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In 1994, like so many socially awkward nine-years-old boys, I discovered “Weird Al” Yankovic. My older brother and his friends had performed “Bedrock Anthem”—a Red Hot Chilli Peppers parody about The Flintstones—at our school’s air band competition (which, incidentally, they won). Somehow in the process a CD copy of Alapalooza ended up in our house. I listened to it front to back and followed along with the tiny lyrics in the booklet. It was a revelation; this guy gets me, I

[By Christopher Eckart, from the Summer 2026 issue] A song of sorrow; a list of things lost; a lament sung by a child. “Shake Sugaree” is all these things in the form of a compelling folk song written by Elizabeth Cotten and sung by her great-grandaughter Brenda Evans in a 1967 recording. Elizabeth Cotten is perhaps more known for the song “Freight Train” which she composed in her early teens. I first learned it in 2018 (over 100 years after it was written) as a beginning f

[ By Christopher Eckart, from the Spring 2026 issue ] “Robin in the rain, such a saucy fellow...” The voice of Raffi first brought this image of a plucky, happy bird enjoying wet weather to my imagination. He recorded ``Robin in the Rain" in 1976 with Bob and Dan Lanois and Bob Doidge, not at the legendary Grant Avenue Studios in downtown Hamilton, but in the basement of the Lanois family home in neighbouring Ancaster, Ontario. While Raffi and his production team brought this

[ By Christopher Eckart, from the Winter 2025/2026 issue ] 1995. I had just finished recording something (probably an intense minor-key world-weary folk song) in the studio in my neighbour’s house. The hourly rate was cheap and the engineer Michael J. Birthelmer was generous with his time and also his stories. On that night, he told me the story about the first time he heard Randy Newman on the radio. I listened politely, and just when I thought we’d get to the CD-burning sta

Bram’s "Candy Man, Salty Dog" is a masterpiece of performance, even more so in his vocals than in his expert and effortless guitar playing. He delivers what I think is essential to the best children’s music—humour, play, imagination and interaction.

[ From the Spring 2026 Issue ] Children’s Music is weird. While virtually all other genres are defined by instruments, techniques and cultural associations, Children’s Music isn’t. How would you define it? Often (but not always) it features an acoustic guitar and/or a ukulele. Often (but not always) its melodies, lyrics, structures and arrangements are simple. Often (but not always) it teaches a lesson or moral. Often (but not always) it pulls from a canon of folk songs, scho

[From the Winter 2025 issue] We've all been there. You meet someone at a party. You let slip that you’re a musician. Their ears perk up as they picture you rocking Massey Hall. You're suddenly cool. They press for details. You add the qualifier: “Children’s.” “Ah,” they deflate. It's not that they don't think you’re cool; thanks to Golden Age nostalgia and universally beloved Freds (Rogers and Penner) and their universally beloved sweaters, Children’s Music still has some cul

[From the Fall 2025 issue] I joined an indie rock band when I was 15. For a decade, I made music for people who were about the same age as me. Then, at 25, I switched to almost exclusively making music for children. Many of you could tell a similar story. Why? I’ve thought a lot about this over the years: Why Children's Music? It could be a pragmatic choice for a musician to pivot to young listeners. Local events always need children’s entertainers, so the demand is ever pres

[From the August 2025 issue] Children’s Music was born in Canada. Folks have been making music for kids for centuries, and singular artists like Ella Jenkins, Pete Seeger and Allan Mills made important early contributions. But as a cohesive genre with a dedicated community of artists, it began in Canada and then reverberated around the world. The late-1970s and 1980s can be considered the Golden Age in Canadian Children’s Music. In 1976, Raffi released his Singable Songs for