LOQUAT ROOFTOP
"Randy Kaplan's debut kids' album, Five Cent Piece, was one of the coolest totally out-of-left-field things I've discovered since doing this blog... Randy always adds much of his own originality and personality and style and humor...and I can't imagine anyone else doing that kind of thing as well as Randy does for a kids audience... Like its predecessor, Loquat Rooftop includes some originals and some covers...but a significant thing about this new album is that the originals are the real standouts this time around... The feeling of enjoyment is always first and foremost with these originals...And some of the new originals are more straightforward sounding and are quite beautiful, like the title track (the melody of which reminds me a lot of a song that I'm not sure I've ever heard before), "(Don't Say) Anything At All" (I love how he demonstrates what he's talking about with his little kid voices between the verses) and "Gotta Get Gone", the bluesy closing number.
"A great thing about Randy is that he is not afraid to be downright silly with his voices and jokes when he knows that will serve the material and the intended audience. And by the intended audience, I don't just mean kids... adults eat up well-crafted goofiness, too (Monty Python, Steve Martin during his standup career, the Airplane!/Naked Gun movies, etc.). Certainly, this adult and his wife have laughed out loud many times while listening to this album. Some things like "The Sour Song" are kind of one-time laughs, as brilliant as they are, but other things are funny again and again, and Randy's eloquently witty wordplay and vocal phrasing is always a joy to listen to. He has a real knack for comedy and entertaining through his music, and I can't wait to hear what he'll come up with next."
-Eric Herman / COOLTUNESFORKIDS.COM
"It is possible that Brooklyn-based Randy Kaplan could become, if he wanted to, the next Dan Zanes, playing for the moms and dads a mixture of blues and rock that works well for both the kids and adults. But on Loquat Rooftop, his second album for kids, Kaplan continues to follow his own idiosyncratic path that...shows off both his musical and storytelling chops...Loquat Rooftop's mixture of blues and folk-rock, laced with good humor and heart, will appeal to many kids and their adults. Definitely recommended."
-S.A. Shepherd / ZOOGLOBBLE.COM
"Some people go into a kids' album project with the idea that they have to become this goofy alter ego in order to appease the "children's music" preconception. Not so Randy Kaplan. No, Kaplan has a unique style, musically and lyrically, that translates smoothly to the kids' music world without having to change a thing... Randy is a storyteller at heart, and it really shows on Loquat Rooftop.
"As with "Over the Rainbow" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want" on last year's Five Cent Piece, Kaplan knows how to pick just the right cover songs, tunes that you think would be too hokey to make the cut on a kids' record, but are somehow transformed into classic singalongs. This time 'round, "Tomorrow", from Annie, is given the sweetest treatment you'll ever hear, while versions of Leadbelly's "Good Morning Blues", Leiber & Stoller's "Charlie Brown" and Hank Williams' "Move It On Over" rock enough to make yer kids wanna explore the originals...
"Loquat Rooftop is Kaplan at his best: Memories; images, figurative and literal; sights, sounds, smells, flavors, textures; humor and fun ... all in the form of a song. Randy is one of Brooklyn's hidden gems in the world of kids' music. Get to know him before he breaks out bigtime."
-Warren Truitt / KIDSMUSICTHATROCKS.COM
"The songs of Randy Kaplan are surreal, familiar and fun. Deceptively folk and blues based children's songs, the tunes on "Loquat Rooftop" feature both adept finger-picking as well as lyrics that do not dumb down to his audience. That respect for storytelling and of kid's ability to "get it" is what makes Kaplan's music powerful and fun. It is in the tradition of folkies like Guthrie and Seeger, who spoke truth to power but also wrote songs for kids that let them in on the truth too...
"Throughout the sixteen song set, Kaplan's playing shows he has absorbed American folk, blues and country styles, and delivers his own history lessons with depth and passion. Loquat Rooftop is a fun summer record that the whole family can enjoy, one with wit and bite, and enough wisdom and daring to appease even the most jaded listener."
