Review by Tabitha

This last Friday, Marshall and I headed to Café au Play to check out a show by Van Oodles – an established ‘Kindie’ musician new to the Portland kids music scene. The moment we saw him pull out his guitar, amp and headset we knew this show was going to be different than any we had seen before. He was wonderfully friendly and chatty with us and invited the children to come up and see his guitar and explained what he was doing as they watched them intently.

As he started the show, Van Oodles (Dave) played some old stand-bys: “ABCs,” “Happy Birthday,” and “Oh Susanna” to warm up a little. He then dug into some of his own tunes and the real fun began! He was up and dancing around as he sang “Pombi the Chicken Eater” and “Emma the Ladybug” … and the kids absolutely loved it! He plays backbeats using his iPod, and has fantastic rhythms and rhymes that draw in the kids. He pulls the parents in with sing-alongs, and is just overall engaging with everyone in the audience.

As you can see the turnout at Cafe au Play was wonderful and everyone really seemed to enjoy Van Oodles show!

Dave recently relocated to Portland from Berkeley, CA. How did he get into kids entertainment? Well – an interesting story actually! He enjoyed playing music as a young child – but kind of got away from it until he was about 21 when he moved to Japan to teach English.He fell in love with the country and its amazing culture – staying there to live for 11 years. Over the course of his time there he formed a band and signed with a label.He then started rapping with a Japanese comedy hip-hop project, which also got him signed with a label. He landed a role on a nationally aired Japanese kids’ TV show on Public TV of Japan, where the producers asked him to start writing music for the show. He absolutely loved it and stuck with writing music for kids – he could be goofy and silly and just have a blast!

After that he returned to California, producing his first kids album and exploring different music projects. Most recently living in Berkeley, he came to Portland to write and produce his next album – scheduled for release in May. He really likes Portland, especially now that his schedule has quickly filled with all kinds of gigs. Playing music he describes as “Conscious Kid’s Music Secretly Designed To Entertain Adults”, he says it’s geared towards the 4-9 year old crowd, but I think Van Oodle’s music appeals to kids of all ages – at least toddler and up.

New to PDX – Van Oodles is a nice addition to our growing Kindie music scene! Want to catch one of his shows? For now, he will be playing Mondays at the Warehouse Café, and Fridays in February at Café au Play – more to come I’m sure.

Dave gave us a copy of his CD to listen to, as well as one for a giveaway to a lucky fan! We have been listening to it since Friday and really like it … Marshall really only wants to listen to “Pombi the Chicken Eater” over and over. Quite an impression Van Oodles made on my little guy at the live show!

We will choose one lucky winner to receive a copy of Van Oodles CD!

TO ENTER: Simply comment below!

Want Extra Entries? Do any (or all) of the following and leave a separate comment for each) and you will get one entry for each:

• ‘Like’ PDX Kids Calendar on Facebook then comment here (current fans can simply comment here that you are a fan).
• Post a link on YOUR Facebook wall linking to our page (simply update your status with something like “Have you seen all the awesomeness that is @PDX Kids Calendar? They are doing a giveaway this week and you could win a Van Oodles CD!”). When you enter the “@” sign and start typing our name a drop down box will appear and you can click our name to create a link to our page. PLEASE NOTE: You do have to be our “fan” on FB for this to work … then comment here.
• Follow PDX Kids Calendar on Twitter then comment here.
• Tweet about this giveaway then comment here.
• Tell your friends about the giveaway and then comment here.

PLEASE NOTE We do recommend that you include your email address on your entries – winners without email addresses will only know if they won by checking back on this site!

Only comments on this post will be counted. Winner drawn at random. Giveaway begins February 15, 2011 and ends 6:00 PM PST on February 20, 2011. Winners will be notified via email (if given), announced in our newsletter, posted on Facebook, and posted our site. Entries valid within the US.

Winner has 4 days (until 6:00 PM on Saturday the 24th) to claim their prize or another winner will be drawn.