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Daddy A Go Go

When my latest CD, Snow Day!, was reviewed by The Lovely Mrs. Davis, she referred to me as being in the "goofy dad" sub-genre of children's music. Her description of that was: The "Goofy Dads" are trying as hard to make kids laugh as they are trying to make kids sing and dance. They have (a) high-energy, laugh-a-minute approach to music, and sometimes push the boundaries of appropriateness. She named me in conjunction with other apparent "Goofy Dads" including Trout Fishing in America, Yosi and Daddy A Go Go. Not bad company, I must say, and sure enough, those other artists are right up my kid musical alley. Having finally given a good listen to Daddy A Go Go, I have to say that in some respects he's a goofier dad than I am, and I would have some catching up to do if I wanted to attain his level of "Goofy Dad"-ness.

The latest Daddy A Go Go album is called Eat Every Bean and Pea on Your Plate. If you say that instead of just reading it, you should get the humor of that (and I hope you're not drinking any milk when you do). It's the kind of joke that seven year-old boys everywhere will laugh their heads off at and tell all of their friends, possibly getting into trouble from their teachers for repeating it over and over. And seven year-old girls will all go "Ewwww!" but still probably laugh, at least privately. After all, girls are much more mature than boys as they grow up (eventually boys may catch up to girls in maturity, when they're about 64 or so). Clearly John Boydston, the daddy behind Daddy A Go Go, has not turned 64 yet, and that's great for kids everywhere. John has a terrific sensibility for rock 'n' roll and a very consistent sound and style to his songs. Most of his music has the rockabilly meets country tone of BR5-49, with some of the edgier twang of the E Street Band, and a sprinkle of surf rock a la The Ventures.

Eat Every Bean... is such a great title, because it instantly lets you know exactly what you're getting; fun music with clever wordplay and some great humor. And that translates through to all of the Daddy A Go Go albums. In the Dylan-esque song "Scaredy Cat Cowboy Pt. 1" from Mojo A Go Go, the second verse goes off out of the rhyme and rhythm scheme for a brilliantly bizarre description of the cowboy's 'operaphobia'. I like that he took a turn that wasn't expected, and yet it still worked within the context of the song. He has several songs that are sort of parodies, at least in the wordplay sense, as in "Nice Mare on Elm Street" and "For Those About to Walk (We Salute You)", though I was a little disappointed that the latter wasn't an actual parody of the Ack-Dack anthem. He can be really clever with words on things like "Pink Floyd Saves Hugh Manatee", an Elvis-y number about a flamingo named Sigmund Floyd, where he creates an alternate universe story with lots of little jokes mixed in for the adults. He can even be poignant and funny at the same time, as in "Get Off the Computer" from Big Rock Rooster: You know I’m looking everywhere trying to find my mom/She’s sitting in her chair shopping everything dot com/I said Hey Mom, get off the computer/Come and look – I just got cuter/Hey Mom get off the computer now. Daddy A Go Go also offers some interesting covers, including Spinal Tap's "Listen to the Flower People" (though I missed the "ahhh"s), and The Partridge Family's "Come on, Get Happy", as well as several instrumental covers like "Linus and Lucy" (the Peanuts theme) and "To Sir, with Love", all in his trademark super twangy style.

The humor of Daddy A Go Go ranges from wryly intelligent stuff all the way down to the lowest common denominator - silly puns. And no doubt kids love it. This 37 year-old sure does, though maybe I'll have to hide my amusement when I'm 64.

Daddy A Go Go website

Schoolhouse Rock!

As the story goes, in the early 1970s, ad exec David McCall noticed that his 11-year-old son was having trouble memorizing his multiplication tables, but he knew all the words to popular rock songs. So McCall had the brilliant idea to marry memorable music with concepts that kids need to learn, and Schoolhouse Rock! was born.

Other than watching Sesame Street and The Electric Company when I was very little, I never really listened to "kids music" growing up. My family had a jukebox in our family room and that was filled with various 70's hits and some novelty tracks that I loved like "Shaving Cream", but there were no songs by Raffi, The Wiggles or Ralph's World (mostly because they weren't around then, or at least, their kids' music wasn't). The songs I listened to the most when I was a growin' boy were 45's of Elvis, Johnny Cash and songs like "Kung Fu Fighting", "The Night Chicago Died", "Ballroom Blitz" and "Sir Duke". I also liked Beethoven a lot, probably because I was a big Peanuts fan and there was the constant hype about him from Schroeder (and also probably because Beethoven's music is incredible). There were theme songs like Scooby Doo and The Flintstones that were sort of "kids music", in a way, but the only music that I can recall really liking that was specifically geared toward kids in the way we usually think of "kids music" is Schoolhouse Rock!