-Mike Wood / MUSICEMISSIONS.COM
ANCIENT RUINS
"Randy Kaplan does amazing James Taylor–meets-banjo covers of Nirvana’s “On a Plain” and Grandmaster Flash’s “The Message” on his Ancient Ruins. Nuff said; go check this guy out."
-TIME OUT NEW YORK
"Ancient Ruins" is (a) characterful, understated and charming collection of songs...The mix of styles and textures keeps things fresh throughout and some of the loveliest moments here are the slower numbers such as "Alice Bonvicini" and "Sanctuary Wreath"...The overall sound is nicely understated, which suits Kaplan's delivery perfectly, and the album works extremely well as a whole. Judging from "Ancient Ruins" Randy Kaplan has plenty to offer and should be around making good music for some time to come."
-Matt Hutchinson / AMERICANA-UK.COM
"Kaplan's gentle, almost understated, approach to his art is silky, bright and very contagious. The guy just gets the job done, no fuss, no messin', no big ego - just a very mature, boy-next-door approach which is charming and accessible. Beautifully crafted, sympathetically produced and pleasingly packaged, 'Ancient Ruins' is the real deal!
"Kaplan's self-penned material is similarly seamless and refreshingly familiar but he's also not afraid to take another's material, turn it on its head, and make it his own. Kaplan sounds like he was born to do this, it all sounds so natural, unhurried and almost matter-of-fact. Now that's not a criticism it's praise! Kaplan's way is a rather unique way; he makes making music seem effortless - whether self-penned or covers Kaplan seems to be able to emote without makin' a fuss about it all. Kaplan's acoustic folk tends to border on nu-country but also addresses the need to be commercial; he injects just enough in the way of subtle hooks and singalongability to appeal to the 'pop' market without completely 'selling out'.
"'Ancient Ruins' is Americana through and through, of that you can sure; but Kaplan ensures that his music touches anybody, anywhere - Kaplan mixes seriously sensible with down-home funky and fun, social commentary with more personal observation - it all gets the slick Kaplan treatment and ends up being bloody good music, pure and simple. You don't need to be a nuclear scientist, a mathematician or Nobel Prize winner to get Kaplan's syncopated music, you just need to let yourself go with the flow, sit back, relax and enjoy. 'Ancient Ruins' by Randy Kaplan is a great piece of modern art-folk - nothing too stressful, nothing over-bearing, nothing pretentious, nothing self-indulgent. Kaplan's music, as shown in 'Ancient Ruins', is music for everyone, music for anytime, music for anywhere - beautifully chilled, wonderfully honest, a very tasty piece of middle America that should successfully reach out to touch audiences throughout the world."
-Peter J. Brown / TOXICPETE.co.uk
FIVE CENT PIECE
"Brooklyn's Randy Kaplan hits the mark with his first release for kids, Five Cent Piece, which combines a gloriously wacky collection of oldies (and originals)."
-Susan Avery / NEW YORK MAGAZINE
"One of the most exciting newcomers to kids' music since Dan Zanes, Kaplan's debut is full of rollicking folk tunes."
-E.M. / PARENTING MAGAZINE
"With a bunch of groupies under the age of five... Kaplan, who released five CDs for grown ups before putting out his first kids' album, is continuing to celebrate with performances that all of his fans can enjoy. Five Cent Piece, a mix of Kaplan's own original work as well as covers of Mom and Dad's favorites, will have ears of all ages perking up. Parents will appreciate classic Stones with "You Can't Always Get What You Want," while their offspring may lean more towards songs about city apartment inhabitants - namely mosquitoes and roaches. The lyrics are silly - "they're tryin' on your underwear, checkin' out your grocery list, reading your copy of Metamorphosis" - and parents will laugh too, getting the joke that's years over their kids' heads."
