About this CD: "Sing! Sing! Sing!...and dance..." is Val Smalkin's follow-up album to her Parents' Choice Fun Stuff award-winning CD "A Gentle Halloween," and was made possible by a Maryland State Arts Council Grant for solo non-classical performance! This CD contains Val's most popular songs from her live performances along with some new compositions. These songs are written for children, thus they are singable, not too wordy, fun, and energetic. Val arranged and performed (vocals and instrumentals) all the songs on this CD, and composed all but two. Lyric sheets and activity suggestions for each song are available for educational and non-profit use on Val's website: http://www.sillygooseandval.com/#!lyrics/c1k6c About the Composer: Ventriloquist, musician, composer, and writer Valerie Leonhart Smalkin (one of the musical Leonharts, e.g., Jay, Michael, Carolyn, Jamie, Donna, Bil...), grew up in Baltimore, Maryland and received a BA in Philosophy cum laude from Goucher College in 1971. In 1972 she attended Berklee College of Music in Boston however the life of a pop musician in the early 70’s turned out to be fraught with danger, so Valerie sought an easier, calmer path…Law School. Val loved the law, but in the process of raising her children she discovered her ideal musical genre: children’s music...no smoky bars, no drunks, no drugs, and performances at 10 o’clock AM! She founded the performing duo Val & Pam Kindersingers, and in the early 90s wrote, performed, and co-produced John “Kinderman” Taylor’s Emmy award-winning children’s television program, It’s Kindertime that aired on WMAR ABC TV-2 in the 90’s. Since then, Valerie: composed and performed the musical version, "Chadwick Sings: A Little Bay Music", of Priscilla Cummings' International Literacy Award-winning book," Chadwick the Chesapeake Crab"; published "The Early Childhood Curriculum" with Karen Rupprecht; and composed "Babel: The Oratorio", "Signs: An Epiphany Musical", and "Darrell: The Draggin' Dragon". As Silly Goose & Val, Val tours school, libraries, and live stage theaters in the Mid-Atlantic area, and Brussels, Belgium. Valerie and illustrator Kimberly Hopkins collaborated to produce the book/CD combination, "Springtime Dance," and took gold in the 2014 Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards. All in all 2014-15 have been very good years!