Of course, Schoolhouse Rock! as I remember it was very much a marriage of the cartoon and the song, but many of the songs hold up very well on their own, and I can remember singing things like "Conjunction Junction" and "I'm Just a Bill" outside of when they happened to come on TV. Other favorites of mine include "The Shot Heard Round the World", "Three is a Magic Number", "My Hero, Zero", "Interjection!", "Unpack Your Adjectives", "Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here", "The Tale of Mr. Morton", "Electricity" and "The Preamble". So many great songs about so many different subjects. I think that Schoolhouse Rock! has probably been one of the biggest influences on the current crop of kids' music, or at least, the best of it. The songs had memorable hooks, witty humor and some great music with a lot of variety. Above all, they had character. I don't mean the characters within the songs (although those are great, too), but character as a quality of distinguishing style.

In 1996 there was a compilation released called Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks, featuring some pretty cool artists like Moby, Ween, Pavement and Better than Ezra covering Schoolhouse Rock! tunes. When that album came out, it reintroduced me to those great songs that had been such a fun part of my childhood. I've since rented the videos of the cartoons and realized how great the original versions of those songs are. The recordings sound just a little bit dated in a Grateful Dead meets Vince Guaraldi kind of way, but the songs and performances are still terrific.

Schoolhouse Rock! Wikipedia page

The Idea Tree

I've always been interested in the different ways that people come up with ideas for songs, films, books, products, etc. Where does the inspiration come from? How does one idea sometimes develop into another? Children's musician Monty Harper has a blog and podcast about the process of writing his songs, so I thought I'd share a little about some of the different ways that ideas for my songs have come together.

First of all, I should say that I believe that ideas are available in abundance. I really don't believe in such a thing as "writer's block". I believe in writer's procrastination, writer's laziness, writer's excuses, writer's self-doubt, etc. But not writer's block. A writer can always write, they may just need to actually press the pen to the paper, or the finger to the keyboard, or the pick to the guitar. What comes out when we try to write may not always be something terrific, but we can always write something if we at least try. Sometimes we'll need to edit that "something" quite a bit; sometimes we'll need to crumple it up and throw it in a pile on the floor; and sometimes what we write initially will not come to fruition but will be the impetus that leads us to write a better "something".

I picture a big "idea tree", where there are millions of different ideas... Sometimes we'll get lucky and one will fall off and hit us on the head, even when we're not looking for one; sometimes we'll need to actually climb high up into the tree and reach hard for an idea that's on the far end of a branch; and oftentimes we have to walk around the tree holding a bushel and catch what falls in and see if we can make anything out of it. But the ideas are always there, we may just need to take action to get them, or at least be receptive to catching them.

# 1 - emotion + brick wall + unexpected twist = "The Elephant Song"
The first song I specifically wrote as a 'kids' music artist' was "The Elephant Song", which is still a favorite of many (I may spend the rest of my career trying to equal that!). But the original idea and intent for that song was completely different than what it turned out to be. My wife Roseann and I had watched a PBS documentary about two elephant friends who had been seperated at a young age to go work in circuses in different parts of the world. They were reunited many years later and instantly remembered each other and still had an incredible bond. It was more compelling and touching in the presentation than how I'm describing it, but it stirred an intense "reuniting, reconciliation, rebirth, resurrection" kind of emotion in me and made me want to write a song about that, more in a metaphorical sense than anything literally about elephants. Picking up a guitar at that moment the music flowed right out, and I quickly came up with a first verse of lyrics that went something like, "A long time/ I missed you so much/I finally got these chains off of me". And there was another line or two, but I can't remember any more than that. But much as I tried, I just could not get past that first verse of lyrics. Roseann, knowing the source of the inspiration for the music and hearing me trying over and over again to get past that point with the words, started jokingly singing along, "Elephants, I like elephants" when she'd hear me playing that. I sneered and said, "Very funny..." But the way she sang it was catchy and soon I was singing that to myself in the car one day, and for reasons that I can only call some bizarre kind of inspiration, I then added, "I like how they swing through trees." It didn't make any sense at all, of course, but suddenly I stopped and thought, wait a minute, that could actually work... And thus "The Elephant Song" was born.

- Watch the video for "The Elephant Song" -



Often songs are initially conceived from some kind of intense emotion, whether that is hurt, joy, desire or anger. Emotions are hard to express, and so we turn to art to make an attempt to do so. If it wasn't for the feeling I had from watching that show about elephants, I'd never have created that music which led to that song. But then I hit a big brick wall and couldn't get past a certain point with the lyrics. I think brick walls are significant when creating art because they mean something, but it's not always clear what. Perhaps you should try to find a way to get over or around or through the wall, or turn around and go another direction, or maybe you have to wait patiently by the wall until it is somehow removed, which happens sometimes. So the brick wall was a big part of this song for me, and then it took a bizarre joke and unexpected twist to find the way around the wall.

