Daddy Brad visits the Austin Kiddie Limits stage -- the children's music venue at Austin City Limits, known popularly as ACL. At the 2011 Austin Kiddie Limits stage Brad listened to and met some of the most talented musicians around, that just happen to produce family friendly tunes. Brad also interviews Grammy nominated Brady Rymer about his family music CD The Little Band That Could -- his influences and ambitions. And guess who dropped by -- DadLabs favorite wonder girl, super mom, and rock star Sara Hickman! Did we mention that we love Sara Hickman? We endorse her. Watch kids jam to Sara's music. Watch it rain in Austin. Brad also stops by a great non-profit raising money for kids cancer research, Alex's Lemonade Stand. Support pediatric cancer research by buying Alex's Lemonade. Hosted by Brad Powell. Ep 811 is brought to you by BabyBjorn.

Daddy Brad:  Hey, welcome back to dadlabs.com. I'm Daddy Brad and I'm here at Zilker Park downtown Austin, Texas for the Austin City Limits 2011 Music Festival. This is one of the biggest music festivals in the world. It's grand. Tons of bands from guys like, Ray Lamontagne, Stevie Wonder, Coldplay, Kanye, Arcade Fire, Asleep at the Wheel. You can probably here them over in the background. This is a wonderful, wonderful festival and we're here taking it all in. But they also have one of the top family independent music festivals, as well. There's something right over there that we'll go check out in a second called the Austin Kiddie Limits stage and they've got some of the biggest names in family music. We're going to go talk to with Brady Rymer, Grammy nominated Brady Rymer in a second, about being a family music superstar.
Brady Rymer:  Hello, everybody. How you doing? [audience cheers]
[music]
Brady:  We play the stuff that we loved as kids: Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, the Doors. But we also, as we got older, started to play weird things like Loudon Wainwright or Willie Nelson. Because we played at the local roadhouse and we'd play whatever was fun for us. So it turned out two of those guys that I played with in high school, we ended up going to college and then getting back in touch when we graduated. We went on to form a band called From Good homes and later got signed to RCA Records and put out a few records with them.
Then the kids came along and I just shifted gears and wrote songs for my kids, not really know that there was a [laughs] world of children's music. I ended up writing a CD's worth of songs for my firstborn, Gus, and I wanted to preserve that and record it, just as a gifts to him and a gift to the family. Then we just started giving it out to friends in the neighborhood.
Like things do in Manhattan, they kind of accelerate quickly. Then a school invites you to play and then the next thing you know it's like, OK, well here we go. [laughs] Instead of the tour bus, I'm on the cross town bus.
[laughter]
Daddy Brad:  There you go, right, right.
Brady:  I kind of do what I've always done naturally. I don't try to consciously say this is for children so I am going to change what I do and make it simpler for them or even try to guess what would be right for them. I think as long as somebody does what they're impassioned about and show that they love what they're doing and they communicate that to the kids then that's what's really going to matter. You can find at bradyrymer.com and we're on twitter @bradyrymer. We have a Facebook page, Brady Rymer and the Little Band That Could Facebook page.
Sara Hickman:  Oh yeah, I've heard so much about you. You're so cute. [laughter]
Brady:  You didn't hear that about me? You're so surprised.
Sara:  Oh you're doing that. Are you in DadLabs?
Daddy Brad:  We're doing DadLabs.
Sara:  Oh my God, this is the best show!
Daddy Brad:  I know.
Sara:  Oh wait, I love DadLabs.
Daddy Brad:  Oh, oh, oh my goodness, it's Sara Hickman! I think I'm in love! [musical interlude]
Daddy Brad:  You know ACL 2011, it must be a blessed festival. You know why? Because it's about to rain and it hasn't rained in Austin in like 10 years. I can see it coming. Oh, look at that! Rain! [musical interlude]
Daddy Brad:  One cool thing about music festivals like ACL is it's pretty much volunteer driven. There are thousands of volunteers here helping everybody have a good time. There's also really great fund‑raising opportunities, like right behind me, Alex's Lemonade Stand.
Baron:  Alex's was formed about 15 years ago by a family whose daughter was dying from cancer. One particular day she, because they didn't have a lot of money, went out and started out her own lemonade stand to raise money to help her family pay for her cancer treatment. A local reporter drove by, heard the story, wrote about it, and it was syndicated across a number of newspapers. Then people started calling from all over the country trying to figure out how to help. She passed away about three years later and her parents formed this foundation. Now you've got volunteers all over the United States that host an Alex's Lemonade Stand. We do it here at Austin City Limits Music Festival to raise funds for pediatric cancer research. Sometimes we'll sell anywhere from eight‑ to ten‑thousand dollars worth of lemonade.
Our family tries to really focus on ACL. But anyone can get involved in Alex's and host a lemonade stand by contacting the foundation or going to alexslemonadestand.org.
[musical interlude]
Daddy Brad:  Woo! Thank you, Austin. Hey, this is Daddy Brad and I've about had enough of the rock and roll scene. I think I might become a rock and roll superstar. It seems like a lot of fun. I'd like to thank Brady Rymer for giving us an interview here at the Austin Kiddie Limits stage at Austin City Limits Music Festival 2011. I'd like to thank BabyBjorn, the grooviest baby products company in the world, BabyBjorn, for sending us here.
That's going to be all for me. I think I might get up on stage and sing a little bit because I always wanted to be a rock and roll star. That's it from us at DadLabs.com.