The Official Blog of Bobs and Lolo

Action Packed has received a 2009 nomination for Best Children’s Recording of the Year from the Western Canadian Music Alliance! Following on the heels of a 2009 Parents’ Choice Gold Award - essentially the Grammy’s of the kids’ music world – Bobs & Lolo continue to garner national and international attention for their 3rd album’s refreshing lyrics, rich harmonies and original, ‘get on your feet’ tunes for preschoolers.

Action Packed features 12 original songs such as The Right Track, Snappy Snacks and Friends. The album is geared towards connecting children to behaviours that positively impact the world around them. Using kid-friendly analogies like trains, superheroes, adventure stories and more the songs address themes such as literacy, health and fitness, teamwork and friendship. Already a hit with children, parents and educators alike, the recent WCMA nomination only reinforces the growing success of Bobs & Lolo’s latest project!

The Western Canadian Music Awards honour the best of Western Canadian recordings. This year’s awards ceremony will take place in Brandon, Manitoba on September 20th, 2009.

To listen to sample songs from the award-winning album, Action Packed, please visit www.bobsandlolo.com/music.

Bobs & Lolo use music, movement and make-believe to share stories and experiences that both entertain and educate, while ultimately teaching children to care about themselves, their neighbours and the planet. Their programming places an emphasis on celebrating the values of healthy-living and aims to inspire young audiences with an awareness and appreciation for the world around them. Watch for regular appearances by Bobs & Lolo on the national children’s television network, Treehouse TV!

“Watch out Penner, Diamond and Raffi. Speaking of Penner, the duo opened for the legendary Canadian children’s entertainer this [past] summer.” -  Fiona Hughes, The Vancouver Courier

Westcoast children’s entertainers garner further international recognition for their growing collection of award-winning recordings and performances with a pre-2010 GOLD!

Action Packed is the latest album from critically acclaimed children’s performers, Bobs & Lolo, to fall under the international spotlight. Bobs & Lolo are currently celebrating a 2009 Parents’ Choice Gold Award that follows closely on the heels of a 2008 Children’s Music Web Award and a 2009 Canadian Indie Award nomination for Favourite Children’s Artist. Momentum is definitely strong for this Vancouver-based duo!

The Parents’ Choice Awards program honours the best material for children. Less than 15% of the items submitted to the Parents’ Choice Awards program receive a commendation in one of the six award levels: Gold, Silver, Recommended, Approved, Fun Stuff and Classic.

Lynne Heffley, long-time Parents’ Choice music critic and staff writer for 25 years at the Los Angeles Times writes, “Bobs & Lolo, a.k.a. Robyn Hardy and Lorraine Pond, meet a challenge that sinks many would-be children’s artists: presenting frankly good-for-you messages without sounding preachy or patronizing. The duo’s smooth harmonies and frolicsome approach impart refreshing life to original songs…instead of sinking under their own worthy weight, these tuneful tracks float and shimmer like soap bubbles in the sun.” Read the full review here.

To listen to sample songs from the award-winning album, Action Packed, please click here.

Bobs & Lolo use music, movement and make-believe to share stories and experiences that both entertain and educate, while ultimately teaching children to care about themselves, their neighbours and the planet. Their programming places an emphasis on celebrating the values of healthy-living and aims to inspire young audiences with an awareness and appreciation for the world around them. Watch for regular appearances by Bobs & Lolo on the national children’s television network, Treehouse TV!

Nothing takes the chill off some wintry weather like a little dancing. Join us at one or more of our upcoming shows to dance your way through December! We’ll be introducing a few tunes from our new album, Action Packed and mixing in some classic B&L songs as well as everyone’s favourite holiday hits. Click here to view our upcoming events calendar.

The Action Packed CD has been in stores for just over three weeks now and the rave reviews keep rolling in…

“…these tunes are super fun and inventive and, best for parents, really well played. From the “get your heart pumpin’” chorus of the title track to the importance of warming-up (”Muscles”) and the blues rockin’ “The Right Track,” this is tuneage for toddlers that can’t miss.” - Stuart Derdeyn, The Vancouver Province

“It’s here!  Our beloved Bobs & Lolo never cease to amaze us parents.  Action Packed features upbeat songs with many teaching opportunities that we actually want to play in the car (without the kids…).” - Urbanmommies.com, Your Online Baby Resource 

We’ve received a lot of community support recently in light of our new album release, particularly from families, media and a number of our favourite mommy blog sites. There’s a lot of information out there and sites like savvymom.com, babyvibe.ca and yoyomama.ca are great at filtering out what’s really important for kids and parents. We recently discovered a new fav when we met JB – mom and founder of Soapbox Mama.  Soapbox Mama is a place for moms to share their knowledge, list their opinions and express their ideas – be sure to check it out!

Finally, with holiday shopping high on the radar these days, we wanted to drop a not so subtle hint about how great our CDs are as stocking stuffers (insert shameless plug!), and we also wanted to recognize a few of our new retail partners! Congratulations to Hippy Grandma – BC’s newest online eco-tique – for their recent launch, and special thanks to Fresh! Baby for introducing our music to the Penticton community. For a full list of our supporting retail partners, please click here.

Thanks again to everyone who’s joined us at our recent shows. We’ve had an exciting few weeks serving as the “opening act” for the seasonal VIP himself, Santa, and we look forward to continuing the celebrations over the next month. Hope to see you soon!

Bobs & Lolo

Action Packed is available now!

Bobs & Lolo deliver action packed fun for families with the release of their highly-anticipated third album. Action Packed features 12 original songs such as The Right Track, Snappy Snacks and Friends which are geared at connecting children to behaviours that positively impact themselves, their friends and the world around them.

Special thanks to all of the guest musicians including Mario Vaira (guitars, bass, keyboards, banjo, harmonica and more), Charles Currie Creelman (piano), David Spidel (upright bass), Ryan Stewart (drums), Chad Taylor (trumpet), Jess Vaira (backing vocals) and Kavie Toor (train conductor).

Bobs & Lolo CDs and DVDs are sold at a number of Canadian and US stores and at all live shows. For a list of upcoming live performances, please click here. For a list of supporting retailers, please click here.  

This post is long overdue and so much has happened since our trip through Alberta and some interior regions of BC that we were almost inclined to skip writing this. But, we had such an amazing time in Calgary and Cranbrook that we just couldn’t bring ourselves to not share some stories and pics!

First off, a huge thank you to everyone in Calgary who came out to our shows! We had a really great time and were overwhelmed by the warm reception and crowds at the Outdoor Resource Centre, Indigo (Signal Hill) and the Haysboro Community Centre. Speaking of the Haysboro event, we definitely need to send out a huge thank you (as well as some cyber hugs!) to the Tait Family for not only organizing a SOLD OUT concert, but for also opening their home to us during our stay. The topper is that the Tait’s didn’t know us at all other than having seen us perform once at the Vancouver Aquarium last spring. You guys are family now!

We ended up with a little bit of time to explore while in Calgary and took a short nature walk along the Glenmore Reservoir. We definitely enjoyed seeing all of the Canada Geese and did a little impromptu “goose dance” on the path in the spirit of our Honk for Canada song!

While we were sad to leave all of our new friends in Calgary, we were very excited about our first performances in Cranbrook. Our visit was coordinated by two amazing women (Tanis & Bridie) who own a children’s boutique in town called Bumble Tree. We were absolutely blown away by their hospitality. Check out the welcome goodies we discovered after checking into our hotel room!! Our first “swag”!

Thanks again to everyone for all of your support on our crazy musical adventures!

Bobs & Lolo