#2 - request + guilt + ad lib = "Cowboy Bergaleoukaleopaleous"
I was playing a gig near Seattle last year when between songs a cute little kid asked if I could please play a 'cowboy song'. I paused for a second, then realized, no, I can't. I didn't know any cowboy songs. I think I appeased him somewhat with a pirate song, but I still felt bad about that. So emotion was in play again, this time in the form of a strange sort of guilt that I had let him down in some small way by not playing a cowboy song. Right away after the gig, I was starting to think about what kind of cowboy song I might come up with. As it happens, at the same show I had done an ad lib during a song where I sing the kids' names, a la Ralph's World's "The Name Song". I was looking for someone with a really long name, so I jokingly asked, "Is there anyone here named Octavius?" Of course there wasn't, but when thinking about the cowboy song later I had an idea for a song about a cowboy who had a really terrible or unlikely 'cowboy name', like Cowboy Octavius. I quickly came up with a little musical hook that included that title and sang it for Roseann. She liked the idea, but thought that if we were going to do that, we should go completely over the top with it and cram as many syllables as possible into the same musical space. Thus, the legend of "Cowboy Bergaleoukaleopaleous" came to be. So it was the impetus of the cute kid making me feel bad and the timing of the Octavius ad lib that made the song come together the way it did.

- Listen to "Cowboy Bergaleoukaleopaleous" in the player below -


#3 - paying attention to sounds and phrases = "The Monkeys" and "In the Box"
Sometimes song ideas just roll off the tongue or come almost directly from another source, but I have to be paying attention to them and ready to develop them beyond the initial thought of "hey, that's interesting". My daughter Becca was watching a show on Animal Planet about monkeys one day while I was working on some music in the same room. I happened to hear one of the monkeys do a cool sounding rhythmic phrase "ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ah ah ah", and I started repeating that and added another little part to the phrase. That exact phrase became the chorus part of the song "The Monkeys" (perhaps I owe those monkeys some royalties?). We still needed an idea for the song, though, and in that case we decided to combine the idea of a group of singing monkeys with an homage to another famous group of singing Monkees. For "In the Box", Becca was playing with blocks and it was time for bed, so I pointed to the Lego box and said, "Can you put 'em in the box?" I didn't sing it or mean it in any kind of 'song' way, but the rhythm of that phrase rolled off my tongue in a fun way, so I repeated it and started singing a simple melody with it. Best of all, my singing of that phrase really encouraged Becca to pick up and put away the blocks!

- Listen to "The Monkeys" in the player below -

- Listen to "In the Box" in the player below -

#4 - the right timing = "Steve the Superhero"
I suppose some aspect of timing and 'synchronicity' is involved in all of these examples, but sometimes an idea may pass by at one time but be ready at another. Kenn Nesbitt is a funny poetry author who I've worked with for a number of my kids' songs. Every so often, I go through his books and his website fishing for song ideas. I had read his poem called "Steve the Superhero" when he first posted it and thought it was really funny, but it didn't hit me initially as a song possibility. Months later, I was watching an episode of Futurama which was a spoof of superheroes, called The New Justice Team. They even had their own superhero theme song, very much in the style of Batman and Spiderman and things like that, and I thought it was hilarious. About a week later, I happened to be going through Kenn's poems again and came upon "Steve the Superhero" again. This time, it was like, heyyyyyyy... How fun would that be?!

- Listen to "Steve the Superhero" in the player below -

A friend of mine once told me that there are no ordinary moments... I thought, nah, there are a lot of times that are kind of dull or where nothing much is happening. But she explained that once in a while exciting things do happen or things come together in interesting and powerful ways, and if we look back we can see how a lot of different and seemingly insignificant things had to happen along the way to make those special things happen. (And when she said that, I had to write a song about that idea called "Extra Ordinary", which wasn't a kids' song but which I might adapt for a future kids' album.) It's kind of the 'butterfly wings causing hurricanes' effect. And that's how the timing thing works sometimes for creative ideas. Sometimes the stars align and that's the coolest time to be looking up in the sky, but it's also cool to be able to appreciate the different paths those stars took before they aligned.

Many ideas are pretty straightforward... ("I think I'd like to write a robot song.") and lot of times I find myself thinking pretty broadly about different subjects that I might write about, but lately I realize that sometimes there can be a wealth of ideas by thinking laterally within a more focused view. The universe is infinitesimally large but it also goes incredibly far down into the sub-atomic, with various layers to explore along the way. I wouldn't have thought that albums with songs all about fish or full of all new original Christmas related songs would really be too interesting, but Shel Silverstein's Underwater Land and Trout Fishing in America's Merry Fishes to All are both among my favorite kids' music albums. I'm thinking that a good songwriter could do an entertaining album of songs all about socks if so inclined. In fact, I'd like to see that: Justin Roberts releases The Sock Album. And creative perspective is so unique to each individual that I'm sure Justin's sock album would be quite different from Laurie Berkner's or Ralph's World's or Dan Zanes' or mine. (I'm predicting 2007 to be the year of the sock album!)

