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!

Clinical art therapist, musician, and president of the New York Art Therapy Association, Nicole Porter, announces the September 15 release of Calming a Panic, an exuberant healing arts album for children and families by her band You and Us.

Like the band’s critically acclaimed 2022 release, For Children of All Ages, Calming a Panic applies art therapy techniques to upbeat rock and pop music with a lighthearted, feel-good vibe of caring and belonging.

You and Us aims to raise awareness of early childhood intervention and advocacy. Amidst today’s global child mental health crisis, Nicole Porter says her “greatest hope is to elevate joy and open hearts to the transformative power of creativity and the riches that can be uncovered through arts therapy. Our band creates fun children’s music with a deeper intention for transformative growth.”

With arrangements that incorporate elements of rock, jazz, classical, and show tunes, Calming a Panic reflects the human experience in a child-friendly way. The album deals with overcoming the small moments in a child’s world that can seem large and sometimes frightening. You and Us faces this with enthusiasm, helping families engage, acknowledge, change for the better, and live in the moment.

As co-producers, co-writers, and members of You and Us, Nicole Porter and musical colleague Wyndham Garnett (Lola Kirke, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Elvis Perkins) bring a one-of-a-kind creative dynamic to Calming a Panic.  Recorded at Old Soul Studios with Kenny Siegel (Lucky Diaz’s Grammy-nominated Crayon Kids children’s album, Chris Whitley, Langhorne Slim, Spottiswoode & His Enemies, Chuck Prophet, Tears for Fears, Robin Taylor Zander, The Wiyos), their songs abound with thoughtfully crafted messages delivered from the heart with artistry, grace, and more than a few giggles.

Other band members include multi-instrumentalist Michael Farkas, who has been a longtime player with Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band through all their Grammy nominations and wins, and drummer Lee Falco, who has toured the world with artists like Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen, The Lemonheads, and Doyle Bramhall II.

Citing personal influences that range from Fred Rogers and Dr. Maria Montessori to P.L.Travers, Nicole Porter brings a playful, inquisitive spirit to Calming a Panic. From the carnival-esque, big band theme of the album’s opener, “Rhythm,” to the Bobby McFerrin/John Prine vibe of “Earth Candy,” to the Rocky Horror-meets-Grease energy of “Shake Shake,” Calming a Panic never misses a beat. Other highlights include “Let Your Soul Shine,” evocative of television and film music of the ‘60s; the magical, Caribbean-tinged “Abacabama;” and the soul funk phonics of “Do the Vowel Howl.” “Tiger in a Hammock” conjures The White Stripes with just a hint of “Down by the Bay,” and “Find My Way” is a ballad in the style of Disney by way of Nashville. Calming a Panic comes to a happy conclusion with the Van Morrison-influenced “Stay Wild Moon Child.”

About Nicole Porter:

Specializing in early childhood acute assessment, trauma treatment, family advocacy, and community education, Nicole Porter works as a clinical director, art therapist, and artist. Nicole oversaw child therapy in the days following the Sandy Hook tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012. The processes and tools developed with the Newtown families inspired her to establish a mental health organization and art therapy trauma response team, the Emerald Sketch, which mobilizes clinicians to set up sustainable creative arts therapy services following disasters or traumatic events throughout the United States and globally. Among the greatest beneficiaries of the Emerald Sketch Creative Arts therapy services are traumatized children who have been exposed to gun violence, neglect, or abuse.

Nicole has led trauma response projects at sites ranging from the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina to the March for Our Lives in DC, and beyond. Since the start of the active war in Ukraine, she has provided virtual training support through Voices of Children, DTCare, and the International Humanitarian University. In these sessions, she teaches other practitioners how to integrate the arts into their healing practices and provides virtual therapy sessions for child and family survivors.

Her creative projects include An American Nightmare, a 2019 solo performance at Hudson Guild Theater, NYC, and The JillRabbits, a Philadelphia-based electro-pop band, of which she was a member from 2005 to 2014. The band You and Us is Nicole’s foray into recording and producing family rock and pop music.

Calming a Panic will be available starting September 15, 2023 on all platforms.

Music Thursdays: For Kids Coping With The Pandemic – New Album From Art Therapist/Musician Nicole Porter – “For Children Of All Ages” Music Thursdays: Grammy-Nominated SYLVIA – “Nature’s Child – A Dreamer’s Journey” – Out 2/22/22 Music Thursdays: New From Raffi & Lindsay Monroe – “Nursery Rhymes For Kinder Times”