reviews

Reviews -
Tom Weber

Tom Weber - Moving Along
Reviews -"Read, See, Listen"
Georgia Family, March, 2004
http://georgiafamily.com/reviews/march/review_mar04_1.html

Tom Weber - In Review
Boise Family, October, 2003
http://www.boisefamily.com/magazine/oct03/bits.shtml

Fairfield’s Weber is a big kid at heart
Connecticut Post September 4, 2003
By KATHLEEN HAUGHEY
Staff Writer
When it comes to working with kids, sometimes it really does take one to know one. Fairfield resident Tom Weber is a self-proclaimed big kid and he’s having a ball as a nationally recognized children’s entertainer. A singer/songwriter who uses puppets in his act, Weber is scheduled to peform at Saturday at the Norwalk Oyster Festival.
It’s an act Weber has been honing since his days as a preschool aide while still attending Westport’s Staples High School, where he used puppets and songs to entertain the class. “Playing in the preschools, it never dawned on me that I could make a living out of this,’’ the 34-year-old Weber said in an interview. “So I think it was best because I went into this for the right reasons. “The thought that I could make money was an afterthought.” He quickly progressed, taking up early childhood education at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, and advancing from teacher’s aide to music specialist. “I was a preschool teacher prior to doing music full time and I really got jazzed by their reaction to the music,” Weber said.
Pulling from influences that include children’s author Shel Silverstien and public television’s “School House Rock,’’ Weber was soon able to develop his own style for getting his message across to children. Weber prides himself in giving children songs with a positive message without coating them with “sugary” and trite overtones. He puts himself in the children’s shoes, enabling them to learn while having a good time. “The kind of music I’m playing [I try not to make it] saccharin sweet,’’ he said. “It’s positive, but keep in mind I have to listen to it as well.”
In 1998, Weber made the jump to doing the music full time. He started playing the nursing home circuit and moved on to bookstores. Finally, Weber decided to put out a self-produced album, aptly titled I Like Being a Kid. The album received critical acclaim, winning a 2000 Parents Choice Recommended award. His next and current album, Moving Along, also won a 2003 Parents Choice Recommended award and got a write up in Parenting magazine. Weber is trying to broaden his palette, working on a children’s book, based on one of his songs, called “Clean Up Your Room.” He also could see himself bringing his craft to the small screen. “I would love to do a DVD project,” Weber said. “I feel like what I’m doing lends it really lends itself to an visual format. The songs are very interactive.” But that doesn’t mean Weber will be slowing down from his usual touring regimen, which includes performing at 20-30 schools in Fairfield and Westchester (N.Y.) counties.
Besides the rigorous schedule, there are other obstacles that come up when performing for children, something Weber faces on a regular basis. “A friend of mine told me, with adults they look at their watch when they’re bored ... with kids, it’s the Velcro on their shoes,” he said with a laugh. Weber likes to mix it up the components of his act to keep the kids entertained. “In order to be really effective, first of all, you have to love it, but your enthusiasm ... if you just do the same thing all the time, going through the motions, kids will pick up on it,” he said. He likes to bring in puppets, and a variety of instruments including guitars, a steel pan drum, bongos, maracas and a vibratone to pique the kids’ interest.
As far as moving into an adult field, Weber is tentative to make the jump because he feels comfortable with his current audience. “It’s something I have entertained,” Weber said. “There are a lot of artists who have made the jump from kids’ music to adult music,” he said. “For me, this is the group where I get so excited to see their reaction. They are very appreciative.”
Tom Weber will be performing on Saturday at the Norwalk Oyster Festival. For more information on Weber, visit www.TomWeber.net, e-mail tomweber@snet.net, or call 367-4444.

Tom Weber: The Children's Minstrel
Family Matters Newsletter

The fifty-three children in our Room to Grow Early Childhood Education Center are never bored; but they look forward to the days Tom Weber comes with his songs and musical games. Tom's music is about the joys of being a child from the perspective of someone who loved being a kid and still considers himself a big kid.

Tom Weber has over ten years of experience working with young children. He began his career in early-childhood education as an aide while he was still in high school. Tom progressed from aide to head teacher to music specialist, and is now performing his music full time.

Tom is currently making a new recording of songs for children which will be released in both a compact disc and a cassette format. He has asked the Room to Grow children to participate in the making of this recording. With their parents' permission, our tiny singers will be immortalized with this idol.

Room to Grow is just one of the many schools, libraries, and camps which look forward to regular visits from Tom and his musical menagerie. His repertoire includes original songs that he has written with his wife, Sue, a sixth-grade math teacher, as well as traditional favorites. Tom's music is intended to get children moving, singing, and having lots of good old-fashioned fun!

Read All About It! From Metroparent
What young child doesn't like animals, the Old McDonald song and coloring? They're sure hits for song lyrics, too, as "I Like Being a Kid" by singer/musician Tom Weber shows.

It's very basic stuff, yet so appealingly done that even parents may not tire of this music, even when it's played over and over. When Weber sings about shaking like a rattlesnake, swimming down the Nile like a crocodile and jumping over a log like a big green frog, the cheerful music and simple words encourage little ones to do what they hear, and imagine they're tree-climbing monkeys and flying-in-the-sky butterflies, too.

