Hi Everyone, The ideas for these songs come directly from my 6 and 8 year old kids, from their lil friends and from the kid in me. I also found first hand, that kids like to ROCK OUT! So we do a little of that on this cd too. I hope you enjoy. Turn it up!

10 MP3 Songs in this album (35:06) !
Related styles: Kids/Family: Children's Pop, Rock: Classic Rock, Type: Vocal

People who are interested in Harry Nilsson The Beatles The Who should consider this download.


Details:
Originally from the Bronx, NY, John Bristow has paid his dues as a musician, with interest. A composer, guitarist, vocalist and performer from his early teens, he's had a long, rewarding, (in glory not cash) music career and presence in the Danbury, CT and Tri-State area. Known primarily as a prolific composer and performer of original music, you could also find John on any given night, kickin out the best of contemporary music and classics, from rock to jazz, performing solo, with his band, or with any of the extremely talented musicians in and around the CT, NJ, and NYC areas. John has worked with or done studio work for a few major, music biz icons as well. Most notably, when barely in his twenties, playing guitar for his friend; the passionate and beautiful, Laura Nyro. You can hear John's electric guitar on Laura Nyro's "Mother's Spiritual" album. Laura had dedicated her album to mothers everywhere as it was inspired by the birth of her first born son, Gil ("they'll be one child born, in a world to carry on"). "So if you are a new Mom, are married to one, or know one, I highly recommend you check that album out", says John. Rolling Stone Magazine wrote about the album; "John Bristow's beautiful guitar playing was reminicent of Pat Metheny". You can check out Laura Nyro's- Mother's Spiritual album/cd, here ..."but wait, wait, you can do that later, I'm selling my own cd here at the moment! Please keep reading!" :-) http://www.iconoclassicrecords.com/catalogue/mothers/mothers.html

So, little did he know, in a round about way, doing the "Mother's Spiritual" album with Laura Nyro would be John's first "family" genre recording. Since all this, and since surviving the all hours of the night and morning - club gig scene; John now has a family and two young boys of his own. "Kids opened a whole new world for me", John says. Bye bye to being up until sunrise on a gig, greeting the waking birds.. after driving who knows where, in whatever weather, unpacking the truck, setting up, playing music, giving it everything all night, and then re-packing the equipment truck and driving home in any weather. There was no affording roadies. At one point, in addition to everything else, we hauled around a Hammond B3 organ! I'm not sure why my biceps didn't do a John Cena. Talk about purists, what with light weight synthesizers and all being available. But, Lord what a sound a Hammond B3 has, especially with a great player. And oh did we ever have that too, so it was worth it (right Nick?!!). What a labor of love those days were! Literally a 16 hour shift of hard work. Only fellow musicians in bands with lots of equipment, and their wives or girlfriends, will understand what I'm talking about! We loved it, we made it look easy because we loved it and we still do. But trust me, I see now especially, it's solid work. Alas, music still is a labor of love, in that there's more love involved when playing for a living, than money. But, now if its 3 AM and I'm up, the labor of love is to deal with a sick or hungry child, or, when one of our kids has had a bad dream. Or lately, when our beloved 100 year old cat goes delusional at 3:05am!"

John now plays for his sons and their classmates at their elementary school, as well as for the schoolâs special needs kids. âKids are the best audience Iâve ever had!â says John. âTheyâre totally engaged, full of life, fun, cute, impartial, uplifting, and just a blessing to be around. For the most part! They also drink milk, juice or water during the show. So how can you beat that for an audience? I love bringing my guitar into the classroom and playing for themâ No offense to my past biker bar audiences! I know you'll understand! Especially if you have kids now.

So, if you are still reading; to make an already long novel, a short story; of course, the next thing to do was to write some songs for kids. John says, âI wanted to write some music, getting ideas directly from my children and from the kids in the classrooms and also, to try and fill the music with influences I grew up with; things that kids and that parents alike might enjoy. To create some music that produces a fun, uplifting atmosphere, while not being afraid to rock a little bit. Also, from a musician's standpoint, something fun to play as well".

"Someday perhaps however, says John, I'll do my recordings at the Disney studios. Wouldn't that be somethin?! Hey, good dreams are fun to have, right? In the meantime, here ya go, imperfections included. My apologies to all you audio perfectionists out there. I'm one too so I understand, but... "better is the enemy of good enough". I darn near pulled my hair out trying to tweak this thing to today's million dollar standards, while not having anywhere near today's standards in hardware and software. I'll just have to wait until I can get into that Disney studio someday, for that matter any Pro studio with a great engineer would be nice. And if I can't do any of that, then a Neumann U87 vocal microphone would help! (got $3000.00?).

So, enjoy your children and family, enjoy nature and life, enjoy this cd and by all means ...turn it up! I am working on the next cd as we speak. BTW, this cd likes a "good" pair of headphones. As always, this music is dedicated to my wife and kids, my parents, my sister and brother, to my entire Family, my Friends, my Fans over the years, to fellow musicians everywhere, to kids- and kids at heart everywhere, to Mother Nature, ...and also to my friend the late Laura Nyro, wherever she is. Oh, and also to the Doobie Brothers for writing the song "Jesus is Just Alright". :-)

And by the way, if you have a moment, and you've read this far, you might email me and let me know what you think (hmmm, criticism?... I dunno), but perhaps including things you've seen and heard from your kids; ideas that "we" might turn into music in the future as I write new material". e-mail; JwotsirB@AOL.com & Thanks!! JB

Some technical side notes: Keep in mind, Downloading this CD right now, will be waay quicker than ordering the CD hard copy. But you knew that.
This cd was recorded in its entirety at home using Sonar 8 Pro software, loaded on an old IBM laptop, recording at 16bit/44.1kHz (I'll try 24bit depth on the next cd. I promise), CAD E-200 mic for vocals and acoustic guitars, and a couple of old Sennheisers and Shure 57s to mic the Marshall JCM 900 for the various electric guitars. Acoustic guitars were a Martin D-28 and Breedlove Ed Gerhard Signature model. All songs written by John Bristow; All instruments played and all vocals performed, by John Bristow; CD recorded and engineered by John Bristow. I also run the Post Office, perform marriages, do general dentistry, and I'm the town's Mayor as well. Only kiddin.