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“All Aboard The Choo Choo Train… all aboard the choo choo train, all aboard the choo choo train, all aboard-all aboard – CHOO CHOO!!!!”
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Ah, yes, the things we catch ourselves doing for the sake of our children. But wait…. Maybe we don’t mind listening to this Choo Choo Soul music after all!!
Playhouse Disney’s Choo Choo Soul- with Genevieve! Began as a childrens music CD created by video game developer Greg Johnson, music producer & engineer Burke Trieschmann, and vocalist/voicever Genevieve Goings.
Greg and Burke were working on “ToeJam & Earl III, Mission to Earth” for Sony’s X-Box and were casting for the role of “Latisha”; an urban no-nonsense alien chick with major attitude. Although the context of this story would have you believe that Genevieve got the part when she auditioned for it, this actually isn’t the case. She auditioned but was not quite what they were looking for, however she did end up doing several background character voices for the game. While recording these characters Greg discovered her soulful singing voice and also discovered how much fun it was to write singing parts for the artist. This sparked a genius idea in his head to create a childrens’ CD that parents could also enjoy. Having a 5-year old son at the time helped a great deal to decide on basing the CD on a Choo-Choo Train theme and teaching valuable lessons to some funky, soulful music.
After completion of the CD, Greg pitched the album to several markets, hoping for a distribution deal. Several deals actually fell through before the CD landed in the hands of Playhouse Disney at the Disney Channel. The team loved the music but also loved the photos of a friendly, hip girl with an ethnically ambiguous look encompassing a plethora of markets. Disney flew Greg and Genevieve down to meet with them and after an unrehearsed & unscripted audition in front of 30 pre-schoolers, they began discussions about how to turn the music into something visual.
Over one year and ten music-video style interstitials later, Choo Choo Soul with Genevieve has developed a fan base larger than anyone expected. A small East-Coast tour in the late summer of 2007 drew crowds of large proportion and a large demand for product and more music! The songs featured on The Playhouse Disney t.v. spot can be purchased on iTunes in the Soundtrack category. Choo Choo Soul is now planning its 2008 tour schedule across the country!
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