-Sophie Friedman / TIME OUT NEW YORK KIDS
"Randy has one of the most interesting voices I've ever heard... He shares some of the nasal twang as singers like Michael Stipe and Arlo Guthrie, and there's also just a bit of grit in there, as if his vocal chords forgot to shake their shoes out after a day at the beach... "Over the Rainbow" is one of those songs like "Unchained Melody" or "O Holy Night", where I thought it would need a particularly virtuoso vocalist to pull it off, but Randy's version is one of the most beautiful I've ever heard. The earthy twang of his voice along with the gently rolling guitar may not be in perfect pitch or perfect intonation, and yet it is so "just right" in every deeply soulful sense that really matters... "Roaches" is very pleasant musically, but a bit disturbing as it describes an apartment where roaches are everywhere, even on the bookshelf reading Kafka (of course). The song ends with the roaches singing in a way that sounds almost like vocal slide guitar... It's the little details during his song commentary, the warm and welcoming feeling of the music, and the instantly engaging and friendly nature of Randy's voice and character that makes this such a winning recording."
-Eric Herman / CoolTunesForKids.blogspot.com
"(Kaplan's) debut (kids') CD is a mix of well-chosen (and often reworked) covers and skewed originals... With his mixture of somewhat different arrangements, traditional bluegrass and folk instrumentation, affinity for storytelling, and wide choice of covers... Kaplan has fashioned one of the more unusual kids and family albums of the year, good for chilly winter afternoons or late summer days. Recommended."
-S.A. Shepherd / ZOOGLOBBLE.com
"Randy Kaplan once again reminds us of the difference between childish and childlike. His folk songs for children are honest and ring true, and retain a childlike wonder at the ways of the world. To remain in awe even in the dark times is a sign of someone on the right road... Kaplan covers some children's classics, and his originals have the same sense of wonder and directness of the best songs for kids. Never talking down to them, singing to them in a raspy voice as a friend, as if they are in on the story, not just waiting to be taught. Kaplan covers "You Cant Always Get What You Want," with altered lyrics of course, since kids want slightly different things than did Mick and Keith. Even "Over The Rainbow" is given new life here... Kaplan is as trustworthy a guide through childhood as you'll find, at least musically. Everyone needs this record."
-Mike Wood / MUSICEMISSIONS.com
"One of my favorite things about Five Cent Piece is that the CD itself looks like a giant nickel. But it sounds even better than it looks... Kaplan's original songs, including "Mosquito Song" and "Shampoo Me," are as imaginative and rambling as a pre-schooler, and musically brilliant. The folksy acoustic sound throughout Five Cent Piece is beautifully mixed. Again, this is an amazing album."
-Amy Davis / LOVELYDAVIS.blogspot.com
"Following up his stupendous "Perfect Gentleman" album with an album that's for children and adults who still like their music fun and sing-along-able Kaplan covers such children's classics as "Over the Rainbow", "Kids" of 'Bye Bye Birdie' fame, "I'm a Little Dinosaur", and "You Can't Always Get What You Want". His own originals are just as entertaining and fun for both adult and child. My own 5-month-old son really loved this album. Thanks Randy!"
-J-Sin / SMOTHER.net
"Guitarist Randy Kaplan knows something about kids -- to the toddlers of Park Slope, Brooklyn, he's as recognizable as Elmo from his coffee house morning shows and pre-K gigs.
But as his first record for children shows, he's also an excellent musician and songwriter. Kaplan combines refreshingly straightforward takes on traditional folk songs... It's territory familiar to Dan Zanes fans, but wittier, with less of the folk-music-is-good-for-you attitude. Then there are Kaplan's own compositions, like "Mosquito Song" and "Roaches", with menacing man-bug dialogues to make parents squirm and kids cackle... The real surprise is the sensitivity of the arrangements, as on Bridget Law's plaintive violin solo for "Over the Rainbow." Thankfully, unlike Ralph Covert, Kaplan goes easy on background singing from kids; here, less is more. "Five Cent Piece" is a welcome release for parents who've had enough Laurie Berkner for one lifetime.
"
-M.J. Wilson / WORDPRESS.com
"Five Cent Piece combines twangy pop covers and Kaplan's own endearing tunes in a 17-track set both four-year-olds and their parents can relate to. In Kaplan's hands, the Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want" becomes a lesson in kiddie compromise, and the popular ditty "Roaches" slips in references to Kafka's Metamorphosis... He doesn't dumb it down for the kids... He just expects them to come along for the ride. And they do."
