Kenny Powell - "Preschool Jam!": News/Blog

I just landed another big order! Last year, I contacted a children's fitness company called Stretch-n-Grow (click on their link at my "Links" page) about "Preschool Jam!", and Jill Manly, the president of the company, ordered 25 copies of my CD. Well, just last week Caryn Burnier, the franchise sales director for Stretch-n-Grow, ordered 25 copies of "Preschool Jam!" It's great to get repeat business, especially when it's a big order!

Well, that didn't take long! I submitted my new song, "Let's Be Silly!", to the Sunday Ticket (entertainment) section of the Sacramento Bee newspaper. They have a "Sunday Single" feature where anyone can submit a song, and if your song is chosen, it is featured online and in the printed paper. You can also hear the song at the Bee website. "Let's Be Silly!" was chosen to be tomorrow's (Sunday, July 1, 2007) "Sunday Single." It's already online today. I have a link to the online feature on my "Buzz!" page. Go check it out! And if you live in the Sacramento area, pick up a copy of the Bee tomorrow!

I know I've been promising this for a while now, but my new song, "Let's Be Silly!", which will be featured on "Preschool Jam! 2", is HERE!!! Not only that, but it's available on my music page, for a short time, as a FREE download! You can listen to the entire song on QuickTime, or you can save the song by right-clicking "MP3 download whole song, hi-fi", then clicking "Save target as..." and save the file to the location you choose. This song is the first one I've produced with my new digital recorder. Sorry about the wait, but I wanted to get it right, so I couldn't rush it. Thank you for your patience. I'm very happy with the results, and I hope you will be, too. Don't be afraid to get "crazy, wacky, goofy, happy" when listening to "Let's Be Silly!" - after all, that's what the song is all about!

I'm fortunate enough to be a member of two awesome independent music sites - SoundClick and Mixposure. Unfortunately, Mixposure is no longer online. I read a post on SoundClick's message board detailing Mixposure's difficulties; it sounds like the founder of the site is trying hard to get back online. I really hope it all works out; Mixposure is a wonderful site for independent musicians like me.

The credit card that I have on file at the site where my domain name is registered changed numbers, and I didn't update the info right away, so the domain name expired. As a result, this site was down for a few days. I've since updated the info, and "Preschool Jam!" is back online! My sincerest apologies to anyone who tried to visit my site while it was down; please tell everyone you know that it's back, and to give me a visit!

I've gotten to know my new digital multi-track recorder pretty well. I'm working on a new song called "Let's Be Silly!" I laid down the practice tracks, and the results are excellent! I should have the final recording done in the next several weeks or sooner. Remember, you'll be the first to hear it, right here on this site! Once I'm completely comfortable with the new equipment, I'll start producing a lot more music. I'm excited!

My niece Shani made the first-ever "Preschool Jam!" sale to one of her co-workers back in late May of 2006. Just a little while ago, Shani informed me that her co-worker told her that her kids still play the CD a lot, and she wanted to know when "Preschool Jam II" was coming out. I'd say that's a good sign! Actually, I have a new digital multi-track recorder that I'm just getting used to, and when I really get to know it, I'll start recording new stuff. You'll hear it here first. Stay tuned!

I went to have my taxes done for the first time as a working musician about a week ago. I'm a pretty organized person, so I had all my receipts together and crunched all the numbers before I visited my tax preparer. It went really smoothly; she even told me about a few deductions I hadn't thought of. I was nice to get that out of the way so I can concentrate on making new music.

Hello again, everyone! I hope you all had a safe and happy holiday season. I spent much of the time between Christmas and New Year's Day getting everything ready for tax time. Before I released "Preschool Jam!", tax prep was easy! Fortunately, I'm a very organized person, so all of my receipts and other records were in order.

I've been getting more great reviews for "Preschool Jam!", but I've also received a bunch of very encouraging reviews for my Christmas music, which I recorded just for fun years ago. Children's music will continue to be my main focus, but a Christmas CD might be in the future as well. As I always say, stay tuned!

I may not blog again until sometime after New Year's Day, so let me thank everyone who helped me with this project throughout the past year, all of you who have taken the time to be my guest at this site, all those who have encouraged me with kind words and great reviews, and everybody who bought "Preschool Jam!" This is my first time doing anything like this, so I didn't know what to expect. I must say that the entire experience has been well worth every moment. Thank all of you so much; Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!!!

First the paper, then TV, now the Internet! I was interviewed at Mixposure, an independent music website, by Brian Ralston. Brian maintains the Nursery, which is the Children's Music Genre Spotlight at Mixposure. The full text of the interview, and a direct link to the interview at Mixposure, can be found on my Press/Reviews page. You will also find a bunch of new reviews for my children's and Christmas music. Check it out!

Happy holidays, everyone! I'm sorry it's been so long since I've made an entry; I've been busy working on some new leads. I've been approached by some organizations about my CD being sold for fundraising purposes, so I'm weighing my options. Also, digital sales of my music have picked up considerably, which is very exciting considering that I didn't know if children's music would be successful in the digital world. If you check my "Music" page, you can listen to clips of some Christmas songs that I recorded six years ago just for fun (I LOVE Christmas music!!!). Enjoy!

