Derry & the Dirty Dishes are bringing a new kind of kids' music to town – Iowa Public Radio

Des Moines area native Derek Muse Lambert is no stranger to the children’s music scene. With a two, six and nine-year-old at home, he and his wife Ramona know their way around a tune like “Wheels on the Bus.”
The Muse Lamberts have a long musical history together, having fallen in love on tour with Leslie and the LY’s and continued their music careers in projects like Ramona & The Sometimes and The Book of Bugs. Now, as very involved parents, Derek and Ramona find themselves making up songs for their kids all the time. Those ditties have now become Three Day Weekend, Derry & the Dirty Dishes’ debut album.
“Since we have been playing music forever, we just kind of have music in our household at all times. So when we had babies, I would always play guitar and sing to them … we just started writing songs naturally based on what our kids are interested in,” Derek Muse Lambert said. “One of the first ones that ended up on this album that I wrote was a song called ‘Garbage Truck.’ That was for our first son when he was very interested in the garbage truck at like age two. Every time it would come around he would want to run outside and see it, so I just wrote the song that we would sing to them. And then, during the pandemic, we ended up homeschooling our kids.“
“Since I’m not really a teacher or anything, I would need things to fill the day. So we would do a music segment of the day where I would play them some classic kids’ songs, but then would kind of make up stuff. One of the songs that they particularly loved was I sang a song about a baby, and the chorus was just “Goo Goo Ga Ga,” but it was sort of like punk rock thing and I would just make up lyrics on the spot. Sometimes the kids would have ideas or, you know, I would ask them to tell me a ridiculous thing that a baby would do that they couldn’t actually do in real life … The kids would literally jump off the walls and go crazy when we played that one. So then we were like, ‘Oh, this needs to be on the album.“
Derry & the Dirty Dishes puts children’s joy at the forefront of the sound and creation of their music. The Muse Lambert kiddos and their friends were instrumental in recording Three Day Weekend with Phil Young at Des Moines’ Trilix Studio. They are also prominent characters in the music videos for “Garbage Truck” and “Goo Goo Ga Ga.”
A key mission of the Derry & the Dirty Dishes project is to diversify the kinds of music being made for kids. Stylistically, the tracks on Three Day Weekend range from indie rock, folksy country to age-appropriate punk. The themes explored on the album are not atypical for children’s music though. There are songs about cats and dogs, stories about adventurous babies and even a number about adopting a “New Attitude.” Unlike some tunes for tots, though, the Muse Lamberts aim to connect to their child audience without condescending to them.
Unlike most grown-up concerts that take place after bedtime, Derry & the Dirty Dishes’ debut performance will fill xBk with joy and laughter on a Saturday morning. Kicking off at 10 a.m. sharp, DJ Kitty Cat Twins (Ramona Muse Lambert and fellow local musician Jessica Villegas) will get kids moving and shaking before Derry & the Dirty Dishes take the stage at 10:30. Even the timing of this show has the best interests of children and their parents in mind: the showrunners strive to cater to short attention spans and get everyone home before lunch — and naptime!
Derry & the Dirty Dishes’ live band has Derek Muse Lambert at the helm, with much of The Book of Bugs crew supporting him: Brian Brown on guitar, Elliot Imes on bass, Anna Gebhart on keys and Jordan Brown on drums. Ramona Muse Lambert and the chorus of kids plan to support the band during their performance as well.
The arrival of Derry & the Dirty Dishes to the Des Moines music scene comes at a time when kids’ music is more prominent than ever. With bands like Koo Koo Kanga Roo playing the Hinterland Music Festival and Yo Gabba Gabba! playing Coachella (both bands the Muse Lamberts have performed with previously) — and not forgetting NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concerts, there’s a market for genre-diverse music geared towards younger listeners. Derry & the Dirty Dishes are the first Iowa-based band to tap into that need, but it wouldn’t be surprising if more whimsical, high-energy concerts start hitting the Saturday morning stage.
Tickets for the show are available online and at the door on Saturday, May 3. Three Day Weekend is available on all streaming platforms. Families are encouraged to listen to the record together in anticipation of the concert and learn the songs for audience participation.

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