-Irene Bradish / TIME OUT NEW YORK KIDS
PERFECT GENTLEMAN
"(Kaplan's) lyrics don't underestimate their listener's intelligence, being literate and occasionally not a little highbrow... unafraid of multi-syllable words or obscure subject matter. Kaplan is a craftsman in the tradition of Paul Simon, to whose "Still Crazy After All These Years" "Perfect Gentleman" is first cousin."
-Jeremy Searle / AMERICANA-UK.com
"(Randy Kaplan) stands alone, within equidistant small-rock-hurling reach of PAUL SIMON (and) WOODIE GUTHRIE... His musical approach (on Perfect Gentleman) is homemade cheerful multi-instrumental confidence with a harmonica... plunder chests full of styles and rhythms sitting under clever drolleries and nifty tunes... personal story telling, cheerful nuttiness, ability to slip into and out of the mournful or the weird."
-Sam Saunders / www.WHISPERINANDHOLLERIN.com
"Quality recordings from lo-fi underground recording popster Randy Kaplan. Kaplan's tunes are nice and laidback... often recalling the music of Paul Simon and Bob Dylan. (Rating: 4+++)"
-Baby Sue / www.BABYSUE.com
"Not many people wound sing about Eve (as in the Bible's Eve) being the first human hermaphrodite but Randy Kaplan explores that notion on his enigmatic "Perfect Gentleman". He performs his tongue-in-cheek vocals over an assortment of vintage organs and boisterous guitar with a light rhythm section bleeding on the edges. His voice is what's at the center of the mix with an earnest take on life and all its hypocrisies. He's certainly unique and his unique song arrangements will keep fans coming back for more salivating the whole way."
-J-Sin / www.SMOTHER.net
"Kaplan has a pleasant, easy-going hand in his songwriting, and the songs here are instantly likable... This demonstrate(s) Kaplan's ample writing skills."
-CENT.com
"Randy's uniqueness and originality come from his uncanny ability to see his world and ours from almost any angle. These perspectives come together in a poetry of contradictions and complexities that are exposed through his hypnotic melodies and profoundly intimate lyrics. His literary yet accessible songs capture ambivalence and investigate the inner lives of human beings in the tradition of Leonard Cohen or Stephen Sondheim."
-KRISELEN.com
"...Randy has a collection of cheap organs and has pulled from them many different rhythm tracks to which he writes his music too. That's about the only unorganic thing about Perfect Gentlemen. Kaplan manages to get personal on many different levels throughout the double album. He jumps off with one of the best tracks on the album, "Rusty & New". It's interesting to see the way he can overlap the beats almost seamlessly while creating some very impressive songs on top of."
-Dennis Scanland / MUSICEMISSIONS.com
"Randy Kaplan sounds like a fun guy to have at parties, entertaining guests with his humorous tales of life, love, and interesting characters. He takes a simple approach to psychological, esthetic, social, historical and political problems by turning them into stories. Part cabaret, part folk, part lo-fi inventiveness, Kaplan strums his guitar and provides beat samples from cheap toy organs to accent his narratives about lost girlfriends, bad behavior, the state of the world, useless desires, and such. Kaplan ventures into the surreal, as he discusses Edith Wharton's love for Alexander Hamilton or a woman who won't get off her cell phone, even when she's on the toilet. He pines for Bernadette Peters although he knows he has problems maintaining a relationship with women older than himself, wonders if the Biblical Eve was a hermaphrodite and pines for the Garden of Eden. If Kaplan's topics seem scattered, they are all united through the narrator's consciousness. He's having a good time letting his imagination run wild and invites you to join him."
