Kid Pan Alley started with a brilliant, yet obvious, discovery—children’s imaginations make kids the great co-writers for songs. From their first recording, in 2001, Tidal Wave of Song,” Kid Pan Alley has started a tidal wave of over 1,000 songs written with over 20,000 children across the country. Their latest release I Used to Know the Names of All the Stars, recorded by some of the artists who call Charlottesville home, including Cracker, Sissy Spacek, Corey Harris, John McCutcheon, Trees on Fire, Jesse Winchester, Sparky’s Flaw, Sons of Bill, and Shannon Worrell, features songs written with the children of Charlottesville.
The songs span the musical universe, from Jesse Winchester singing I Used to Know the Names of All the Stars, a song about how we used to know everything before we were born and now our job is to relearn it, to a reggae version of My Sister, sung by MacArthur award winner, Corey Harris.
Songwriting is a way to talk about some of the most important and complex personal and world issues as seen through the wide and perceptive eyes of children. Trapezoid’s Paul Reisler founded Kid Pan Alley with the goal of reinvigorating creativity as a core value in education, one community at a time. These songs, which celebrate who we are and who we can be, changed the kids who wrote them, and now they inspire kids and adults all around the country to think and grow.
Past CD projects, featuring world-renowned artists including Delbert McClinton, Amy Grant, Kix Brooks, Raul Malo, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Suzy Bogguss, the Nashville Chamber Orchestra and many others, have won Parents’ Choice and NAPPA Gold awards, five ASCAP Foundation awards, and a Grammy nomination.
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