First of all, about the TV appearance...it was fun! All the people at Sacramento & Co. were very nice and made me feel at ease. I sang "Old McDonald (Funky)" leading into a commercial break, then after the commercials I was interviewed by the host, Kristen Simoes. That led right to my main performance, which was, of course, "DINOSAURS!" Don't worry... I don't suddenly think I'm all that - well, maybe just a little! But seriously, it was a great experience. Moving right along...remember my entry about being a finalist at the Children's Music Web Awards? Well - drum roll, please - "Preschool Jam!" is a winner in the "Best Recording for Preschoolers ages 3 to 5" category!!! Check it out at http://www.childrensmusic.org/a2006winners.html. Next up...I landed my second big order! My cousin Martha is the Early Childhood Director for the Riverside Unified School District in Southern California. She persuaded the district to order 22 copies of "Preschool Jam!", and she said she would continue the promote the CD among her colleagues in other school districts. Thank you, Martha! And last but not least...there's a new digital outlet where you can download "Preschool Jam!" It's called "Music Is Here!", and like the other digital outlets, they make it easy to buy the entire CD, or just the tracks you want. There's a link to "Music Is Here!" on my "BUY!" page. Whew! Now we're all caught up!

As I wrote in a previous entry, my feature in the local newspaper led to me being asked to appear on a local morning TV show. The name of the show is "Sacramento & Co." It's on from 9am to 10am on KXTV Channel 10 in the Sacramento-Stockton area. They'll interview me and I'll sing a few songs from "Preschool Jam!" Don't miss it! For those of you outside of my viewing area, I'll see if it's OK with the station to put the segment online, maybe on YouTube or something like that. Then I'll put the link on this site. I'm excited! Wish me luck!!

I finally decided to join MySpace! I have a regular members page and a music page. I don't know exactly how it works with friends and favorites and all that, but I'll figure it out as I go along. Click on the "Links" page on this site to find the links to my MySpace pages.

The "In The Hot Seat" column about me in the Sacramento Bee has generated a lot of buzz and increased sales. And it gets better! Someone from a local morning TV show called "Sacramento & Co." saw the article in the paper and invited me to appear on their show Friday, November 3! I'll give more details in the coming days. Like they say, you can't buy this kind of publicity! Meanwhile, do you remember when I asked all of you to help me boost my position on the music charts at the SoundClick website? Well, as of Thurs., 10/12, "DINOSAURS!" is still hangin' tough at #104 out of 17,345 on the Pop General chart, after a high of #87 way back in August. Not bad at all for a preschool song!

The full text of, and a link to, my featured article in the Friday, 10/06/2006 Sacramento Bee newspaper can be found on my "Press/Reviews" page. If you haven't already read it, go check it out! And if you live in the Sacramento area, pick up a copy of the Friday Bee before it's too late!

Exciting news! I'm going to be featured in the Scene (entertainment) section of my hometown newspaper, the Sacramento Bee, on Friday, 10/06/2006. The weekly column is titled "In The Hot Heat", where "we talk to the people you'll be talking about tomorrow." The column features local people who are as yet little-known or unknown, but are intriguing and buzz-worthy. After reading the column a few times, I e-mailed the Bee about getting a shot at being featured "In The Hot Seat." After a few weeks, I received a reply from Lisa Heyamoto, a Bee entertainment reporter. Last week, she interviewed me (she is very funny and very nice), and a photographer took some pictures of me (he was really cool). The column is on page 3 of the Scene section, and it takes up about a quarter of the page. That's some serious free publicity! I'll see if I can put a link to the article on my "Press/Reviews" page Friday, or I'll try to copy and paste it there. Stay tuned!

Here's another place to download "Preschool Jam!" iTunes is brought to you by Apple, which also manufactures the iPod. I have provided a link to the "Preschool Jam!" page at iTunes on my "BUY!" page. You may buy the entire album or any individual songs you choose. It's easy to join, if you're not already a member. Even more digital downloading choices are coming!

In the news...I landed my first big order! "How did he do it?", you ask. Well, I'll tell you! I e-mailed several preschool-related companies and offered to supply them with copies of "Preschool Jam!" at a discount. A few of them answered and essentially said that they would consider my proposal. But Jill Manly, co-founder and president of a company called Stretch-n-Grow (please click on the link at my "Links" page to get detailed info on this excellent company) showed great interest in her return e-mail. After almost two months of e-mailing each other, she agreed to order 25 "Preschool Jam!" CDs! I'm mostly amazed by the fact that the top executive of an international company corresponded with me personally; Jill is a very nice and upbeat person. I really hope to do business with her and her company again. In other news...I entered "Preschool Jam!" in the Children's Music Web Awards" (a link to the Children's Music Web website can be found on my "Links" page) in June. In late August, the site announced the finalists in 18 categories. I'm a finalist in the two categories that I entered: Best Recording for Preschoolers ages 3-5, and Best New Artist for Preschoolers. Most children's music awards are judged by a few experts (child psychologists, music executives, etc.). One of these sites has just one man, a music critic, judging all of the entries. For the Children's Music Web Awards, the bulk of the judging is done by kids (imagine that!) in homes and schools from many diverse areas and backgrounds. That's why I chose to enter this particular contest over all of the others. The winners will be announced in late October; wish me luck! And finally..."DINOSAURS!" made it into the Hot 100 chart at Mixposure! That's the overall chart, where my music has to compete with pop, rock, R&B, country, etc. I was told by another Mixposure member that making the Hot 100 is very tough for any song of any style, and that it's extremely rare for a kids' song to achieve that feat. Well, I guess we're all caught up now! Until the next entry...