The Maestro of Imagination strikes again. Joe's fourth CD for kids raises the standard in children's music. It's unbelievably fun, and holds up for a thousand listens.

10 MP3 Songs
KIDS/FAMILY: Children's Pop, POP: Power Pop



Details:
Joe McDermott
www.joemcdermottmusic.com



Joe McDermott has been obsessed with music ever since he was a little kid growing up in Chicago, the youngest of eight children.

âIt all started out with a coffee can and a couple of drumsticks my dad gave to me. I think he was sorry he got them.â His first gig was when he and his brother performed at a Harlem Globetrotters show. Five year old Joe played drums and sang âWhere Have All the Flowers Gone?â with his older brother Tom. This amazing debut was arranged by their aunt who was organizing a hospital benefit. âWe had medallions and everything â I wore the Sagitarius,â Joe remembers.

All he wanted to do from that point on was make music and make people smile. His next big show was in the 4th grade, when he played drums in his brotherâs rock band.

As he grew, Joeâs creative endeavors shifted for awhile to fine art and painting. While he learned to play guitar and played in rock bands, he moved to Austin and earned a Fine Arts degree from the University of Texas. Hoping to make it in the art world, he took a job as an art teacher at Athena Montessori. Five years later, he opened his own preschool, The Phoenix School, in Central Austin. Little did he know how this melding of creativity and immersion in early childhood education would lead to his future career as one of the nationâs top childrenâs music recording artists. âItâs amazing how it all evolved so organically. Iâm not sure about fate, but it seemed there has been a guiding hand in this,â Joe says.

In a rambling old Austin house, Joe and his wife ran the preschool in the front two rooms, and on the weekends played music in the back room studio with friends. Joe realized that children were an unending source of inspiration for songwriting. One year, he recorded a tape with the school children recorded as a Christmas gift for the parents. It was just a dabble into the world of childrenâs music, but the response was so positive, and his own experiences as a parent made songwriting for children an irresistible force.

Joeâs first nationally distributed CD, I Am Baby, won a Parentsâ Choice Recommended Honor in 1998; and both Great Big World (2001) and Everywhere You Go (2003) won the esteemed Parentsâ Choice Silver Honor Award. Joe was honored with his first NAPPA Gold Award for Everywhere You Go, which includes the Childrenâs Music Web Award winning song, âBaby Kangaroo.â This song also captured a second place prize in the International Song Writing Contest, Childrenâs Division in 2005, and is in regular rotation on the childrenâs channel of XM Radio.

Childrenâs music is now a full-time focus for Joe McDermott. âWhat I love about this genre is how open it is to expression. His artistic training helps him create painterly, visually rich songs that evoke emotions in âpeople of all sizes.â Heâs been called âThe maestro of imaginationâ for his creative approach and appeal.

McDermottâs proficient songwriting abilities enabled him to compose music for childrenâs video games and educational software, including scores for several Super Nintendo games. He won âBest Music for Cartridge Gamesâ award for his work on Zombies Ate My Homework , a game which still enjoys a cult following. Joeâs music enhances several Scene It DVD games, including the âFriendsâ edition. One project teamed Joe with Stan and Jan Berenstain, authors of the classic Berenstain Bears books. Impressed by Joeâs work, author Stan Berenstain enlisted him to adapt ten of their books to song. After working with Joe, Stan Berenstain said, âJoe McDermott is not only a magnificent songwriter, heâs also an absolute wizard at communicating with children through music.â Many of Joeâs catchy songs have been arranged for orchestral performance, and he has performed with the Austin Symphony Orchestra.

Joeâs latest projects are his fourth family music release, Everybody Plays Air Guitar and work as the music director for Houston based Team Baby Entertainment, a Michael Eisner owned company which produces sports programming for children. He resides in Austin with his wife, Louise, and three children.