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It's Not Just for Kids When the Banana Slug String Band Plays Saturday

Their lyrics appeal to kids and adults, one of the toughest challenges for children's musicians. They play at Santa Cruz High School to benefit a Soquel preschool.

Kids think the Banana Slug String Band plays for them, but the secret is out. Adults like them just as much.

Their lyrics explore everything from continental shelves to the dirt which the contents of your lunch box came from, with a twist.

The words are loved by preschool and elementary school kids, but there are plenty of jokes that their parents will find funnier.

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The band is playing a benefit concert in Santa Cruz on Saturday, March 24 to benefit the Soquel Parent Education Nursery School—the oldest nonprofit co-op preschool in the county.

It will be held in the 500-seat auditorium at and starts "post nap-tual" at 2:30 p.m., with doors opening at 2 p.m. for a raffle and bake sale.

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“A real strong goal of ours is to create a musical setting that makes it fun for the adults," says Douglas "Dirt Greenfield, who plays bass and harmonica in the band. "We try to make it as interesting and fun, we use every kind of genre of music—rap, soul, funk, bluegrass, strings, electronica, reggae, everything you can think of."

You can count on a visually stimulating show on Saturday as well, with an appearance of various ecological costumes and characters, from rain drops to penguins, and some very special guests as well.

"There will be 30, possibly 40, special guests," says the musician. "None of them are over four-feet tall. They’re adorable, members of a super Preschool choir. And they are going to be dressed in fine ecological habitat carnival regalia, singing their hearts out and stirring up the masses." 

Even though they aim to educate and inspire children about the environment, Greenfield says that keeping their music and lyrics pumped with positive vibes is a priority.

"We want it [the music] to be motivating, not ecological doom and gloom, because kids do not deserve nor can they do anything with that kind of information, we have to give them quality, positive, actionable things that they can do to create a better environment where they live," said Greenfield.

All educators and parents themselves, the band members understand that when a child likes a CD they are going to want to hear it over and over and over, which is another reason Greenfield says they like to appeal to the parents too. 

Saturday's show will include several songs from their latest album, "Only One Ocean," an award-winning collection of songs that teach ocean literacy, or the understanding of the ocean's effects on humans, as well as humans' effects on the ocean. It features such guests as Brett Dennin, George Winston and Victor Wooten, to name just a few. 

When it comes to their name, Greenfield says they are proud to bear the name of Santa Cruz's favorite creepy, crawly gastropod:

“[Banana Slugs] are one of those creatures that doesn’t initially garner a lot of respect, and it has been our goal throughout our careers to bring in to the light how important all creatures are, particularly the little banana slug, and even though it is just a slimy little nasty gastropod, it is the primary decomposer to the Redwood forest, the magnificent tallest living thing on the planet," said Greenfield. "The slugs have a place in the choir, like every creature."

The Banana Slugs are: "Airy" Larry Graff, Doug "Dirt" Greenfield, "Solar" Steve Van Zandt and "Marine" Mark Nolan.

The Banana Slug String Band has been playing together for 27 years, and although they share their name with the ooey, gooey orange mascot of the UC-Santa Cruz, they adopted the name a year before the University did. The four band members aren't alumni, either, but they are active with the Life Lab Garden Classroom at UCSC, when they are not busy touring schools all over the United States as well as the globe.

Tickets are $10 for kids 2 and up, $15 for adults, and the show will most likely sell out, so buy them ASAP! Get tickets online HERE!

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