The Toe Jam Puppet Band is a children's entertainment group from
New Bedford
New Bedford (Massachusett: ) is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts. It is located on the Acushnet River in what is known as the South Coast region. Up through the 17th century, the area was the territory of the Wampanoag Native American pe ...
,
. They perform throughout
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
several times per week, including every Monday at
Buttonwood Park Zoo in New Bedford, and played 270 times in 2007 across Massachusetts,
Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...
,
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
,
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
and
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.
[ Band members include co-founders Tom Poitras and Vinny Lovegrove,.] The band formed in 2001 after Poitras, previously a punk rock singer with The Gluons, began writing songs for his newborn son, met Lovegrove who had been entertaining folk since 1994 with his Miracle Fish Puppet Theater. Their first CD, titled ''First CD'', sold over 1000 copies.[ They released a second album, ''Toe Jam Dance Party'', in 2003, and a third, ''Toe Jam in Outer Space'', in 2008.]
They have received a grant from the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children for their Creative Arts Playgroup, and proceeds from the sale of their first CD went to the MSPCC.
According to the ''Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'', they are "blazing a path through the world of family entertainment". WickedLocal said they offer "a special brand of hands-on children’s entertainment that grown-ups can actually enjoy". The '' Providence Journal'' noted that "The kids' involvement steers each show, so every performance is different."
References
{{reflist
External links
Official Website
American children's musical groups
New Bedford, Massachusetts
Puppet troupes
Puppetry in the United States