Welcome to the Music Thursdays segment! Each week here on Geek Alabama, Music Thursdays will feature music related content. Music Thursdays will feature an artist or band and their latest song and / or music video. People love music, and we here at Geek Alabama love featuring artists and bands!
After a recording break of nearly two decades, beloved Western Massachusetts-based children’s musician and puppeteer Tom Knight’s 6th album for kids, Look Both Ways, is out today.
Also out today is Tom Knight’s new “Wiggly Tooth” music video. The song, inspired by a conversation with a 4-year-old, celebrates a universal rite of passage by combining country rock with a honky-tonk piano by Frank Shelton.
“I had the idea to make ‘Wiggly Tooth’ a country rock song, and the video just took off from there,” says Tom Knight “I had a vision of dressing up like a tooth, and doing a country line dance. However, when we shot the video, I learned that 4 year-olds are not great at doing country line dancing, so we just jumped around and had fun. I wasn’t ready to give up on my idea of the line dance, though, and was saved when an a cappella group from Columbia University happened to see the video shoot, and joined in the dance!”
The Look Both Ways album takes its theme from the title song, which extols a basic safety rule while embracing the ever-changing beauty of each season. The album enlarges upon this idea by viewing life from more than one perspective, whether learning another language, being part of a community, or experiencing art in a museum. Look Both Ways interweaves brand-new material (“Wiggly Tooth,” “Five Snow People”) with songs Tom Knight has written since the release of his last album in 2003 (“Look Both Ways,” “Museum Mambo,” “Hot Air Balloon”) and new renditions of favorite tunes from Tom’s early recordings (“The Garbage Monster,” “Alligator Jump,” “Stone Soup”).
ABOUT TOM KNIGHT:
By blending elements of Mister Rogers’ gentle spirit with the boundless creativity of Jim Henson, Tom Knight has become an authentic lyrical storyteller in song, engaging listeners through his evocative music, warm vocal presence, creative use of puppetry in performance and video, and easy sense of humor.
Citing influences as diverse as The Beatles and Pete Seeger, Tom has written, throughout his lifetime, more than a thousand songs, and he has given more than a thousand performances at festivals, museums, and libraries in such notable venues as the Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC and the Lenny Suib Puppet Playhouse in New York City. Tom is celebrated as a hometown hero throughout Western Massachusetts, where his many performances include the Green River Festival, The River’s Meltdown, First Night Northampton, and Jones Library in Amherst.
Spotlighting his singular blend of musicianship and puppetry, Tom’s shows identify the importance of reading (“The Library Boogie”), protecting the environment (“The Garbage Monster”), science (“The Solar System”), and Spanish/English bilingual education (“Alligator Jump/¡Salta Caimán!“).
Tom’s award-winning “Elephant’s Lullaby” music video has been viewed over 2.7 million times on YouTube. In April 2020, Tom created The Tom Knight Show on YouTube, where he and his hand-made puppets helped parents and kids cope with the unprecedented situation of the global pandemic. Tom’s show entertained and enlightened young children and adults alike through themes that included moving to music, folk tales, animal stories, and science, as well as skits about a charming magician whose powers could get out of hand.
Tom Knight’s previous albums for children include The Classroom Boogie (2003), The Library Boogie (2001), Easy As Pie (1992), Don’t Kiss a Codfish (1990), and When I Grow Up (1989). A complete discography also includes Tom’s 1995 singer/songwriter recording especially for big people, Crazy Little Dream.
Look Both Ways is available at major digital retailers.
Categories: Music Talk Stuff
