June 24, 2008

Hello, Friends!

Well, I hope you are doing well. I finally got the pictures back from our performance earlier this month at the CMA Music Festival ("Fan Fair"). We had a lot of fun, and a great crowd for our set at the Family Zone Stage. It was extremely hot that day (almost 100 degrees!), but not hot enough to prevent us from movin' and groovin' the Zinghopper way!

When we arrived, I was excited to see that we would be sharing the stage with our friend Strawberry Shortcake. Here's a picture of Strawberry and I backstage. She's very friendly and taller in person then you'd imagine. I love her hat, too!

We were also excited to meet a new friend named Burt Lighthouse who works for BP (gas stations). He was friendly too and loves giving a big "thumbs ups"!

Speaking of "thumbs up", here's a picture of yours truly along with the Zinghopper Dancers. From left to right, meet: Mary Alice, Claudia, me (!), Amanda, and Sierra. They did such a great job as our dance team that day! They recently won first place in the International Hip-Hop Dance Contest (hope I remember the name of that right), so they were more than qualified to dance with me, Olo, Penelope and Coconuts!

Here's a shot taken by Kitty backstage. We hope to post some video soon, but in the meantime here's a picture of us doing a brand new song called, "The Zinghop-A-Hula". Aloha!

Later in the show we had a request to do "Dancing Like Olo The Donkey", so here's Zinghopper Dancer Sierra, Olo The Donkey, Zinghopper Dancer Amanda, and me doing Olo's donkey dance! Can you wave your hands in the shape of donkey ears?

Now, a picture of the entire band after the show. We had a fun time dancing, singing and of course hopping! Here's who's who (L-R): Sierra (Zinghopper Dancer), Mary Alice (Zinghopper Dancer), Catie (Coconuts The Kangaroo's helper), Amanda (Zinghopper Dancer), Claudia (Zinghopper Dancer), Haley (Olo The Donkey's helper), Abby (Penelope The Possum's helper) and me.

Right after our set I was excited to see the amazing cowboy group Riders In The Sky taking the stage to read a children's book to the audience. Being a huge fan, I ran over for a quick pic - it was fun appearing on the same stage as them! Yippie, woo hoo!

Later that day, I met one more new friend: one of the cast members from the upcoming film, "Space Chimps"!

I guess that's all for now. We had a ton of fun in Nashville and loved playing at the CMA Music Festival - it was a real honor and we'd like to thank all the friends and fans we met that made the day so much fun! Hop! Hop! Hop!

Toot! Toot!
Conductor Jack

Toot! Toot! Hello, Friends!

Well we've been busy, busy, busy playing shows and having fun and enjoying the beautiful summer-time weather!

We played a series of shows in Tennessee a few weeks ago and I have photos I'd love to share with y'all. (By the way, "y'all" is my new word: being a newly-arrived Southerner - I'm using it wayyyy too much!)

The Zinghoppers and I played two shows in the beautiful east Tennessee town of Kingsport, which is right on the Virginia-Tennessee border in the Smokey Mountains. Here's a picture of me singing and dancing, moving and grooving...warming the crowd up for the Zinghoppers.

Here's one of Coconuts The Kangaroo playing a drum and Penelope The Possum playing her beautiful pink bass!

After our show in Kingsport we headed back towards home and stopped in Bulls Gap, Tennessee. It's a town of around 700 people. Here I am at the Bulls Gap Train Station...

So why did we stop in Bulls Gap? Because it was a dream of mine to visit the home of the great country comedian Archie Campbell! He's one of my favorite comedians of all time and was a featured performer on the great TV show, "Hee Haw". We arrived after the museum was closed but did snap this picture...

Two more shows the next day in the Nashville suburb of La Vergne. We had a great time at the Library there! We had a brand new puppet for the show, a cat that looks just like one of our cats at home. Kitty dressed him up in clothes we borrowed for the show from the Children's Department. Here's our new cat puppet: meow!

Our pal Olo The Donkey started the show in La Vergne with a dance number to warm up the crowd. Here he is working his magic!

Next up was Penelope The Possum and her friend Frankie The Spider. They sang, "Itsy Bitsy Spider", of course!

