Billy Kelly and The Blah Blah Blahs bring Colonial Theatre lovers a playful music concert geared for young audiences. This Central-Pennsylvania based musician (and company) will be performing this Saturday, November 27th at 2pm at The Colonial Theatre in downtown Phoenixville. Tickets for this performance are $7 in advance or $8 at the box office. Online tickets may be purchased HERE. This show is geared for ages 4 and over and runs approximately 1 hour in length.
“Billy Kelly is a guy with a guitar and shoes and a nose and a new CD called “Thank You for Joining the Happy Club” and a couch and other stuff. His songs are humorous as well as funny. Speaking of his songs, his song “People Really Like Milk” went to #1 on the SIRIUS/XM Satellite Radio channel “Kids Place Live”! (Please don’t mention this to his other songs.) National Public Radio said that Billy has “an endearingly oddball since of humor,” but sadly they did not say an ything about his sense of smell, which is pretty good too. Billy Kelly’s live performances feature sing-alongs, dance-alongs, yell-alongs, and snowman-alongs, among other types of ‘alongs’ too numerous to enumerate here. This will be Billy’s second performance at the Colonial and we’re thrilled to have him back, along with his full band!” (TheColonialTheatre.com)
Billy Kelly’s performance is, “A fun, clever and silly morning of music not to be missed!” (SymphonySpace.org) Check out this glowing editorial review of his album “Thank Your For Joining the Happy Club” listed on Amazon.com, “Totally winning in its goofiness … there are going to be some families who absolutely love love love this disk. Join the Happy Club? Sure, I did I might even run for president. Definitely recommended.” (Stefan Shepherd, Zooglobble.com)
Not sure if this show is for you (or your kids)? Check out Billy Kelly’s website HERE, where you can listen to music, view videos and check out all of the other great things happening in Blah Blah Blah Land!
The Artist
Billy Kelly and The Blah Blah Blahs are Bruce W. Derr on guitar, Bob Albin on bass, Jake Kline on drums, and Billy Kelly on everything else. Now, Billy Kelly might be Billy Kelly, he might be Earl Pickens, no one knows for sure. Here’s what’s true: this Lewisburg, PA-based singer/songwriter melded his alt-country background with The Monkees (and brought in fellow members of The Sweetbriars) to create an unforgettable kids’ music debut album.
Kelly put it best in an interview with Out With The Kids‘ Jeff Bogle about his album, Thank You for Joining the Happy Club: “I didn’t want to make a kids album that adults could tolerate, I wanted to make an adult album that kids would love.” Right on.
The Music
Billy Kelly’s 2009 album, Happy Club kicks off with the extremely literal “This is the First Song,” which proceeds to completely deconstruct song structure, explaining that “this song is special, it’s self-referential, which, as you can tell, means it’s about itself.” Folks like sunshine, Chewbacca, and feeding ducks, but “People Really Like Milk,” and the wistful title tune, featuring an understated Ween-like guitar solo, claims that “we’re here to spread some cheer and love.”
The band really channels They Might Be Giants on “I Don’t Know,” a manic, word-filled, tempo-changing song about, well, stuff we don’t know, while the breezy pop of “Springtime: It’s My Favorite” celebrates the band’s fave season. And a cover of Talking Heads’ “Don’t Worry About the Government” isn’t something you’d expect to hear on a kids’ record, but Billy Kelly’s fantastic version fits in perfectly with the other tunes on Happy Club.
The coulda-been-a-Jonathan Richman-song “(Let Me Tell You) What I Like About You” has lots of fun with letters, while the great pop composition “I Can’t Get Away from Myself” features some cosmic kid logic (and dialogue from astronaut Dave Scott). Happy Club ends with a radio-ready, stuck-in-your-head ode to the soothing, exhilarating powers of the “Mindless Pop Song,” and the rockin’ dream/nightmare storysong “S-N-O-W-M-A-N (Snowman!).”
The Verdict
Billy Kelly is definitely a new force to be reckoned with in the kids’ music field, delivering a 1-2-3 punch of catchy tunes, witty lyrics, and songs that are fun for the whole family on his debut album Thank You For Joining The Happy Club.
(For more information or tickets, please visit The Colonial Theatre’s website.)
