Hey, look at that, Many Hands is number one!  And fully half of the top ten comes from artists on the CD.  Congratulations to everyone on the list, and remember: it’s a fantastic gift.  Locals can get it at Turn It Up!, Toy Box, Cup & Top, A2Z, and presumably some other places; everyone else, ask at your local retailer or order from Amazon or iTunes or whatever.

Many Hands: Family Music for Haiti was officially nationally released yesterday!  You can get it at fine record stores, Amazon, or iTunes.  If your local store doesn’t carry it, tell them they can get it from E1 or any one-stop.  And in September, it’ll be in every Whole Foods Market.

I’m not going to try to link to all of the press it’s been getting (if you like us on Facebook, you’ll see links there), but how about a little sampler:

“Simply put, Many Hands: Family Music for Haiti is the year’s best family music compilation and one of the year’s best kids music CDs, period. Buy two: one for your friend and one for your own family. Many families will thank you. Definitely recommended.” – Stefan Shepherd, Zooglobble.com

“Artfully assembled and brimming with joy, Many Hands lives up to its title with noteworthy performances from many of the finest names in family music. Great music, worthy cause — what more could you ask for?” – Jeff Giles, Popdose.com

“Many Hands: Family Music from Haiti is, for many reasons, the most intriguing and audacious release in the family music world this year, bar none.” –Zooglobble.com

“A We are the World for the sandbox set. ” – UrbanBaby.com

“Many Hands is an instant family heirloom of a CD, worthy of being passed on to future generations. It’s also a lovely slice of the children’s music world in 2010, comprehensive in it’s scope yet tight-knit at the same time – heck, that sounds like the kindie scene itself! Consider purchasing Many Hands when it comes out this August. I’m pretty certain that many, if not all, of the songs will delight you and your kiddos.” –Outwiththekids.com

“Plenty of homerun tunes.”   James Heflin, Valley Advocate

If you’ve got satellite radio (psst: terrestrial radio is still pretty great), you can hear what I think will be a pretty amazing in-studio from Dog on Fleas, Uncle Rock, Grenadilla, and Recess Monkey this weekend.

If I may be so bold to suggest it, this CD would be a great Christmas or other holiday gift for, well, everyone you know.  Why not get all your gifts taken care of right now?

The CD is now available at A Child’s Garden as well as at Cup & Top and Turn It Up.  Tuesday, it is available everywhere!  (Pre-order now from Amazon if you don’t have a local record store to buy it from.)  I don’t know if I’ve made it clear before, but it will be available on iTunes as well.

Tickets for the Pines show are available (with no service charge) at Turn It Up and at the Toy Box.  You can also buy them online with a pretty reasonable service charge of just 99 cents per ticket at Brown Paper Tickets.

We have some great sponsors already lined up for the show here.  If you’re interested, contact me soon.

We’re about a week away from the record’s August 10 national release date, so how about some updates?

First, buying the CD:

• Locals: The CD is available at Turn It Up Records (Northampton, Brattleboro, and Montague Center) and at Cup & Top Cafe (Florence Center)!
• Non-locals: The CD will be available at your local record store, assuming the existence of same.  If they don’t have it, ask for it!  It has national distribution from E1 and will be available through any major one-stop.
• If you don’t have a local record store, you can order it from Amazon.  Use this link and the nice folks at This Might Be a Wiki will not just donate their commission but also match it!

Second, seeing the release shows.  There are a bunch:

• Sunday August, 15: Dog on Fleas, Grenadilla, Uncle Rock, Rosendale Theater, Rosendale, NY (Details)
• Friday, August 20: Elizabeth Mitchell & Family and Frances England, Mill Valley Library, Mill Valley, CA (free) (Details)
• Saturday, August 21: Dog on Fleas, Lunch Money, Randy Kaplan, Deedle Deedle Dees, Armory, Somerville, MA (Details & ticket link)
• Saturday, September 11, 11:00: Randy Kaplan, Johnny Bregar, and Recess Monkey, Multnomah Arts Center, Portland, OR, presented by A Child’s Time to Rock! (Tickets)
• Saturday, September 11: Deedle Deedle Dees, Gustafer Yellowgold, Dog on Fleas, Knitting Factory, Brooklyn, NY (Tickets)
• Sunday, September 26: Dan Zanes, Elizabeth Mitchell & Family, Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem, Secret Agent 23 Skidoo, Deedle Deedle Dees, Tony Vacca, Grenadilla, Pines Theater, Look Park, Northampton, MA. (Buy tickets now!)