Of course, just because there are many ideas to find and develop, that doesn't mean they're all good ideas, but that's a very personal and subjective thing to determine. In my case, there have been some ideas that I wasn't sure about at all. But I've found that some ideas are worth trying just for the sake of trying, and if I trust my instinct and intuition then I'm probably okay. When we first wrote "The Elephant Song" we really didn't know if it would be received well by kids or if they'd just think I was a looney. Well, they sometimes think I'm a looney anyway, but thankfully they loved that song in a big way right from the start. For my Monkey Business album, we had an idea for a radio skit styled game show spoof called "The Math Game". It was fun to do, but being a six minute long comedy piece with a fair amount of adult level humor, we thought it would be appreciated by some parents but probably skipped over by kids. To our amazement, we've met many kids who have that album who know that track by heart and who request for me to perform it, and it is the second best selling download from that album on iTunes, after "The Monkeys". So at this point I'm more inclined to trust whatever ideas I find worth pursuing to be something that my fans will probably also like.

Kids are such a great audience for sharing creative ideas with, because they are so open to new ideas themselves. I read this quote in a book recently- kids enter school as question marks and leave as periods. What a shame that is. The book (A Whack on the Side of the Head, by Roger von Oech) also cited an example where an ink splotch on a piece of paper was shown to groups of high school students and kindergarteners. The high school kids described it mostly as "an ink splotch on a piece of paper". The kindergarteners had something like 50 different descriptions for that ink splotch; a monster, a fire, a spider, etc. Kids see the many creative ideas that are everywhere around them. So can we, if we just hang out near that Idea Tree with our bushels ready, and are willing to make the occasional climb if needed.

You're the One & My Best Day

Stefan over at Zooglobble (without a doubt the most comprehensive source for kids' music coverage on the web) has begun a new series of guest posts with kids' music artists doing reviews of albums (kids' music or otherwise) that influenced them in some way. I've started off the series with a post about my favorite album of the last several years, Paul Simon's You're the One. Check it out here.

Also, I should mention that the purpose of this blog isn't to be a real source of kids' music news, especially as sites like Zooglobble and The Lovely Mrs. Davis Tells You What to Think are so much better about covering that kind of stuff. But I suppose I might mention when some of my favorite artists that I've already covered here have some significant news, or a new release that wasn't mentioned in my original feature. For example, Trout Fishing in America have a new live album out, called My Best Day. You can hear samples and purchase the album here.

The Wiggles

I can hear it now... "What? Are you serious? The Wiggles? Cool tunes for kids??? The Wiggles?????? Come on, Eric!!"

In a word... absolutely!

It's almost become tiresome for me to keep seeing references by other kids' artists dissing The Wiggles in some way or other, or promoting their music as if it's so much cooler and better than The Wiggles. In fact, I may have seen that exact phrase on someone's CDBaby blurb - "so much cooler and better than The Wiggles." But I honestly have to wonder if these people have actually listened to the Wiggles music. And in my opinion, those claims wouldn't hold up in many cases. The Wiggles do have great music and a huge body of memorable songs that would be difficult for any kids' artist to match.

I understand and agree that The Wiggles have some annoying elements of their whole package... the repetitiveness and limited humor in the interludes of their videos and shows (i.e. "Wake up, Jeff!"); the almost constant branding of their characters within their songs (at least every other song is about "wiggling" or "Wags the Dog" or "Dorothy the Dinosaur", etc.); and the absolute proliferation of their image and logo on toys everywhere. They're a slickly marketed sell-out machine, right? No, they're just hugely successful for what they do, and deservedly so. The rest of us could only hope to have a LeapPad game based on our music and an electronic toy guitar with our face on it. But let's not let envy or jealousy make us nasty toward them, eh?

I remember first hearing about The Wiggles in references to them being "The Beatles of children's music" and kind of pooh-poohing that idea. Certainly in terms of their immense popularity as a group of four guys, I couldn't disagree, but I resented that comparison in a musical sense. The Beatles created some of the greatest and most memorable pop/rock music ever. Let's not dare refer to these guys in that sense, I thought. So at first I was inclined to jump on the anti-Wiggle bandwagon and ready to think as I walked down the aisles at Walmart, "That should be me on that toy leafblower, not The Wiggles!" But the truth is that having since heard their music quite a lot (my daughters love them), I can even agree with that comparison in a musical sense.

