Flossmoor Public Library. (Photo by Annie Lawrence/
HF Chronicle)
It was a rock club for kids who danced, giggled and rolled during a performance of Ralph’s World at the Flossmoor Public Library presented by Ralph Covert, an indie-rock musician who has found a special niche in children’s music.
The singer-songwriter played to a large audience of around 100 children and their parents on Wednesday, April 29. The act involved a lot of audience participation from the children and one song got eight parents to come to the front and join in. The crowd was in constant motion with Covert throughout the hour-long set.
“I couldn’t believe those kids were moving from the moment you started,” said Linda Caplan, the library’s youth services assistant.
Covert began playing children’s music in the mid-1990s at the Old Town School of Folk Music. He found that all of the kids’ music he had heard in the past was “dumbed down.” It was his his manager who approached him to record a kids’ album. Covert told him: “I would only be interested in making a great kids album.” Covert said he approached the writing of his first kids’ album the same way he approached his indie rock albums.
Ralph’s World began playing in rock clubs during the daytime before the adult acts came in. Fans of Covert’s adult band, “The Bad Examples,” brought their children to the Ralph’s World shows providing a built-in fan base and, he said, his children’s musician career “took off from there.” He and his band mates Tom O’Brien, Brian Sheridan, Michael Alban and Bean Weng have made multiple television appearances and have a pilot for “Ralph’s World: Time Machine Guitar” which can be purchased on DVD. The newest Ralph’s World album will be released in July.
If you missed Covert’s Flossmoor program, families can enjoy Ralph’s World from noon to 2 p.m. on Friday, June 12, at the Homewood Art and Garden Street Fair on Hickory Road between Dixie and Harwood in downtown Homewood.