Uh-oh! It's our friend Coconuts The Kangaroo sneeking up on Penelope! Coconuts loves hopping and singing and here she is getting ready to surprise Penelope!

Best friends Penelope The Possum and Coconuts The Kangaroo sing a duet together...

One more song by Penelope for everyone to dance to! Here's our favorite possum friend singing her hit, "Thumbs Up". She loves doing the dance to this song...

After our shows in La Vergne, our new cat puppet gave me a big hug - what a great puppet!

The next day, the Zinghoppers sent me to Gallatin, Tennessee to play a special solo show at the Library there. We had a lot of fun, and a great crowd at each show!

I have more pictures to share with y'all and hope to post them soon! I hope you have a nice, fun, safe weekend! Thanks for reading my journal today...

Toot! Toot!
Conductor Jack

Picture of a baby rhinoceros running! Picture of a baby rhinoceros running!! Picture of a baby rhinoceros running...!!!

Hello Friends!

I hope you are well. There's lots for me to write about, but it's getting really late and I thought I would add this and write more in my journal later. My wife Kitty just discovered this video on Youtube a few minutes ago...

So I wrote this song Saturday afternoon, tried it for the first time last night (Sunday) and today a mom has posted it online! It really makes you think about how the internet is changing the music industry. Well anyhow, enough of my pontifications, hopefully you'll like my new song, "Shake Shake Shake" - it's jug band music for groovin'!

Have a great night, y'all!

Toot! Toot!
Jack

(PS - Thanks to "FranklinMommie74" for posting this on Youtube - I really appreciate your support and am glad music is a part of your childrens' lives!)

Hello everyone!

Last week, I had the pleasure of playing a very special show at the Country Music Hall Of Fame and Museum in downtown Nashville. Here's a picture of me before the day's concert...

They have a great educational outreach program for elementary age children called "The Words And Music Program". They have a team of area songwriters that collaborate with the kids and create original tunes. They children submit lyrics and then the songwriters write the music. It was a lot of fun writing melodies to my group's words. I was teamed up with a group of fifth graders from a school in Alabama.

Together we wrote songs about summer vacation (always fun), pet cats, pickup trucks and - of course - love lost, and love found.

After the kids spent some time visiting the museum, I played a concert of the songs we wrote together. Here's a picture of that mini-show...

After the concert, Kitty and I spent some time at the museum which is always a lot of fun. They have an amazing collection of country music artifacts, including many items of my hero the great Jimmie Rodgers!

At right you'll see a picture of Jimmie Rodgers hat. Look familiar? Jimmie Rodgers performed in the 1920s and billed himself as "The Singing Brakeman". He worked on the railroads. He also loved trains and yodeling as much as I do!

I also took a picture of his beautiful guitar. I'm sorry the lighting is a bit dark, but it's a wonderful old instrument! If you ever have a chance to visit the Country Music Hall Of Fame here in Nashville, you'll have a great time seeing a lot of wonderful historic artifacts!

Thanks for reading today's journal - I hope you are having a wonderful, happy and great day!

Toot! Toot!
Jack

Hello, I hope you're having a nice weekend! In keeping with my last journal entry, I thought I'd present you with some more cat news from Japan. This is an article about a cat that works at a train station as a stationmaster! Obviously being a train conductor that has lots of cats myself, I really loved this article. I hope you enjoy reading it...

KINOKAWA, Japan (Toru Yamanaka, AFP) - In times of need, Japanese say they can even ask the cat for help. In this town in western Japan, people look to Tama, a nine-year-old cat working as master of an unmanned train station.

The tortoiseshell coloured creature, born and raised at Kishi Station on the provincial Kishigawa Line, wears a formal uniform cap of Wakayama Electric Railway and calmly watches passing passengers who greet her.

There are 10 train stations on the 14.3-kilometre (8.9-mile) line.

"Tama is the only stationmaster as we have to reduce personnel costs. You say you could ask for the cat's help, but she is actually bringing luck to us," Wakayama Electric spokeswoman Keiko Yamaki said.

The company feeds her in lieu of salary.

Tama was born from a stray cat brought to the station by a cleaner and kept by Toshiko Koyama, a local who runs a grocery store next door.