Third, other stuff:

• Songs from the CD have been getting play on lots of family radio shows, including our show, Sirius/XM, Ages 3 and Up!, and so on.  Do you do a show and haven’t gotten the CD yet?  Send me a note (show at sparetherock dot com) and we’ll hook you up.
• On a related note, Sirius/XM’s Kids’ Place Live (I won’t be doing the wacky capitalization, nope) recorded what sounds like an amazing Rumpus Room in-studio with Uncle Rock, Dog on Fleas, Recess Monkey, and Grenadilla.  It’ll air the weekend after the CD comes out; check out some pictures here from Out With the Kids.
• There aren’t a lot of reviews out yet, but Out With the Kids sure liked it.
• Zooglobble has a limited-time preview of the Lunch Money song.  Go check it out!

That’s all for now.  Please — please! — tell your friends and family about the CD, send them a link to ManyHandsCD.com, and buy/order the CD today!

With a national release on August 10, Many Hands: Family Music for Haiti is the first release from Spare the Rock Records. This unique collection of songs is filled with uplifting messages from some of today’s very best family musicians.

After the January 12th, 2010 earthquake that destroyed much of the Haitian capital, family musician Dean Jones (Dog on Fleas) found himself feeling helpless and desperately wanting to help the people of Haiti. Having close friends in Haiti and feeling a deep love and respect for the music from the region, Jones felt the need to create something that could help the ongoing rebuilding effort.

The idea for Many Hands came to him in the middle of the night and the very next day several of his fellow family musicians signed on. “When I had the idea for the Many Hands CD, I knew without a doubt that I could count on the big-hearted kindie community.” said Jones. “The generosity and the amazing work of all the musicians and everyone involved definitely exceeded my initial expectations.”

Almost all of the tracks on the album are previously unreleased, most of them recorded especially for this release. The gathering of artists featured here is a strong assortment of the unique and special talents creating and performing for today’s all ages audiences, from the legendary Pete Seeger to family hip-hop star Secret Agent 23 Skidoo. In addition, everyone involved in the process of getting this album out into the world from replication to distribution has also either drastically discounted or donated their services. Proceeds from this release will benefit the Haitian People’s Support Project and their long-standing work to help the people of Haiti.

Many Hands will be released as the debut album of Spare the Rock Records, founded by kindie rock connoisseur Bill Childs. “After speaking with Dean it was immediately obvious to me that this would be a great record, and, just as importantly, that it would have the potential to help keep people’s attention on the ongoing recovery of Haiti,” recalls Childs on how the partnership came to fruition. “Dean asked for some help reaching out to a few artists, and that just naturally flowed into my helping the record get a wider release; ultimately, that meant starting a label.” Childs produces, with his kids, the weekly radio show Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child. Bill also writes about kids’ music for various parenting magazines and has produced numerous kids’ concerts and is the cofounder of KindieFest, the family music conference.

CD release shows are planned on both coasts, including:

• Sunday August, 15: Dog on Fleas, Grenadilla, Uncle Rock, Rosendale Theater, Rosendale, NY (Details.)
• Friday, August 20: Elizabeth Mitchell & Family and Frances England, Mill Valley Library, Mill Valley, CA (Free!)
• Saturday, August 21: Dog on Fleas, Lunch Money, Randy Kaplan, Deedle Deedle Dees, Armory, Somerville, MA (Buy tickets here.)
• Saturday, September 11, 11:00: Randy Kaplan, Johnny Bregar, and Recess Monkey , Multnomah Arts Center, Portland, OR, presented by A Child’s Time to Rock!  (Buy tickets here.)
• Saturday, September 11: Deedle Deedle Dees, Gustafer Yellowgold, Dog on Fleas, Knitting Factory, Brooklyn, NY
• Sunday, September 26: Dan Zanes, Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem, Deedle Deedle Dees, Grenadilla, and very special other artists TBA, Pines Theater, Look Park, Northampton, MA

Click on the thumbnail for a high-res image of the cover:

Media Contact: Stephanie Mayers

The record features the following artists:

Dan Zanes
Pete Seeger
Elizabeth Mitchell
They Might be Giants
Gustafer Yellowgold
Caspar Babypants
Frances England
Dog on Fleas
Lunch Money
Baby Gramps
Recess Monkey
The Deedle Deedle Dees
Rani Arbo and daisy mayhem
Bonga and the Vodou Drums of Haiti
Secret Agent 23 Skidoo
Jonathan Coulton
Uncle Rock
Grenadilla
Dean Jones
Emily Curtis
Randy Kaplan
Jerrice Baptiste