Bradley Weaver (songs written for kids but happily tolerated by adults!)
-As most of you know, I've been a songwriter for a long, long time. Up until last year, I'd written exclusively for an adult audience. Here is the story of my foray into writing music for children & their families.
thanks, bradley
In the fall of 2007, I decided to write a few songs for my niece Shirley's 2nd birthday. I had written many songs, to this point, but had never attempted to write songs for children, so I wasn't sure how I would fair. I finished 3 songs, before her birthday arrived, & I presented her a cd of guitar/vocal recordings of the songs.
Shirley's (& her parents) reaction was positive enough that I decided to write another batch of songs. By the holidays, I had finished 5 more songs. I made guitar/vocal recordings of the 5 new songs in addition to 2 favorites from my own childhood (a long, long time ago).
Throughout 2008, encouraged by Shirley's parents & all four of her grandparents, I added more instrumentation to each track. I played most of the instruments myself, but recruited my twin brother Brandon (Shirley's father) to play banjo on several of the songs. I then begged my wife Shannon to sing with me on 'There's a Hole in the Bucket' (another childhood favorite) & the album was complete.