Album Notes

This teaching tool is fun for kids even before they grasp the concepts they're singing about. All lyrics are included, and illustrations of the Dogma Dogs decorate the CD insert. And yes, even adults like it!

Creator Amy Lewkowicz holds Masters degrees in both theology and liturgical music. But this isn't liturgical--it's just plain fun.

The Dogma Dogs... great for vacation bible school, CCD, even RCIA -- or just dancing around the living room. A great gift for the budding little theologians in your life, ages 6-11.

SOME HISTORY
Imagine being given a children's choir and not knowing any children's songs... well, that wasn't quite the case, but once I taught them hymns, I wanted to treat my little flock to something fun and summer-camp like at the end of a good rehearsal. Trouble was, after "I've Got That Joy" and "Rise and Shine," I was out of material (this was before the recent, wonderful burst of Catholic children's CDs... I wonder if everyone who put out a CD in the past couple years had the same problem!).

So, armed with a degree in Theology, I started writing little ditties for the children to sing once the liturgical music was learned for the day. And the reaction was VERY positive! One of the best moments was when I was trying to explain when something happened in Mass and they didn't know when the homily was. I said, "OK, I was going to save this til later, but you guys need to know this!" and I played The Liturgy Song on piano, with them looking over my shoulder to sing the chorus. At the end, 6-year-old Sam shouted out "let's sing it again!!" I knew it wasn't because of his astute grasp of the material that he felt that way; he just LIKED it.

The more we sang, the more creative I got in both musical style and subject matter. A number of the songs (like The Lectionary Cycle) were inspired by questions kids asked in choir: if the paper said "Year C," and that meant there was a three-year cycle of readings, why wasn't there a four-year cycle for the four Evangelists? Well, they have to share, of course. "Sharing is good," as a 9-year-old wrote on the whiteboard under my explanation.

Two years and about 9 songs later, word came around that Nick Alexander, "the Catholic Weird Al," was going to be the evening entertainment for our annual youth rally. I asked the youth minister if my kids could be the opening act. I got the "contemporary" group at Mass to play along as "the band" and The Dogma Dogs were born. Fourteen kids were out front, singing and dancing about the 10 commandments and the order of Mass. This was weird... What had I invented? Catholic cabaret? But the teenagers LOVED our little 20-minute concert.

I had written lots of songs over the years, but never gotten this unanimous of a positive response. Apparently I had a vocation, or at the very least, a charism. Not one I would have picked off a list, but God works in mysterious ways.

I decided we had to make a CD. And the wonderful, generous Our Sunday Visitor Institute came to our aid with a grant, allowing us to hire top-notch illustrators and designers, as well as a real recording studio and highly skilled studio musicians. Thus "The Dogma Dogs: Songs of Catholicism For Kids" was released by the very fledgling company, Liturgical Groove Productions.

I hope you and your children enjoy this music as much as my children's choir does. Remember, this was NEVER meant to be used at Mass, so we felt free to get a little zany. Let me know how you like it!!

--Amy Lewkowicz