Ralph's World --led by Chicago singer/songwriter Ralph Covert -- is a great quasi-indie "kids" band that plays music the whole family can groove to...no crappy drum-tracks with goopy synthesizers and whiny kids voices singing in the background here. There are samples of most of his tracks at:

http://ralphsworld.com/music.htm

Check it out, unless you though "Elmos's Dance Party" was the best thing to hit your CD player since you had a kid... :-)

- Andy

Snap, crackle, sellout?

By Mark Caro
Tribune entertainment reporter
Published March 11, 2007

It's time for another installment of "Is this a sellout?"

Ralph's World, the kids' music act fronted by Chicago singer-songwriter Ralph Covert, was playing last weekend at a full House of Blues downtown.

Covert (of the '90s band The Bad Examples) is an especially facile songwriter, and his talents match up quite well with creating kids' music. His songs are catchy enough to enrapture the little ones and un-wimpy enough to keep the adults from flinging the discs across the room upon the 100th repetition.

The House of Blues gig was part of a national tour being presented by the club chain and the concert-promoting monolith Live Nation. The show was sponsored by Rice Krispies cereal, and a large sign beside the stage read "Rice Krispies presents Ralph's World." The band's name was smaller than the cereal's.

That's not really the issue.

What got me was that oversize, costumed versions of the cereal's mascots - Snap, Crackle and Pop - not only were mingling among the kids in the lobby before the show, but they actually joined Ralph's World onstage toward the end of the set. As the three rather tall elves shimmied and bopped, the band played some song that had Ralph singing the words "snap, crackle and pop" repeatedly.

The mascots remained onstage for the following non-cereal-related song, and then Ralph led the crowd in waving bye-bye to them as they exited.

I'm trying to picture such a scene at an adult concert: Bruce Springsteen brings the Burger King on stage, sings an ode to a Whopper and then lets the freaky bearded monarch hang out while the E Street Band tackles "Thunder Road."

OK, but this was a kids' concert, so the rules are different, right? I mean, advertisers target children in all sorts of heavy-handed, manipulative ways, so this is just par for the course, right? And that makes it OK, right?

You tell me: Is this a sellout?

that's "common"

I don't know very much about his music, but Ralph--based on watching a few of his videos--has always struck me as, let's just say, odd. Maybe it's the blank stare, or how he delivers the lyrics in the same emotional monotone. Also, he's just plain creepy. Sure, Dan Zanes has his own (lack of?) style, but he's not creepy.

...Ralph and I, at least we used to be. Back in '01-'02, a few years before I even had my first kid, I actually ran sound for many of "Ralph's World" original shows. All at Old Town School of Folk Music, which is where he could be found for many years, teaching song-writing, and doing the wiggleworms thing - he was quite popular ;). As for his shows, (many times it was him solo), they were fabulous. When Zach was born in '04, we, mostly my wife and I, really started getting into his music. I would suggest to all parents, the first two albums, of the six that he put out before the whole Disney thing, "Ralph's World", and "At the Bottom of the Sea". From what I understand they're now out of print, but not impossible to find. After Disney, a sort of "Best Of" from the original six was put out, and now an album of new material, "Rhyming Circus". I haven't seen him personally since his last show at Old Town school, probably close to two years now, but from time to time I'll catch him on the tube with my kids... and honestly, yes, it freaks me out seeing him where he is today. I know he's put in a ton of work in order to get there, but in doing so, he has also had to make sacrifices, both in life and on the stage. Irregardless, to me, he'll always be special ;).
Alby1 - Chicago, IL

I've never heard of Ralph's World, and after a 20-second glance at a video on his site, I don't care to know any more. He looks like a young Todd Rundgren, and if his live show consists of dancing around with cereal mascots I'll definitely pass. I know a lot of kids music is probably sappier than his stuff, but I really just don't like anything that's directed toward kids. Dan Zanes is OK, but my son never got into it, or much of any other kids music.

My daughter just turned 1 and who knows what she'll be into, but I'm gonna do my best to just do what I've been doing, find music made my "normal" people that's good for kids, rather than stuff made by "kids artists" that's cloying or too clever or simply annoying.

Dave, full-time child roadie for Owen and Amelia
www.davebrigham.com