“…It only makes sense that a band known for an infectious song would create a children’s album just as appealing. Bug in a Puddle is a compilation of melodic tunes and fun-filled lyrics. Young listeners will be enticed by its short songs with just enough of a storyline to engage children along with catchy melodies to keep the songs imprinted in their minds. Favorites include the calming introductory song, There’s a Beat, an amusing rendition of a feline dilemma in The Man with 29 Cats, and the reflective Through the Puffy Clouds…”
New York Metro Parents Magazine
“The title song has children looking at life through the eyes of a bug, a lesson in seeing things from another point of view. The website for this CD describes the songs as imaginative and poetic. We would add happy and calming…”
Hudson Valley Parent
“Leading off the album is the infectious “There’s a Beat,” about a child’s discovery of the rhythms that can be found in nature and living in each of us. The song sets the tone for the rest of the CD, which embraces the child’s spirit and stirs the imagination…”
Top 40 News
“…This new album for kids is filled with fun, upbeat and creative original songs.”
New Zealand publication Littles
Bug in a Puddle has been endorsed by Kids First!, the Coalition for Quality Children’s Media
Album Notes
Composing and recording this album for children under the group name Treehouse 10 are four former members of the Hillside Singers, famous for the ’70s smash hit, “I’d Like to Teach The World To Sing” based on the Coca-Cola theme – songwriters/ musicians and siblings Frank Sebastian Marino, Joelle Marino McDermott, Laura Marino and Bill Marino – along with their family members and family friend, songwriter and vocalist Michael Chabler.
Leading off the album is the infectious “There’s a Beat,” about a child’s discovery of the rhythms in nature and living in each of us. The song sets the tone for the rest of the album, which embraces the child’s spirit and stirs the imagination with images of flying through the air and with an array of colorful characters. The songs feature a tap-dancing frog ironically named Red; the adventures of a man overwhelmed by his cats (all 29 of them); a Hippo Lake, where monkeys can’t sleep from the noise; and a bug wondering about the universe. The exuberant “Happy-Go-Lucky Go Merry-Go-Round,” written by the siblings’ father, Sev Frank Marino, a theme writer and guitarist with the “Tonight Show” with both Jack Paar and Johnny Carson, evokes the feeling of being on a carousel ride. The album closes with a lullaby about the beauty of the lights at night, written by the siblings’ mother, Sophia (Billie) Marino, for a child who was afraid of the dark.
The album’s production was truly a family affair. Youngest sibling, Karen Marino Panica, is also a songwriter on Bug in a Puddle. Other family members performing on the CD are Joelle Marino McDermott’s children: singer/songwriter and musician Garth Michael McDermott (whose songs have been heard on major network television shows including CBS’s “How I Met Your Mother”) and Meghan McDermott Friedland and Celene McDermott, both of whom are lead singers and also featured on piano. Nephew Andrew Panica is the graphic designer of Bug in a Puddle’s 12-page lyric booklet.
Another featured performer is family friend Michael Chabler, lyricist of six of the eleven songs on the album and lead vocalist on the title track. He is also the CD’s cover artist.
The CD was recorded and mixed at Sync Sound in New York by Emmy Award-winning engineer and producer Bill Marino.
Listen:
Watch and Listen to song Number 5: Hippo Lake on Youtube: