EAR SNACKS
On Saturday, I bussed down to Main Street Community Garden and caught a show by the wonderful Andrew & Polly, GRAMMY-nominated married musicians raising their three kids in Santa Monica. The couple has turned their decades-long experience in composing, songwriting, educating, and entertaining into a beloved local institution, now known nationwide through their award-winning albums and child-led podcast, Ear Snacks.
The setting was ideal for a weekend morning singalong. Andrew & Polly have a plot in Main Street Garden and as their voices rose, I pictured the sounds tangling with the profusion of flowers surrounding us, their colors neon in the bright sunlight. Park volunteers, including Sarah, a Climate Corps fellow, set out free coffee, tea, and pastries, and encouraged kids and their caregivers to partake. A tent cast a cooler shadow over blankets spread out for kids to be close to the musicians and chairs fanned out for the rest of us—including Polly’s dad!
Andrew Barkan and Polly Hall met at Amherst College. Though they both began their careers in adult programming—Polly in advertising and Andrew scoring films—in 2010 their focus shifted to making children’s music. Andrew shared that as a seventh grader, he briefly stopped piano lessons to focus on “analyzing music” (as a twelve year-old!), which started him on the track to composing. Writing and performing kids’ songs got them out of the studio, interacting with people of all ages. They weren’t parents yet, but already loved working with families, “being there in their special moments,” like birthday parties and other family gatherings—a child’s dream come true. While I was watching Andrew & Polly plugging in and tuning their instruments, I witnessed a child of about four walk up to Polly and press an envelope with a heart into Polly’s hand. It was probably a payment from an event, but it was delivered with all the gravitas of a love letter.
Inspired by The Muppets, Joe Wise, The Beatles, and the PBS TV show The Electric Company, Andrew & Polly’s first big hit, 2012’s “When You're a Dog,” spent seven consecutive weeks on Sirius XM Kids Place Live 13 under 13 chart, including a week at the number two spot. A recipient of a Joe Raposo Children’s Music Award from The ASCAP Foundation, Andrew & Polly performed the song during the 17th Annual ASCAP Foundation Awards at Lincoln Center in New York later that year.
Andrew & Polly’s set began with Lennon’s “Oh Yoko”—“In the middle of a cloud, in the middle of a cloud I call your name.” They both sang, Polly on guitar, Andrew’s fingers danced over his keyboard while he blew through various “mouth instruments”—as he called them. They asked the kids gathered around to shout their names and favorite places. The lyrics were adapted: cloud became Mexico; we all crooned “Oh Frankie.” Both of them told me how much fun it is to tailor their shows to the audience, so they’re never the same twice. Inviting spontaneity, silliness, and collaborative playfulness, modeling creativity in action. Polly’s voice rang out: “People ask me, How do you write a song? Usually I just make stuff up. And hope it works out.”
Next up was their Spotify hit “Little Bitta You” with Polly on uke. “We love to see your moves.” They’d brought dinosaur eggs that could be shaken in time to beat (or off!). “Music is for everyone,” Polly reminded us all. The best music does seem made just for us in a particular moment. I found that even more true with the kinds of spontaneous, silly, but also real children’s songs such as Andrew & Polly’s, as well as Lisa Loeb’s Songs For Movin’ and Shakin’ and my son’s favorite, Snacktime! by BareNaked Ladies. Songs so good adults truly enjoy them and kids don’t feel condescended to, which include a kind of call-and-response baked in.
In 2015, Andrew & Polly started Ear Snacks, a podcast “centered around children’s voices.” For Andrew, who is blind, podcasts are essential, an avenue to read about the world through listening, a way to be connected and stay touch with the world outside his immediate family and friends, as he did on this podcast with his siblings.
Called “one of the best podcasts for kids” by Common Sense Media and touted by the New York Times as “packed with ear worms and made with heart,” the podcast soon garnered national play. Requests from around the country to host Andrew & Polly came pouring in: When are you gonna come to my town. How can we connect with you?
“We’re always excited to do a concert in your big city or small town, a singalong in your park or backyard.” Polly beamed. “We were recently invited to Wyoming, which was incredibly beautiful and nowhere we’d visited before.”
The podcast is a natural outcropping of backyard concerts. Because kids are on the show, the format is unstudied and collaborative. A theme or question jumpstarts the show, followed by an expert weighing in through song or spoken explanation, and, always, kids give their take on the ideas raised.
To be on the podcast, a parent/caregiver signs their child up using the form on earsnacks org. “Sometimes they get conscripted into it.” Polly laughed. “Thanks, friends?!” My niece and nephew were on a show that my son listened to over and over. For him it was a Wow in the World episode come to life, narrated by his cousins! Andrew & Polly know host Mindy Thomas, co-host of WoW, through the nonprofit Kids Listen, which promotes kids podcasting. Started in 2016, Andrew is one of their founding members and Polly is a lifetime board member.
The opening chords of The Romantics’ “That’s What I Like About You” sparkled in the sunshiney air. Moments later, the 80’s song was upcycled and made new by the young audience into “That’s What I Like About Shoes.” For this song, Andrew & Polly asked kids to yell out good things about shoes; the musicians made up rhymes on the spot while playing the melody. “Anyone make up a song today?” Andrew asked. Polly piped up, “I had an idea for a song. At first I couldn’t hear it the way I did in my head, but then I walked backwards into it. Sometimes that’s the best way.”
A child jumped up and down waving their hand: “I have one! It’s about having your life so bad.” Andrew deadpanned, “That’s great, that’s the #1 topic of songs!”
The hits kept coming. And, just at the right moment when lunchtime and nap beckoned, they ended their set with a song about grapes that reminded me of the Pete the Cat book I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin. A study in lightly held resilience while we walk through life making mistakes, learning from them, transforming plodding along to joyous creation. At one point, Polly invited everyone to “rub your hands near your ears. There are so many sounds in the world around us, and that song is just for you. It’s always yours.”