Michael Leyden: Press

"Where Are Your Piggies?" Reviewed by John Wood of the awesome Kidz Music!
"And now for something just a little bit different — Michael Leyden's edgy and fun rock-based take on a variety of silly subjects and observations certainly does not talk down to its audience — College papers might just be written on the hidden meaning of "Space Monkey..."

"Michael Leyden's follow-up to his clever and zany 'Where Are Your Piggies?' is...even cleverer and zanier. A love of family, good memories and the magic of the East Coast are passionately expressed in a straight ahead rock approach."

Time Out NY Kids Review

Michael Leyden

Gabdern Chicken (Self-released, whereareyourpiggies.com)


Like so many of his fellow graying rockers, Brooklyn-based singer and father of three Michael Leyden now finds himself playing for a group of listeners far younger than himself. On last winter’s Where Are Your Piggies?, his debut album for the Lego set, Leyden—former frontman for the Long Island–based rock band One Black Shoe—sang of animals, a soccer mom who “tells the referee that he done wrong,” and donuts. That album offered kids ten songs in less than 20 minutes—which makes this second release downright prog-rocky: With another ten tunes, Gabdern Chicken locks in at a whopping 22 minutes! Concise songs are not Leyden’s only punkish quality. Although he sings in the dopey barnyard lilt one might have heard on PBS cartoons of decades past, he peppers this album with double entendres and arguably smutty references. “I got chicken in my business, tasty anyway it’s made,” he sings on “Chicken Song,” the opening track. “If you give some to your girlfriend, there’s a chance you might get—” and here, Leyden quickly cuts the phrase off with a G-rated, if less rhyme-friendly word: “chicken.”