The station went unmanned in April 2006 as the line was losing money. But Tama stuck around.

She rose to national stardom in January 2007 as the railway company formally appointed her as "stationmaster".

Her appointment had an immediately positive effect, boosting the number of passengers using the line in January by 17 percent from a year earlier.

For the year to March 2007, the number of passengers rose to 2.1 million, up 10 percent from the previous 12 months, according to Yamaki.

Happy with her successful job as stationmaster, the company promoted Tama to "super-stationmaster" in January this year, making her "the only female in a managerial position" in the company's 36-strong workforce.

"She now holds the fifth highest position in the company," Yamaki joked.

In reward for the promotion, Tama got a new "office".

The stationmaster's office, a renovated former ticket booth at the station, opened in April with the attendance of Kinokawa Mayor Shinji Nakamura and Wakayama Electric president Mitsunobu Kojima.

The office guarantees her some privacy.

"She declines to relieve herself when passengers are looking. We set the toilet where passengers can't see," Yamaki said.

Those who want to greet her must be careful so as not to miss her.

"She works nine to five and takes Sundays off," Yamaki said.

Tama commutes with Koyama, the grocery store operator, from a shed next to the station. As Koyama tells her, "Ms Stationmaster, it's time to work," Tama comes along to the station, Yamaki said.

The stationmaster is set to appear in a French documentary film, being directed by Myriam Tonelotto, about wonder cats from around the world.

Toot! Toot!
Jack

Hey everyone!

It's no secret that we are big fans of Hello Kitty around here, what with my wife being named Kitty and all. So we were pretty excited to read about Hello Kitty being named Japan's tourism ambassador. This got us to looking for more Hello Kitty pictures and here's the best we could find:

Look! It's a Hello Kitty Kitty...

And here's a Hello Kitty Doggie...

So there you go, now if you could only see the interior of our Wonderiffic offices (or more specifically - my wife's desk), you'd be amazed at how many Hello Kitty products we own. So congrats to Hello Kitty for being named the new tourism ambassador for beautiful and wonderful Japan!!!

Toot! Toot!
Jack

Hi all!

Greetings from somewhere in Minnesota...I'm at an internet cafe and have an extra minute to say a quick "hello" to everyone...and of course a big hello to all the mom's that are reading this...we love the moms that bring their kids to Conductor Jack and Zinghoppers shows - so have a great, happy, relaxing day y'all!

We left Tennessee on Wednesday drove straight to Wisconsin, ran out of gas, got a flat tire and still arrived in Minnesota for our first show Thursday afternoon! Someone else was riding in the Happy Train besides Kitty and I, I'd say...

;)

We played in South Dakota on Friday morning that southern Minnesota Friday night then visited our old college town Winona on Saturday and now I'm waiting to pick up the gang and drive 'em back to South Dakota today! Tomorrow morning the Happy Train heads back south as we have a show Tuesday in Knoxville!

I'll try posting again soon but probably not until Tuesday...in the meantime - have a happy day!

Cheers,
Jack

Hi everyone!

Yesterday, Conductor Jack and the Zinghoppers were profiled in Cookeville's Herald-Citizen newspaper. Kitty and I are so thankful for their support and for this neat article!

A big "thank you" to reporter Margaret Shuster, Ty Kernea (for a great picture), and Bonnie (for helping Coconuts The Kangaroo).

It's a really well researched, well written article and I'm really proud of it! To read this article, click here.

I'll write more about all the weekend's past adventures but this week is a bit crazy. We had out for a five day tour up to the Midwest (hope it's finally stopped snowing up there!) for shows in Minnesota and South Dakota. We always love playing there so we're excited to be driving the Happy Train back to that neck of the woods!

Toot! Toot!
Conductor Jack

Hello everyone!

I can't believe it's May 1 already!

Thanks to everyone for asking such great questions! I got a lot of emails and just picked the first ten questions. I'll try to add more answers to questions sent in, but for now I'll give you the first ten.

