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All Join In is Kenny Loggins' first album of up-tempo music for
the whole family -- and an altogether exciting new addition to a body of work
that already includes two groundbreaking and genre-defining albums of lullabies
for children, 1994's Return to Pooh Corner and 2000's More Songs
from Pooh Corner. Working with his co-producer Jesse Siebenberg and a talented
group of musical collaborators that includes all of his five children, this two-time
Grammy-winner has lovingly crafted an extremely entertaining and uplifting song
cycle specifically created to please both parents and children.
At the same time, All Join In also represents the latest musical
statement in one of the most enduring careers in popular music -- or what sometimes
seems more like a whole series of varied careers all have been lived by this
singular recording artist. "I've always been a bit of a moving target,"
Loggins says with a laugh. Yet as he puts it, "Even in a life that's been
so full of music, All Join In feels unique and meaningful to me, both as a musician
and -- perhaps even more so -- as a parent myself."
Kenny Loggins was far ahead of the curve when it came to recording music for
children. "When I made my first record for kids, a lot of people around
me were worried," Loggins recalls. "They thought that people wouldn't
care -- or that I'd instantly lose all my rock & roll credibility.
But I felt making music for kids and their parents could mean so much. Then
Return To Pooh Corner became a hit -- a perennial gift that people gave to new
parents as a sort of welcome to the family, and it became something very special."
For Loggins, All Join In takes another giant step forward. "In its own
way, All Join In feels as groundbreaking as an up-tempo album for the family
as Return To Pooh Corner was as a lullaby album," he says. "I think
that you'd be hard-pressed to find another children's record with
this kind of vibe. Many of the songs will be familiar, but the feeling is fresh
and the mood is bright. I feel like this music can really connect with a lot
of people of different ages."
During nearly four decades as a professional singer-songwriter, Kenny Loggins
has established himself as many things to countless music lovers. For instance
for first half of the Seventies, Loggins was, along with Jim Messina, part of
the popular, influential and somewhat accidental duo Loggins & Messina that
formed in the wake of the classic 1971 album Kenny Loggins with Jim Messina
Sittin' In, originally meant to be Loggins' debut solo album.
When Loggins & Messina ended their musical partnership in 1976, Loggins
pressed on to explore his own musical path as an introspective solo artist,
beginning with such artistically and commercially successful releases as 1977's
Celebrate Me Home, with its popular title track, and 1978's Nightwatch,
which featured Loggins smash duet with Stevie Nicks, "Whenever I Call
You Friend." Loggins has since recorded a remarkable and eclectic
series of albums, including such popular highlights as 1979's Keep The Fire
("This Is It"), 1982's High Adventure ("Don't Fight
It," "Heart To Heart," 1991's deeply personal and acclaimed Leap
Of Faith (featuring "Conviction Of The Heart," which Al Gore
has called "the unofficial anthem of the environmental movement"),
1993's exquisite live retrospective Outside: From the Redwoods and
2003's It's About Time.
During this same period, Loggins grew even more well-known for recording a
series of soundtrack pop smashes including such Top Ten hits as "I'm
Alright" from Caddyshack, "Footloose" from Footloose,
"Danger Zone" from Top Gun and "Nobody's Fool"
from Caddyshack II, as well as for participating in USA For Africa's historic
benefit recording "We Are The World," and co-writing the
Grammy-winning Song of the Year "What A Fool Believes."
Starting in the Nineties, Loggins' audience then expanded considerably
in age range when he went against conventional music industry thinking to become
arguably the first major star from the rock world to dedicate himself to recording
music for children. In other words, Kenny Loggins was making music for kids
way back before it became an actual growth market. "Back in the day, I
would sing the bedtime lullabies to my first three children," Loggins
recalls. "Then when I recorded my first children's album, I replaced
myself."
With All Join In, Loggins is once again breaking ground. He credits Disney
Music Group Chairmen Bob Cavallo and Walt Disney Records President David Agnew
with the idea of making the album, and thinks it is only fitting that two of
its chief corporate cheerleaders Agnew and Walt Disney Records Senior Vice President
and General Manager Jim Weatherson were themselves parents who played his earlier
lullaby albums to their children. The release of the album has already been
preceded by Loggins' single and video for "Underneath The Same Sky,"
the lovely and catchy theme song for the My Friends Tigger & Pooh: And a
Musical Too DVD and digital soundtrack. All Join In represents the latest chapter
in a remarkable enduring connection between the singer-songwriter, Winnie the
Pooh and Disney.
"You could say that Pooh and I go back a long way together," Loggins
says with a laugh. "In fact, when I was a senior in high school, I just
happened to date Marnie Walker, the daughter of the President and later CEO
of Disney named Card Walker. At that time I had just written 'House at Pooh
Corner,' and it was one of the two or three songs that I would sing at
a party. Then the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band wanted to record the song that summer
between high school and summer. I couldn't get permission from Disney for them
to do my song about Pooh. Marnie said, `Let me talk to my Daddy.' That's how
I became forever associated with Winnie the Pooh, and it's become a lifelong
connection. Years later, Disney put me together with the Sherman Brothers who
did the music for the classic Winnie the Pooh movies and together we wrote 'Your
Heart Will Lead You Home' for the The Tigger Movie."
In gathering the perfect songs for All Join In, Loggins says, "It's
like putting on an old sweater. I want everyone to feel comfortable and have
a sense they know what they're getting in." In this case, they're getting
into an inspired collection of creative takes on past classics including two
songs by the Beatles' "All Together Now" and "Two
Of Us" (the later being first studio recording in decades by Kenny
Loggins and Jim Messina), Randy Newman's "You've Got A Friend In Me,"
The Del Vikings' Fifties classic "Come Go With Me," Traffic's
"You Can All Join In" (appropriately joined by the song's
writer and former Traffic member Dave Mason) and Donovan's Sixties classic "There
Is A Mountain."
As Loggins puts it, the resulting album is a kind of "tasty musical gumbo,
full of a lot of colors and flavors." For him, All Join In really is music
for the whole family, the perfect soundtrack for any journey parents and children
share. "Too many children's artists sing down to the kids and that's
a big mistake. By the time they are three or four, kids today can be pretty
savvy musically and aware. The musical barriers between the generations are
breaking down."
All Join In is the heartwarming and life-affirming sound of the barriers falling
down and music being shared by at least two generations. "The thing I
clued into right away with this album is that because it's up-tempo songs,
it had to feel playful and it had kids all over it," Loggins says. "Kids
love to hear other kids, and why not? I think if I hadn't brought my own
kids and their friends into the making of this album, it might have gotten too
serious. They all kept making the music lighter and better. And in the end,
I couldn't be more proud of what happened when we all joined in."