-Steve Horowitz / POPMATTERS.com
MIRACULOUS DISSOLVING CURES
On "Miraculous Dissolving Cures," transcontinental singer-songwriter Randy Kaplan sounds like he can hold the line against most folk-pop comers. He compiles a collection of stories that incorporates elements of longing and loss, and from the get-go of "Crushed Berries"- with the line "My friends will save a fly from a spider's web/But then they'll order rack of lamb or baby back ribs"- there's also a serving of irony. Kaplan, who's obviously well-read, conjures the Big Dipper, Sinatra and Job's wife on "Volunteers," a seeming non sequitur fest. But somehow, everything on the album fits together.
- Kevin Amorim / NEWSDAY, New York
"Kaplan's creativity sends out sparks. One can only hope that if he eventually cheers up, that won't dilute the intensity of his songwriting."
-DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE / Northampton, Massachusetts
"Randy Kaplan is a cheeky songwriter with enough personality to stand out from the dulling crowd of singer-songwriters."
-TIME OUT NEW YORK
LAKE CHAMPIONS
"(Kaplan's) songs are sweetly personal and wonderfully void of pretentious overtones... The stories he sings wind and twist away from the ordinary and toward refreshing new ideas often humorous and bizarre... never predictable."
-THE INDEPENDENT / Lawrence, Kansas
"Long Island-born Randy Kaplan sings of modern romance, male neuroses, and quirky character studies with the off-kilter viewpoint of a man who appreciates the blurred edges as much as the finer points. Like Leonard Cohen before him, and his friend and musical compadre Dan Bern, Randy's self-effacing lyrics make you laugh, cry and blush at their honest simplicity."
-THE BOTTOM LINE / Required Listening preview; New York City
"(Kaplan's) songs display keen psychological insight... His emotional range is broad, running the gamut from uplifting to bleak."
-THE MATTRESS / Olympia, Washington
REBORN AS BEES
"Kaplan originals... resound with a thought-provoking consciousness."
-THE ISLAND VOICE / Long Island, New York
"Melody, lyrics, arrangement, production... it's all here... The lyrics stand on their own as poetry, unique and compelling in its imagery... This guy's no lightweight."
-THE INSIDE CONNECTION / Long Island, New York
BOYISH HIPS
"Kaplan makes us smile as he points out hypocrisy...
(He crafts) exceptionally tender songs (and) pens understated tunes that,
the more we hear them, eventually evolve into anthems."
-NEWSDAY / Long Island, New York
"Whether he's singing about despair or ecstasy, Kaplan's songs are bittersweet, romantic, and sometimes nostalgic. And his point of view is always original and often startling."
-THE PERDIDO PELICAN; Pensacola, Florida
LIVE PERFORMANCES
"Absolutely enjoyable... Kaplan has a knack for communicating directly with
his audience... playing with his phrasing and reelin' 'em in."
-MUSICIANS' EXCHANGE; New York City
"He's damned funny... a little of Loudon Wainwright III about him, and a little more of Dan Bern... He had the audience in the palm of his hand."
-ANTIMATTERS; New York City
"(Kaplan) also performs songs penned by his grandfather in the 20's. (He) has gone on to become a familiar face on the West Coast circuit and his Delta blues/country/folk blend of styles is the perfect medium for his John Prine-like sense of humor... downright refreshing."
-THE MUSIC PAPER; New York City
"Kaplan's warm, inviting voice (provides) a peek into the future of the
tradition-steeped folk craft."
-LONG ISLAND VOICE; Long Island, New York
EARLY WORK
"There's a child-like honesty to Kaplan's songs; he often sounds like someone who doesn't know better than to let his guard down. That makes him endearing."
-THE OLYMPIAN; Olympia, Washington
"Kaplan (has a) bizarre folk style and nasal vocals. Who knows, however, whether it's intentional... or just bad."
-BAM MAGAZINE; Los Angeles, California
"(Kaplan has) a raw sweet edge and a good smattering of humor."
-SOUNDWAVE MUSIC NEWS; Portland, Oregon
"Randy Kaplan writes fine, twisted songs about the perils of everyday life."
-L.A. READER; Los Angeles, California
"Kaplan is a local hero."
-BAM MAGAZINE; Los Angeles, California