Weber must remember his own childhood vividly. A song called "Clean Up Your Room" goes "Tom! You left your stinky sweat sock on the floor again! Oh, I did? Uh huh, and you know what that means! Is it time for me to clean up my room?" It's stream-of consciousness childhood memories, containing some of the little dramas that make up a growing child's day.

Little kids will get lost in the silliness of songs like "Echo Echo," in which Weber sings words like scoot, doot, clap, snap, boo and shoo about 100 times, and kids simply repeat them, serving as the singer's echo.

From Parents' Choice®
Guitarist/vocalist Weber treads familiar territory in mostly original songs pleasantly observing a child's world: puppy fun, saying goodbye, cleaning up a room, demystifying a bedtime monster, and learning the alphabet, shapes and colors. A 2000 Parents' Choice® Approved Winner. (Lynne Heffley, Parents' Choice®, 2000)

From Nashville Parent By Susan Brooke Day
My kids and I love listening to music while tooling around in the car together, and when we first heard Tom Weber's cut of "Five Little Monkeys," we shared lots of laughs, too. He pretends to be the mischievous chimps making fun of the alligator in sneering nah-nah-nah-nah-nah fashion until snap! The alligator chomps them down one by one. This playfulness is found throughout Weber's award-winning album where first-rate musicality abounds in original songs like "Say My Letters," "Sunny Days" and "Coloring Book." If you're looking for children's music that's fun, appealing and new, lend your ears to Tom Weber's "I Like Being A Kid."

"Tom Weber - Still a Kid at Heart"
THE NORWALK HOUR September 1, 2000
He loves being a kid. He loves his wife, Sue and his two Boston terriers, Buster and Bettie. He even wrote a song about Buster. Norwalk's Tom Weber is a children's performer and he recently received a Parent's Choice Award for his new CD appropriately named "I Like Being a Kid."

Weber was born and raised in Norwalk and Westport, graduating from Staples high School in 1987. He attended Sacred Heart University [and graduated with a degree in sociology]. It was in Norwalk where Weber began working in early-childhood education in area pre-schools (but his career actually began earlier when he worked as a teacher's aid in high school). From there he progressed to head teacher and then to music specialist. Parents and teachers were so impressed with both Weber's musical abilities and the kids' positive reactions to him, that they began encouraging him to become a professional performer.

"I've been doing this full time now for four years." said Weber. "I always did music in my classrooms, and performing professionally evolved out of that." He began by visiting schools, libraries, and camps on a regular basis. his repertoire includes original songs written with his wife, who is a sixth-grade math teacher. their shows generally last from 30 to 40 minutes and include guitar and puppets, and sometimes Buster and Bettie even get into the act.

"Man Likes Being A Kid"
CONNECTICUT'S COUNTY KIDS April, 2000

Got Kids? Want to make them happy? Tom Weber's been doing that for years with his fun kids music. Tom's new release "I Like Being A Kid" keeps kids (and parents) happy with original songs that are kid-friendly, funny, silly, and all about having a great time being a kid. Tom's music is never saccharin or preachy. It's shaking, moving, shouting, singing, laughing, and fun. Kids seem to really love listening to Tom sing about his dirty room or the monster in his backyard. You can catch one of Tom's performances at area Barnes & Noble stores, schools, and more.

"Plays Well With Others" THE NEW HAVEN ADVOCATE February 5, 1998 Elvis got love letters. Tom Jones gets underwear. Tom Weber gets calls from the bathtub. Huh? Seems a 4-year-old fan of Weber's was in the bathtub and listening to Weber's Sing Along With Tom tape when she just had to talk to her favorite singer. Weber's only a contract away from being a tubful of kids' favorite singer. His gentle and endearing stage presence (dig the shirt) has made a big splash in Fairfield County and lately he's been infusing the New Haven area with his songs, stories and puppets.

Unlike most kids' music which is dripping in kiddie corn, Weber never comes across as cloying or preachy. Instead, he offers up little lessons about keeping your room clean or learning the days of the week while blending in well-known rock riffs (try to pick out Nirvana's "About a Girl"). He even manages to put a fresh spin on carbonated tunes like "Old McDonald" and "If You're Happy and You Know It." "Time for Tom" New Haven Register December, 19, 1997 For those of you with younger (say, grammar school and preschool) music fans at home, if you like Jonathan Richman, you'll like Tom Weber. Tom, of Norwalk, and his wife, Sue, have a neat little tape called :"Sing Along With Tom", with songs like "Yucky Mucky Sandwich," "Clean Up Your Room" and "Monster in My Backyard" - which, if you can believe it, takes the opening riff from Nirvana's "About a Girl."

Children's entertainer Tom Weber (AKA Sing Along With Tom) has released his first cassette tape, a snappy collection of new songs and old favorites. Tom, who plays acoustic electric guitar and sings, has performed at many local libraries and schools, at Barnes & Noble, and at festivals, including the County Kids booth at the Westport Festival Italiano.

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