1. What's your favorite song?
I have a lot of favorite songs, it's hard to pick one favorite song. Kitty is listening to Shakira right now and I guess I like some of her Spanish-language music. I really like a singer named Patty Griffin, her song "Heavenly Day" is really beautiful. I like "Home" by Michael Buble too. Usually I just download songs that I like from iTunes and make mix CDs so I guess my favorite songs change almost every day!

2. How many pets do you have?
We have a dog named Doolittle and three cats: Misty, Gracie and Max. Here's a picture of Doolittle looking at the Zinghoppers site.

3. What's your favorite thing about playing kids music?
I like seeing families spending time together. I like seeing parents or caregivers giving young children a chance to hear live music. I like seeing kids get interested in making music for themselves - I like letting kids try my ukulele or guitar. I love to travel so getting to drive all over the place with Kitty is a big bonus. More than anything, I like seeing families have fun together.

4. What kids musicians do you like?
I love Raffi, we're big Wiggles fans and have been to several of their shows and try to see them whenever we can because they are so great live! I like Mr. Rogers even though he's not really a "kids musician". I know that "kindie-rock" is very popular right now but I'm not too aware of artists in that genre. I usually listen to old jazz, folk or country from the 1920s and 1930s so I guess I'm a bit out of the loop as they say. Oh, I think Laurie Berkner is a good songwriter for children.

5. How old are you?
I am 28 - I was born on July 23, 1979. This summer I will be 29.

6. What does your wife do?
A lot more than me! She writes most of our songs, writes show scripts, helps with most of the character voices, helps Penelope The Possum at most of our live shows, does all of our graphic design, promotes our live shows and CDs and still finds the time to be active at our church, work with our local arts council, stays active in several songwriting associations in Nashville, and volunteers a lot of time with local child advocacy groups. I'm not sure how she does it all, but she does. I'm very blessed.

7. Do you like milk?
Yes, I do like milk. I like skim milk the best. But mainly I try to drink a lot of water. 8-10 glasses a day!

8. When did you start playing music?
I think I first showed interest in music when I was four and started piano when I was about six or so. I wasn't very good at piano but loved playing the guitar! I'm still not very good at either, but I have fun and I think that's the main thing. You can make a living doing music without being a great musician so long as you always have fun!

9. Do you like trains?
Of course! I love trains - I love visiting train museums, riding on trains and playing with model trains. I also drive the Happy Train to all of our shows so I spend a lot of time around trains. One of my favorite singers is Jimmie Rodgers and he has a lot of great train tunes too! They called him "The Singing Brakeman".

10. Do you still play music for adults?
Yes, I do. However, ever since I earned my degee in Early Childhood Education, my main focus has been performing for children. I'll be playing several shows for adults next week with my band The Mullet River Boys. I love playing with them, but I've been so busy (and so happy) playing for kids lately - so that's my main focus.

Great questions, everyone! I hope to get to more soon. Thanks again!

Happy May!
Jack

Time for another round of "Ten Questions". Send me an email with any question you want answered (I don't promise to know any or all of the answers but will enjoy trying). I'll post the first ten questions tomorrow. Kitty just reminded me I haven't done this in about two years so it's more than due time.

jack@jacknorton.net

Howdy all!

Another fun couple of days here in sunny Tennessee (fun except for mowing our big lawn this weekend)! Otherwise fun because the neighbors now have four sheep and several goats and a million chickens (well not quite that many) and a very noisy turkey. Fun because of course I've played several more shows in the past few days.

Sunday was a show at the Mexicali Grill in Franklin. It was for Kids Night and I played a three hour set of music from 5:30 to 8:30. It was really fun and I sold a lot of CDs which is always nice! The entire staff and everyone is so great there it was a refreshing way to start the week.

Tonight I played at Kids Night at the Chick-fil-A in Murfreesboro. I've played several now and it's a new experience for me. I don't think we have Chick-fil-A's in Minnesota (or the Midwest for that matter) but they have nice fruit salad and vegetable salads too so I like that. In fact tonight I had a request to do "Fruit Salad" (a song by the Wiggles) so I stumbled through it on the ukulele. Just as I finished, a three year old came up and gave me the remains of his fruit salad! It was pretty funny.

Kitty and I did a long interview for the Cookeville Herald newspaper this afternoon. Tomorrow, we take pictures for a feature article in Sunday's paper! So after my show tomorrow morning at Wild Oats I'm meeting me friends Olo The Donkey, Coconuts The Kangaroo and Penelope The Possum to get our pictures taken. Maybe I'll have some candid pictures I can post tomorrow.

Hope you're having a nice day. Thanks for stopping by!

Toot! Toot!
Jack

PS - Since my last posting I've gotten several nice emails from people who have sent funny pictures of animals. Thank you! I'll try to add the photos you sent soon! Keep 'em coming...we especially love animals dressed up and animals playing instruments (for obvious reasons).

Hey everyone!

This has been another great week with several fun shows! This past week I played several times in the Nashville area. First, at the Nashville Zoo for a very fun event. They hosted an after-hours overnight camp for families. It was a lot of fun sitting by the big campfire singing animal songs, camp fire songs and sing-a-long tunes. Even though most of the animals were asleep, you could occasionally hear some wildlife. It was a perfect night with a big full moon and nice weather for camping. I'll be playing there again next month and hopefully next time I'll be able to go to the Zoo early to see the animals when they are still awake!

What's your favorite animal?

I can't decide what my favorite is because I love all animals. Of course I love possums, donkeys, kangaroos also I love fish and (of course) cats!

In fact, here's some pictures my wife Kitty emailed me yesterday. We love animals dressed up, so I love this picture of a cat dressed like a cow:

Toot! Toot!
Jack

Hello, friends!

I forgot to share this picture of my friend Penelope The Possum in the recording studio. Here it is! Penelope The Possum usually helps my wife Kitty with the recording of our albums. Look at how many buttons there are on that mixing board (that's the thing on the table in front of her). Each button has a very special job to do and Penelope knows how they all work! Penelope usually does all the singing and Olo The Donkey plays the guitar and Coconuts The Kangaroo plays the drums. We have been busy on our new Zinghoppers CD which should be available sometime this summer! Last week, we recorded a special song all about cats! We love cats and have several that also live with us in our studio! Our cats names are Misty, Max and Gracie.

I hope you like this picture of our friend Penelope!

Jack

Today was another great day! I played a fun show at the Cookeville Children's Museum - we had a great crowd and everyone was dancing, singing and having fun in the museum. It's a wonderful place. If you ever find yourself in the Cookeville area be sure the check it out! They have various learning centers throughout and a very nice play area outdoors.

Before the show I went for a walk around downtown and found a small electronics store that has a whole back room full of old 78s (phonograph records). Some of you may know this about me (or maybe not) - but I love collecting old, old, old records. Besides reading, walking, singing and driving the Happy Train, I think collecting old records is my favorite thing to do! I didn't have time to dig through the lot today, but next time...

I'm excited because tomorrow I get to play at the Zoo! I promise to tell you all about it!

I hope you had a nice day today and a very happy and safe weekend to you!

Toot! Toot!
Jack

Hello, friends!

We've been having a lot of fun traveling and playing shows all over the country. This past month, I've been to Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. We even went swimming in the beautiful Gulf of Mexico!

Lately, I've been doing a lot of radio interviews which are always a lot of fun. Here's a picture of me at the radio station in Pensacola, Florida. It's always fun to think about playing a song on the radio or talking into the microphone and hundreds of people in their cars, or homes, or on the beach might be listening to you!

When you are a guest on the radio you sing into a microphone at the station and the music is broadcast to people listening on their radios. It's kind of like singing into the telephone - you can be in one place and your friend can be in another but you can hear each other when you are both talking on the telephone.

Sometimes when you are on the radio, the DJ (that's who announces songs or reads the news and weather reports) doesn't want you to talk. Sometimes, they do want you to talk. To tell you what's going on and when you should and shouldn't talk they have a very helpful sign! When they want you to talk, the sign lights up. When they don't want you to talk, the sign doesn't light up. Here's what that looks like:

It's a lot of fun being on the radio, or listening to the radio. Next time I write in my journal, I'll show you a picture of my friend Penelope The Possum working on our new album!

Have a great day!
Toot! Toot!
Conductor Jack

Today my wife Kitty and I celebrated our wedding anniversary (then, we filed our taxes)!

Jack