Lyrically, no. They are not writing anything with any kind of depth, as far as the words go (nor should they, for their preschool audience). But then again, a lot of early Beatles songs were pretty insipid, lyrically speaking. And The Wiggles don't have the musical complexity of some of The Beatles work in terms of the chords and structure, but they do seem to have the same innate knack for creating (yes, they do write their own songs) almost instantly memorable hooks and grooves, and they come up with some really fun riffs for many of their songs (i.e. "Zardo Zap", "The Wiggles World"). For their target audience, they offer quite a wide range of rock, pop, folk and other styles. Who else is doing such a great variety of quality music for 2 and 3 year-olds?? I don't know if the band arranges all of their own music, but the arrangements are often terrific. The piano and trumpet of "Captain Feathersword Fell Asleep" is really well built-up, the lush arrangement on "Food Food Food" is quite beautiful, and they have some interesting guitar tones on songs like "Henry's Underwater Big Band". They even have some quite involved instrumentals, like "Officer Beaple's Dance" and "Let's Have a Ceili".

Some of their stuff is hit or miss, and it seems that the songs for some of their albums and videos were kind of 'cranked out', but some of their collections are really solid. I would recommend their Toot Toot or Wiggle Time videos as good examples of The Wiggles' best music and the different styles and arrangements they offer. I've also heard good things about their live concerts, which particularly feature the comedic and vocal talents of Paul Paddick (aka Captain Feathersword).

Here's a suggestion for the Wiggles dissers out there... Try imagining their songs with something else in place of the lyrics for songs like "Hot Potato" and "Captain Feathersword Fell Asleep", and tell me those wouldn't be considered the best of the best in kids' music songs. If Ralph or Justin or Trout Fishing had penned them with different lyrics and recorded them, everyone would be like, "Yeah, that's cool." The Wiggles have many great songs in that same sense. You just have to get past, or get used to, their ever-branding lyrics. And even the branding lyrics I can appreciate more than I used to... They've created a unique world for their very young audience, so why shouldn't they perpetuate that? And I have to remember that they are clearly not targeting kids older than about five, so I can't expect lyrics that are too difficult for most younger kids to pick up.

There's certainly no need for me to defend The Wiggles... They seem to be doing fairly well on their own (ahem). This is more of a call out to my colleagues to lay off of them. What sense would it have been for peers of The Beatles in the 60's to publically diss them because of their popularity? Yes, I know, some of you think The Wiggles don't have any actual talent, and therefore don't deserve their popularity, but I suggest you reconsider that and give them a fair listen, especially before announcing that to the world. It sure doesn't hurt them any, but it doesn't reflect well on you to say that and gives you a heck of a standard to have to match. Are you really so much cooler and better than The Wiggles? There are several million preschoolers the world over (and at least one 37 year-old) who you'll have to convince.

The Wiggles website

My thoughts on the departure of Greg Page from The Wiggles...

Reviews of the Getting Strong and Wiggly Wiggly World

John Lithgow

Yes, John Lithgow of stage, screen and TV screen is also a terrific children's music entertainer. He has released three kids' music albums; Farkle and Friends, Singin' in the Bathtub and the brand new The Sunny Side of the Street. I've heard and enjoyed some of Farkle and Friends but I'm most familiar with Singin' in the Bathtub, so I'll focus on that for this feature.

Singin' in the Bathtub is definitely one of my favorite albums of recent years, kids' music or otherwise. All but one of the songs on Bathtub are reworkings of older songs (Farkle includes more Lithgow originals), some of which were meant as kids' songs, and some which weren't but work well enough for that audience with Lithgow's performances.

The thing that seperates Lithgow's renditions from the many others who have covered some of the same material isn't so much the beautifully souped up big band and orchestral arrangements by Bill Elliott (though those are fantastic), but moreso the delivery of Lithgow. Often over-the-top in the best way, sometimes artfully reserved, and always entertaining to the kid inside me. Every now and again you'll run across an adult who seems to have a low tolerance for cartoonish voices, but a lot of kids love them. Lithgow's voice is definitely cartoonish at times on Bathtub, though always with character, which is probably an important distinction to make. His delivery of both the singing parts and animal sounds in "I Had a Rooster" is right up the alley of every giggle-prone preschool kid I've ever played for. He also has an effortlessly fun way with wordplay songs like "I'm a Gnu", "From the Indies to the Andies in His Undies" and "The Hippopotamus Song". His version of "Swingin' on a Star" may be my favorite of any I've heard, with extra points to Bill and the band for some hot playing on that one. Other highlights include the parody "You Gotta Have Skin", the amusingly twangy "Big Kids" (the one Lithgow original on Bathtub) and the gorgeous "Inchworm".

