the whole family through interaction and
age-appropriate movement activities, which may range
from finger
plays to participatory dancing. In the spirit of an
old-time house party or a neighborhood dance, upbeat,
rhythmic melodies are featured that get toes tapping
and hands clapping. Our programs often include simple folk dances and
"play party" singing and dancing games from
various traditions, which are taught on the spot.
Of course, you're always invited to get up and "shake
it down anyway you please" to our music!
To hear some of our music, please visit:
www.myspace.com/gillygaloo
CONCERTS, FESTIVALS & SPECIAL EVENTS
Gillygaloo is available for programs in schools,
parks, museums and camps, as well as other public venues
such as festivals and street fairs. We can tailor our
show to help convey the specific theme of your overall
event. Please
contact us to discuss program options and bookings.
FAMILY DANCE PARTIES
Looking for something unique for your next special
event? Why not consider having a Family Dance
Party? Gillygaloo offers a very broad repertoire
of dance music from many different traditions and a wide
range of fun participatory social dances for all levels
that we teach on the spot. Please
contact us for more information.
WEDDINGS, SOCIAL FUNCTIONS & PROGRAMS FOR
"GROWNUPS"
The members of Gillygaloo are all veteran
professional musicians who have a great of deal
experience performing for every type of function from
weddings to corporate holiday parties. Our distinctive
acoustic sound and very eclectic repertoire may be just
the thing for your next special occasion.
A recent example of the type of
programming we offer for "grownup" functions is an event
we did at the Whitney Museum of American Art
(NYC). As part of the 2005 annual dinner for the
museum's docents (volunteer gallery guides), we played
ambient background music as they dined and then got 'em
up on the dance floor for New England-style contra
dancing as well as couple dancing such as waltzes and
swing dances.
Kathryn Potts, the Whitney's Head of Exhibition
Interpretation, wrote: "I
wanted to thank you... for a wonderful evening. I
thought the music was wonderful. It really helped to
make the evening special. I heard incredible feedback
from the docents about the event. They thoroughly
enjoyed themselves. My only problem now is that you have
raised the bar so high that I don’t know how I am going
to match it next year!!"
Please
contact us to discuss ideas as to how we can help
make your next function a memorable one.
A LITTLE GILLY HISTORY.... Our story begins
at the dawn of the New Millennium, when Suzi Shelton and Shlomo Pestcoe--
local favorites of the Big Apple's children's music scene-- got together with
renowned master musicians
Michael Gorin and Bob Jones.
We were looking to offer "kids 'n' family" audiences fresh, new "edu-taining"
performances of the various traditional songs and dance tunes we love-- as
well as our own roots-inspired originals-- in a unique, creative approach
that combines
interactive fun with quality musicianship and performance artistry. The result was Gillygaloo. Six
years prior to that, Suzi and Shlomo had met while they were
staff artist/educators at The
Children's Museum of the Arts. At the time, Suzi was a young dancer,
fresh from Ohio, looking to break into the Big Apple's modern dance scene.
Shlomo was CMA's musician-in-residence, better known as The Music Man,
a popular "role" he had created four years earlier at
The Children's Museum of Manhattan
to present his unique "living arts" program of interactive music activities
for kids. At CMA, they joined with fellow
staff artist/educators Albert Elias and Lou Gallo to create
the institution's first resident performance arts troupe, Museum in a Trunk,
which not only performed in the Museum but also traveled throughout the City
doing shows in public parks and institutions. In 1996, the group went
independent and became The Imagination Workshop Band. Over the next
seven years, the IWB garnered local fame as the leading ensemble in NYC's
burgeoning children's and family music scene. Their two albums,
Subway
Train
(1997) and
It's a
Kid's Life (2000), became hits and are today "classics" in the
ever-growing field of children's music recordings.
Meanwhile, for quite some time, Shlomo had been performing a variety of
traditional folk dance music forms, in various combinations, with his
long-time friends and "comrades-in-music," Michael and Bob. From 1981
on, Michael and
Shlomo have entertained folks with their traditional fiddle and button accordion tunes at
museums, historic sites, and other cultural institutions and venues throughout the NYC
metropolitan area and across the Hudson River in New Jersey. In the early
'90s, they were the "official" maritime music duo for
The South Street Seaport Museum's
Development Department. As such, Michael and Shlomo performed weekly on the deck of the schooner
Pioneer,
as she sailed up and down the East River for special
membership and charter tours. Likewise, they were tapped to play for
exhibition openings and other special events at the Museum. The mid '90s saw
Shlomo and Bob getting together to perform old-time country, early blues,
Jewish klezmer and other
"trad" music styles. At the same time, Bob often played with Michael at contra
dances, weddings and other events. On occasion, all three would share a stage
together with other friends.
Fast forward to the Winter of 2000: Shlomo introduces Suzi to Michael and Bob.
The four of us sit down to jam. Halfway through the first song we play
together, there are smiles all around. And the rest, as they say, is
history....
Three years later, we released our critically-acclaimed debut
album
Little Green
Thing. Since then, it has
received rave reviews from kids (and their grownups) across the
country... and across the ocean-- such as in Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, Spain and Taiwan!
THE TIMES THEY ARE A' CHANGING....
The
start of 2006 saw the end of an era for our band and the
beginning of a new one. A couple of years earlier, Suzi had embarked on a
promising solo career, writing and performing wonderful original songs geared
towards younger kids, the "Below 6" crowd. With the
release of her hit debut album,
Simply Suzi, in
the Fall of 2005 and the formation of her own band, it became clear that she
needed to focus all of her energies in that direction. Sadly, Suzi was forced
to resign as an active member of Gillygaloo. Our 3rd annual benefit concert
for The
Claremont Children's School on February 5th, 2006 marked
her last official performance with the band. There Suzi "passed the torch" to our new
lead singer, Mamie Minch, as she joined us on stage for the first time
to the great acclaim of our kid and grownup fans.
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