Hullabaloo Celebrates 20th Anniversary With 15th Album Release

San Diego's Hullabaloo has been making music for kids and families for 20 years, performing their own brand of foot-stomping, wing-flapping, free-range, organic kid folk at large festivals across the United States and tiny backyard parties in their own hometown. To honor the band's 20th anniversary, Hullabaloo proudly announces today's release of their 15th album, Live from Sun Studio.

Going all the way back to Hullabaloo's first album 20 years ago, people have compared the Hullabaloo sound to Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, and Carl Perkins. Those artists, and a handful of others that had a big influence on Hullabaloo's music, all got their start at the legendary Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee. So, when it came time to celebrate their 20th year of performing together, Hullabaloo went straight to the source and recorded a live album at Sun Studio.

“I stood on the very spot in the studio where Elvis stood to record his earliest hits,” says Hullabaloo's Steve Denyes. “I got a chill up my spine recording our train song, ‘Choo, Choo, Choo,' in the same room where Johnny Cash recorded ‘Folsom Prison Blues.' The whole thing was surreal.”

Hullabaloo's Shawn Rohlf explains, “We spent our days in Memphis soaking up the city's history, trying to get an understanding of what made Memphis a flashpoint for blues, country, and early rock 'n' roll. Landmarks like Sun Studio, the Stax Museum, the Rock 'n' Soul Museum, and the clubs along Beale Street gave us the musical context. The Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel brought us all to tears.”

“Our evenings in Sun Studio were modeled closely on how Sam Phillips recorded his artists in the early ‘50s,” adds Hullabaloo's Brenden Kremer. “The three of us sang and played live, together in one room, the way we do it on stage, the way our musical forefathers did it in that very room.”

Hullabaloo covers all the favorite kid topics on Live from Sun Studio, from trains and dinosaurs to surfing and panda bears. The band is subtle when it comes to “messages” in their songs, believing that kids (and grownups) learn best when they find the lessons themselves. The closest Hullabaloo comes to stepping on a soap box is in “I Wear Pink,” a song about allowing kids the freedom to be themselves, based on Steve Denyes' real-life experience as a boy who mostly learned about life by playing with his older sisters and other girls in his neighborhood.

Album highlights include the rip-roaring train song, “Choo, Choo, Choo,” a good, old-fashioned, rock ‘n' roll dance number, “Hey Everybody,” and “Ants in My Pants,” which Steve Denyes dubs “a public service announcement: Don't take a nap with a chocolate bar in your pocket!” Steve was inspired to write another highlight, the spirited “Run Bunny Run,” by the hundreds of bunnies that roamed the island in the Pacific Northwest where his mom once lived.

Throughout February, Hullabaloohas performed 20 shows in 20 days in the San Diego area to celebrate the band's 20th year of making music for kids and families and to benefit concert the charity Feeding San Diego, which rescues food that would otherwise be left to spoil and provides it to people in need. Hullabaloo is excited to give back to their community, which has given them so much through the years.

ABOUT HULLABALOO:

Steve Denyes and Brendan Kremer met in kindergarten and have been friends ever since. They started on trombone together in 5th grade band, where they vigorously exhibited their burgeoning talents on "Old MacDonald" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.” Little did they suspect that, decades later, these songs would still be among their biggest hits! Shawn Rohlf is a comparatively “new” friend. Steve and Brendan have only known him for about 25 years. In Hullabaloo, Steve sings and strums the guitar, Shawn plays everything with strings (guitar, mandolin, banjo, bass), and Brendan holds it all together on drums and percussion.

The maiden voyage of Hullabaloo took place when Steve and Brendan teamed up to play a few songs at Brendan's twin daughters' first birthday party. Fast-forward twenty years to find that Hullabaloo has performed more than 4,000 shows at venues ranging from local libraries, museums, and birthday parties to fancy concert stages like Austin City Limits, Philadelphia's World Café Live, the Hard Rock Café, and LEGOLAND. Along the way they've released fourteen award-winning albums (at last count, with more than 30,000 sold) and developed a loyal following, both nationwide and in San Diego, where they play as many as 350 shows a year.

Among the numerous awards garnered by Hullabaloo are those from Parents' Choice, NAPPA, and Children's Music Web. Parents' Choice enthused, “They raise their own foot-stomping ruckus with humor, infectious energy and appealing blend of country, folk, funk, and rock rhythms.” The San Diego Union-Tribune declared, “Steve Denyes is the biggest rock star in San Diego. Just ask any preschooler.” The Knoxville News-Sentinel wrote, “Hullabaloo is like the Pixar of kid-folk bands, treating its all-ages audience with dignity and taking nothing for granted.”

Live from Sun Studio is available as a free, digital-only release at major online outlets.

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