It's funny how my perception of John Lithgow changed so abruptly several years ago... I had seen him in a few films, usually either as the villain (Raising Cain, Cliffhanger) or as an offbeat crazy person (The Twilight Zone). I remember being thrown off by the initial promos for 3rd Rock from the Sun, featuring him in a zany comedy role. I thought, what an odd casting choice. But of course, once I started watching and loving the show, it was obvious that over-the-top zany comedy was right up his alley all along, and now my first thought of him is in terms of crazy comedy, and not as a crazy villain. There is no doubt that John Lithgow is one of the most talented and versatile entertainers of all time. He brings such a fun spirit to his children's albums, and it's a unique pleasure to be entertained by him through his music. I'm really looking forward to hearing his new album and enjoying what else he comes up with for kids (of all ages) in the future.

John Lithgow website

I haven't had a chance lately to add anything here, but my touring season is about to wind down somewhat for the fall and winter, so look for new posts coming soon including features on John Lithgow (yup, he does kids' music), Eddie Coker and Schoolhouse Rock, and an article about some of my experiences making decisions about what things are acceptable for inclusion in my original kids' music.

Roger Day

I was thrilled recently to see that one of my favorite kids' music artists, Roger Day, would be performing out in Kent, WA, not too far from where I'd be that same morning in Seattle. I think I can count on one hand the number of other kids' music performers who I've actually seen perform live. It often seems that even when I'm performing the same day at the same event as someone else that I'd like to see, that there is some conflict as far as where I need to be the next day, or something I need to take care of, which necessitates leaving too early to catch them. But this time it looked like it would work out. So I marked the calendar and got the directions ready for the park in Kent where Roger would be. As it turned out, though, I left from my show that morning later than expected, and we got caught in some nasty Seattle traffic (which was expected), and so we ended up missing the first half of Roger's show.

Regardless, what we saw was terrific. I had essentially seen Roger's show before from his live DVD, and I knew I would enjoy it, but I was particularly eager to have my girls see him as I knew they'd have a great time. They danced and sang and followed along with his many hand signals and had a lot of fun. I think Roger is one of the very best in this field, especially for the younger range of kids. His songs are instantly accessible and easy to learn and play along with (I defy anyone to listen to "Parachute Girl" and not have that refrain stuck in your head, in the best way), and he has a really strong and unique voice with a great delivery. He's also got a fun sense of humor, evident on songs like "Mosquito Burrito" and "Helicopter Harry". Though we missed some favorites of mine like "Mosquito Burrito" and "Open Up the Coconut", it was cool that we did catch two new songs from his upcoming CD. "Roly Poly" and "Elephunk" (or "Elefunk"... he's not sure yet how to spell it) are both fun songs in the great Roger Day vein. I thought we had missed his great rock anthem "Monster Face" but apparently he didn't perform it, having some difficulties with his wireless mic or something. So he had to play several songs with just guitar and a stage mic instead of with his supporting tracks, but it didn't matter, as he did just fine and kept everyone engaged throughout.

We had the chance to spend some time with Roger and his daughter Marjorie (the "Parachute Girl" herself) afterwards, and I really appreciated the opportunity to meet and talk with them for a while and share some of our experiences working in the kids' music field. If you have a chance to see a Roger Day show (or even just half a show), definitely make the effort. Or the next best thing, pick up his live DVD. And get ready to cook up some mosquito burritos... Yum!

Roger Day website












Review of Roger Day's Dream Big CD

Top 10 Best Things About Being a Kids' Music Artist

10. Endless supply of invisible and imaginary things to write songs about
9. At fairs and festivals, kids' performers get to cut to the front of the line for the bouncing castles
8. Kids don't really care if your vocals are a little 'pitchy'
7. Your supporting group of puppet characters isn't very likely to split up over 'creative differences'
6. You can say things in the studio like- "We need more reverb on that 'boing' sound!"
5. Sippy cups don't hurt very much if thrown onstage
4. When in doubt, you can always get a laugh with the word "doody"
3. There is less to fear about obsessive fans when they are only five years old
2. Kids' lower center of gravity provides better support when crowd surfing

And the #1 thing about being a kids' music artist is...

1. Audience members rarely come up and yell "Free Bird!"


Note: #4 comes from this article by Steve Charney at the Children's Music Portal.

How I got into kids' music... in more ways than one.

Life is full of many possible paths. It seems that a lot of people who currently do kids' music full-time didn't start off doing that at all, including Ralph's World, Dan Zanes and Justin Roberts. In fact, I wonder how many notable kids' music artists there are, if any, who chose right from the start to make that their focus. (??) I certainly never thought I'd be doing kids' music full-time, but I'm very happy it's turned out that way. Here's how it happened for me...

