There are few happier kinds of music on Earth than kwela, the irresistibly upbeat indigenous South African style marked by joyful, bubbly rhythms and birdlike pennywhistles. “In Cape Town, kwela was the music of the street, so it was always around,” says Grenadilla founder and songwriter Debbie Lan, who was born and raised in the South African Coastal City.

   
Started in 2009, Grenadilla is a multi-voiced, kwela-based collective whose sound makes for the perfect family
music. On stage and on its self titled debut, the band stirs up a jubilant, worldy hullabaloo that’s unique among the recent waves of folk-and rock-oriented “kindie” acts. “It’s family friendly music, for sure, but it’s definitely not just for little kids,” says Debbie, a mother and Teaching Artist who lives in upstate New York, as do her band mates.“So many parents who’ve bought our CD tell us they love it so much they listen to it in their car themselves-even when their kids aren’t around.”
Which isn’t hard to believe at all. Grenadilla (pronounced “gren-a-dill-a”:the South African name for passion fruit) offers 15 lively, uplifting sing-along gems that defy kids and their moms, dads, friends, and grandparents not to throw up their hands, move their hips, stomp their feet, shout out loud, and join the jol (party).
Positive, message-bearing songs like the self-explanatory, piano-fueled “Be Yourself”, the playful, effervescent “Arabella Angelique”, the optomistic “Peace will come”-and of course, the group’s infectious version of the Zulu traditional “Babethandeza” (“Grandmother”) -all tap into the same sunny “township” vibe.
 

In addition to Debbie (who’s worked with Robbie Dupree, Orleans’s John Hall, Dog on Fleas among others) on lead vocal, piano and pennywhistle, Grenadilla’s members include Jodi Palinkas and Leah Glennon on vocals and pennywhistle, Annemarie Callan, Brittany Sacash and Natasha Williams on vocals, with Ken McGloin (who runs Poughkeepsie Day School’s adjunct music program) on bass and guitar, and Dean Sharp (Moby, Brad Mehldau, Nona Hendryx) on drums and percussion. (Debbie and her five co-vocalists have also performed together in the adult voice ensemble, Bloom;  her husband Brian Gunn is Grenadilla’s sound engineer.)

Since becoming a fast hit at school functions, outdoor festivals, benefit concerts, and other events throughout the Hudson Valley, Grenadilla has been busy widening it’s celebratory circle, winning praise from the taste-making website MinivanBlues.com;appearing on Many Hands: Family Music for Haiti, an album benefiting Haitian earthquake survivors; attending Brooklyn’s KindieFest Music conference; performing at the 2009 and 2010 Great Hudson River Revival Clearwater Festivals: and appearing on Sirius XM satellite radio’s “KIDS place Live.”
“Grenadilla is fantastic,” says Uncle Rock (aka Robert Burke Warren), one of XM Sirius’s most popular children’s artists. “They harmonize so beautifully, and their music has such timeless soul.”

“There aren’t enough communities making music together in the world today,” says Debbie. “Kids and adults spend so much time alone in their rooms, with their games, TV’s and computers. We Grenadillans want to encourage all people, not just ‘musicians’ to make music a part of their daily lives, to pick up an instrument, open their voice and play and sing along, making music just for the fun of it.”