Ralph's World Interview
Ralph Covert's Rock 'n' Roll Children's Music Entertains Families.
Oct 8, 2008
No-Repeat Thursday didn’t exist on a radio station in 8-year-old Ralph Covert’s head. Listeners heard Covert originals like Old Man Dan, Old Man Dan remixed and, by popular request, Old Man Dan.
“I used to sing (Old Man Dan) constantly in the car until my parents would tell me to please be quiet,” says Covert, now in his 40s. “Then I’d sing it under my breath.”
Through Ralph’s World – Covert’s family-friendly rock ‘n’ roll project – Covert now can belt out Old Man Dan and dozens of originals with abandon – often with screaming kids’ help.
Big Bang of Songwriting Creates Ralph’s World
Before Ralph’s World, the Chicago musician was known for fronting the Bad Examples, one of the city’s premier power-pop groups in the late 1980s and 1990s.
After the birth of his daughter, Fiona, Covert voluntarily taught classes for parents and toddlers at Chicago’s not-for-profit Old Town School of Folk Music.
“I got bored playing The Wheels on the Bus and every other traditional children’s song, so I worked in rock songs I knew like The Kids Are Alright,” Covert says. “But songwriting’s what makes me tick, and it was a pretty short leap from there to write songs to entertain myself and, incidentally, the parents and kids there with me.
“At no point in the writing process was I not willing to make it interesting for me. I think one of the mistakes people make when writing for kids is that they accidentally leave themselves out of the equation. If you write a kids’ song that’s not as great as the love song you wrote your girlfriend, it’s not a great song.”
Musically inspired by the Beatles, Elvis Costello and the Sex Pistols, Covert recorded Ralph’s World in 2001 for Mini Fresh (a division of Minty Fresh) and released five additional albums for that label.
Disney Takes Ralph’s World Global
Like those he sings for, Covert has gold stars of his own – a Grammy nomination for 2005’s Green Gorilla, Monster & Me and a Parents’ Choice Magazine gold award for The Rhyming Circus, his new-material debut for Disney.
Covert signed to Disney Sound in 2006, and The Rhyming Circus, released this year, includes rock, punk, oompah and even a sort-of Johnny Cash cover with Folsom Daycare Blues. (“I pushed a toddler over / Just to watch him fall.”)
He’s also co-adapting a children’s-book version of his song Me and My Animal Friends and co-writing a musical version of Hansel & Gretel. And, through Disney, Covert has recorded songs for music-based curriculum at a company-sponsored English as a Second Language school in China.
Covert Cranks It Up To 11 … or 5 1/2
Covert also cultivated a genuine rock-concert experience for kids that made Ralph’s World the first children’s act to headline House of Blues venues nationwide.
“It’s not Romper Room-soft by any means, but it’s loud like you might play your stereo loud for a song you really like,” says Covert, who will perform Sunday in West Lafayette, Ind. “The kids sing, dance and laugh. The parents have a riot. The best part is leaving at 3 p.m. instead of 3 a.m. “
Covert hopes Ralph’s World will do for other children what it did for Fiona – create diverse, selective musical tastes. (Now a 13-year-old musician, Fiona has co-written Ralph’s World songs and enjoys everything from Top 40 to musical theater.)
“A child exposed to good music grows up expecting and understanding good music, and not settling,” Covert says. “I think that kids who grow up with music have a deeper appreciation for it. They won’t suffer crap lightly.”
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