My background musically was playing for several years in bands on the Western New York music scene, most notably with Ember, a progressive rock 'n' roll trio (I preferred that term to 'progressive rock' because although we had the chops of prog bands like Rush and King Crimson we used them within more accessible rock 'n' roll songs that were more like The Who), and The Infydels, a very popular jam rock band (Dead, Phish, Allmans, etc.). Both bands had some success in the area and might have gone further but for the usual dysfunctional traits that tend to destroy most bands. I was just a temporary replacement in The Infydels for several months during some down time from Ember, and that band had several members, so I can't really be blamed for any of their dysfunction, but I was certainly a significant part of the Ember dysfunction. We were encouraged to tour more out of the Buffalo area, and we had some interest from labels including Polydor and some national press in magazines like Relix. But we never followed up on our opportunities for various reasons. It was disappointing when we finally split up, especially as I think our second CD would have been a killer within the genre, but in retrospect I was glad for a change. I ended up doing solo acoustic work and became a fixture on the regional acoustic scene for several years, sometimes performing with my friend Sideshow Jim in a "Simon and Garfunkel meets Weird Al" kind of act, and then after getting married in 2000 performing a lot as a duo with my wife Roseann singing harmonies.

But the coffeeshop scene kind of wore on after a while and I felt in a rut. I had been doing some live theater here and there on the side and ended up co-producing a musical I had written about my customer service day job. The show run ended up being very successful and very well received and it was a great experience to be a part of, but although there was interest to continue working on the show to have it produced elsewhere, and although I had already written most of another musical, I just didn't feel the energy or impetus to get behind that kind of thing again by the time the production was over.

In the meantime, while the musical production was getting underway, there were a few different and completely unrelated plugs by people encouraging me to do music for kids. One was my brother-in-law, who is a gym teacher at an elementary school. He had seen several acts come in to do assemblies and said something to the effect that I could do that as well and probably make a decent living at it. There were also people at some of my coffeeshop shows who would bring their kids along, and they noticed that even though I typically wasn't playing anything kid-related (a mix of original singer/songwriter material and various covers), when kids were in the crowd I felt compelled to try to keep them entertained as well, performing something that I happened to know that they might appreciate (The Peanuts theme, "If I Only Had a Brain", "Scooby Doo", etc.). They noticed how well the kids responded and some commented that I should do some performing particularly for kids.

It was also around that time my wife and I came across... quite by accident... the website of children's music performer Eddie Coker (he'll be featured here soon) and noticed that he seemed to have an interesting kind of job. We ended up calling him and he graciously talked to us for quite a while about his life and work, and he encouraged me to consider doing it myself.

Being someone who has always believed in the phenomenon of 'synchronicity' (and a fan of both Police songs by that name), I took this convergent encouragement about performing for kids as a sign that I should look into the idea. It didn't hurt that my wife Roseann had expressed an interest in working on creative projects for kids when we had first met. She hadn't really pressed me to do anything like that since, always being supportive of whatever I was working on, but once I expressed a possible interest in doing kids' music she was all for that.

So we decided to give it a try, and it was at this time that I did my heretofore mentioned Buffalo library kids' music CD and video search. I really had no idea what anyone was doing in terms of kids' music and never really listened to "kids' music" as a kid, other than the odd thing like Schoolhouse Rock (also to be featured here soon), and so it was enlightening to see and hear so many different things within the genre and to sort of 'discover' kids' music for the first time (as a 33 year old!). Of course, in the last few years with the "kindie rock explosion" there have been even more different things represented (some of which I hope to catch up with here eventually), but even waaaaay back in 2002 there was quite a diversity of kids' music available.

The coolest thing was to realize that I didn't necessarily have to play xylophones and write sing-songy nursery rhyme tunes... I could do just about whatever I wanted musically, within reason, as long as the lyrics either reflected or spoke to a kid's sensibility. In fact, this was particularly exciting for me because it meant that I could really explore a very wide range of musical approaches and sounds and styles and they could all equally co-exist on the same album and fit within the overreaching genre of "children's music". In the past, it was sometimes hard to have too many songs with divergent approaches on the same album and still label the package in a succinct way to work as "singer/songwriter" or "progressive rock" or whatever.

From everything I heard and liked, I learned a basic set list of kids' songs, and Roseann and I accidentally wrote "The Elephant Song" (the 'accidentally' of that is explained here), and decided to see how a little concert for kids might work out. I scheduled a Saturday afternoon at one of the coffeeshops where I regularly played and invited a few friends and family to bring their kids. There ended up being about a dozen kids there, ranging from about 2-10 in age. I played through my set list and it generally went very well. I instantly felt what a joy it is to entertain an audience of children and what a great audience they could be (something I'm going to elaborate on in a future post). And I also learned some important things right away, mainly that you have to keep kids engaged and involved at every turn. I only had a few songs that weren't participatory in some way, but by the end of some of those songs I had essentially lost the kids' attention. The most pleasant surprise was how much they liked "The Elephant Song". I honestly had no idea when we created that whether kids would like it and play along with it or whether they would just think I was an idiot. But they really responded well to that, and we didn't even realize the extent of that until I tried it again at a day care where a much larger group of kids went absolutely berserk during that song.

