Canadian Musician - November/December 2018 | Page 38

Creating
For
Kids!
THE APPEAL OF MAKING
CHILDREN’S MUSIC
By Ryan Granville-Martin
W
hen I arrived at the Hillside
Festival outside of Guelph,
ON, via the makeshift ferry
that takes performers from
the mainland to the artist
arrival dock, I was met by
an enthusiastic volunteer who had a story
to tell. I asked how her festival had been
going so far. She listed with bright eyes all
the CanCon stars and indie rock legends-
in-the-making with whom she had been
interacting throughout the weekend. But it
wasn’t until she saw Fred Penner stepping
past the weeds by the ferry that she real-
ized what star-struck felt like.
All the hipster, indie-coolness at the
festival in 2015 was no match for the musi-
cal voice of her childhood – and make no
mistake about it, Fred Penner’s cool was
very real that afternoon when he included
38 • C A N A D I A N M U S I C I A N
a mashup in his set of his ubiquitous staple
“The Cat Came Back” and k-os’ “Crabbuck-
it” – two songs that share the same iconic
bass line.
Well, of course everyone knows Fred
Penner. But how about Joe Raposo or Jeff
Moss? No? Do “Rubber Duckie,” “I Love
Trash,” “C Is for Cookie,” and “It’s Not Easy
Bein’ Green” ring any bells? Or the Sesame
Street theme song, perhaps?
If a hit is defined by its universal
recognition, then children’s songwriters
must be included amongst the greatest
songwriters of all time. As long as we keep
having kids, children’s performers like Pen-
ner will continue to thrive and new ones
will continue to emerge. But as a boon
to this shorter-in-stature demographic,
the children’s entertainment industry has
seen an increasing number of traditionally
adult-oriented artists branching into the
genre as an additional component of their
livelihoods.
Over a few hot days in August, I decid-
ed to talk to three such Canadian musicians
whose childish ways are beginning to pay
dividends.
IN A CIRCLE
Canadian pop-rock troubadour Jeremy
Fisher is now a kindie artist. For the uniniti-
ated, the term kindie rock has existed since
the early-to-mid aughts and describes
those artists who combine singer-song-
writer, indie-rock, and modern music sensi-
bilities with themes and imagery aimed at
children under 10. They create music that is
consciously intended to entertain both the
kids and their parents alike (or at the very
least not to drive the latter to drink). The