Album Notes

Welcome to the Jazzical Magical World of…HERMAN&CHARLYVILLE

To Herman, Charly and Annabella – Herman&CharlyVille IS the whole world, but they’re soon going to learn there is a lot more to see and learn out there in the really big world beyond Herman&CharlyVille. There’s lots to learn and some things to watch out for!

Charly & Annabella knew they were doing a really wonderful thing by touching every audience with their special heart given talents and their positive self-esteem messages. AND…when they did their dance routine together to ‘Spider Rag’ that was composed by their good friend…Mr. Whitney…Wheeew! What a show!

As Charly and Annabella kept performing both by themselves and together in the villages of Herman&CharlyVille, their FAN base became really big! I mean HUGE! But they are starting to get known outside of the villages of Herman&CharlyVille, and are rapidly becoming known worldwide (their books are now translated into 13 languages). And the story begins…

Herman&CharlyVille’s CD – was created by Christopher while working live shows with kids…SO…KIDS created this CD.

The best example is while doing one of his first live shows, the father came up to Christopher and asked “are you trying to make my kid think?” He said “Yup!” And the father said “Wow, I think that’s cool, because I love watching my daughter’s face when she’s working out a puzzle, and finally gets it.” Then his daughter looked at Charly’s picture in the book and said…”he’s cute!” Dad bought a book.

Another key example…while doing another live show in Chester, NY there were no electric plugs available without an adapter. (I carry them now!) The reason I went there, they learned all our songs off our CD that the teacher had purchased at a street fair. So we simply read books and sang the songs. I brought a lot of gear, and after an hour performance, said thanks for listening to the kids and went to pack up. A 3 year old girl came over (while the rest of the kids went off to another area) and asked me “what was in that bag?” I said, “that’s my flute. Let me show you.” So I opened the case and she said…”Ohh…did you break it?” (we carry it in pieces) and I said…”Naw…that’s how we carry it! Do you know what it sounds like?” She said…”No!” I said…”Let me put it together and play it for you!” I did and she said in the same breath…”that’s pretty…what’s in that bag?” I said “those are Herman&CharlyVille shakers where we teach you music dynamics. Can I show you how to use them? She said…”Sure” and I said “OK…with the shaker pointing down, the sound is soft, and when you shake it in the middle it’s a little louder and then when I tell you to point the cap up…PLAY LOUD AS YOU CAN!” All of a sudden all the kids started coming around and we did a song and learned about dynamics. Then my little 3 year old said…”what color is your guitar?” I said “I don’t know…we’ll have to look”…and I opened it up and she said it’s BLACK!” And at the end of the songs that I played, we were there for another 30 minutes. Hence…”WHAT’S IN THE BAG” segment of our interactive show.

So that’s the beginning of Herman&CharlyVille’s CD with a lot of Kid input since…

Have a Listen and Buy a CD or Two.

From our Imagination Stage, In The Barn, On The Farm…

Chris, Herman and Charly will travel to other places to explore different cultures and people. We want to expose the viewer/audience to the concept of a larger world and promote an interest in the diversity of cultures and traditions. Our characters will travel by going to the stage in the barn. There will be a plain backdrop, the curtains will close and then open and the backdrop on stage will be painted with the desired location. Our characters will then walk into the backdrop and arrive at that location. The return trip is back through the painted backdrop to the stage.

Our large community of characters lends itself to a wide variety of interactive possibilities leading to a virtually endless series of segment storylines to explore keeping the show fresh over time.

For more info…go to www.ChristopherReising.com and click on our Herman&CharlyVille link.