So for the next few months I played at more day cares and I did a school assembly, which was another great learning experience, and we worked on more songs for an album, The Kid in the Mirror, which came out in November of 2003. Again, I wasn't sure what the reaction would be to the album. I thought some kids might like some songs and some others, and that parents might tolerate it okay, but I didn't know if it would really work as an album. Thankfully, the reaction was incredibly positive. There were some standout favorites, including "The Elephant Song" and "There's a Monster in My House", but many people told me that their kids were playing the whole album from start to finish over and over again and knew every song by heart. And the parents said that they were so glad to have something that they didn't mind listening to along with their kids. The album quickly became a better seller than any of the other CDs I had been a part of and I thought, hmmm, maybe I should keep doing this kids' music thing. :o)

At this point, I have to acknowledge the enormous contribution of my wife, Roseann, to my current career choice. How many struggling musicians' wives would encourage them to quit their full-time day job... you know, with the regular paycheck, medical benefits, 401K... and pursue music full-time? She believed in me more than I did in myself and that was a tremendous buoy to my spirit at the time when we made that decision in 2004. And she was right... I'm much happier doing this than I was pushing paperwork around at my last job, and though it's been a tremendous amount of work we're now making more than I did at that last job, which is really cool. It definitely helps that Roseann is a great support to what I do in many respects, having a background in early childhood development, television and stage production, experience working alongside professional musical acts, and a great overall artistic ear and eye. We love each other very much and really enjoy working together and travelling together with our family, which certainly makes it all so much better.

Another thing that helped me to quit the old day job and follow my wife's encouragement to make kids' music my career was reading the following quote by Mark Twain: "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." I'm not usually so swayed by 'motivational quotes', but that one hit me at just the right time and I really felt the spirit of it inspire me. And the fact that the coffeeshop that I was still playing at most regularly was called The Comfort Zone wasn't lost on me in that moment. I knew I had to leave my comfort zone and throw off the bowlines if I wanted to be happier and more successful in my life. It wasn't that I was unhappy, by any means... I had the best job I had ever had up to that point and a wonderful wife and baby daughter, and I really enjoyed the different music and theatre projects I'd been able to be involved with... but in an overreaching sense I felt very unfulfilled, particularly to be spending 8-10 hours every day not working on music in some way. And I think most people who make music for a living know that it is next to impossible to get that train rolling while also riding another train full-time.

What I've produced and how I perform for kids has changed somewhat since those early days, and I may elaborate more on how and why those changes came about in future posts, but that was how it all started for me. I'm exploring, dreaming and discovering like never before, and I'm very glad that things fell into place the way they did and that I listened and followed up with the encouragement I was getting to pursue this path. Sing it, Sting- "With one breath, with one flow, you will know... synchronicity."

Sesame Street

I've actually seen Sesame Street listed in some articles by people complaining about certain kids' music that they find trite or annoying, and I'm always baffled by that. To me, Sesame Street is some of the coolest kids' music. I used to watch the show when I was little, and I don't remember it much from then, but I've now rediscovered its brilliance through watching the show with my two daughters.

Musically, the Sesame Street songs (mostly by Joe Raposo and Jeff Moss) are of a musical theatre nature, but in the very best sense of being hummable, humorous and mostly upbeat. If you watch the show day in and day out, there might be some blah songs here and there, but many of them are great, and if you watch or listen to a "best of" collection with Sesame Street songs it's a truly incredible list of memorable tunes; "C is for Cookie", "Sing" (made more famous by the Carpenters, but it was a Sesame Street original), "Rubber Duckie", "Doin' the Pigeon", "I Love Trash", "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon", "Monster in the Mirror", "Put Down the Duckie", "What's the Name of that Song", "I Dance Myself to Sleep", "It Ain't Easy Bein' Green" and of course the theme song itself. And yes, I even love "Elmo's Song", which is a very funny gimmick put into a very catchy song. There are also many clever "style parodies" and direct parodies on Sesame Street, including "Can You Count it Higher" and "Telly's Lunch". There are also many great musical moments on the show with guest stars like Andrea Bocelli, Paul Simon, James Taylor, B.B. King, etc.

So if you're somehow writing off Sesame Street as annoying kids' music, but haven't seen it in a while and think their musical output equals Elmo's daily "Jingle Bells" rephrasings (which are kind of annoying), I suggest you give it another chance. Watch the 25th anniversary special, which includes a lot of the above songs, or pick up the box set, which includes those songs and a lot more. Very cool stuff, indeed, and still one of the best things going in kids' music.

Sesame Street website