Peter Alsop‘s SONGS TO CHEW

   Today's 'Song To Chew', WHA'D'YA WANNA DO?, is about 'wanting to have fun with a buddy'.  As I listen to the lyrics more than 40 years after I wrote them, they're about being joyous.  That's mostly what kids wanna do, 'find support as we go through our lives joyously'.  Support makes it less scary to take risks, so when we take a risk, even if it doesn't work out, we learn that we can overcome...

    This week's 'Song To Chew' is THAT'S MY THANG! We get a "fire in our belly" about something that involves all our attention, often to the exclusion of everything else around us.  Our 'thang' is something we want to achieve, or simply a task we want to complete.  Our 'thang' isn't really 'work' because we enjoy doing it.  Many of us love the work we do.  Artists often work for little or no mone...

    Today we'll "chew on" the song, COVERS ON OUR HEARTS from our musical play "Pie In The Sky".  It takes place in a small town with a big nuclear reactor.  The kids in town want to get rid of it because there are so many health problems, but the grown-ups are slow to respond.  It's based on the Pied Piper fable, about a magical piper who's hired to rid the town of rats.  He leads them all out of...

    Our 'Song To Chew' today is WHILE I'M SLEEPING, written with Diane Gates.  She and Penny Pefley are pediatric nurses from Seattle Children's Hospital who encouraged me to write and record our 'In The Hospital' album.  I got my buddy Bill Harley to join us, and we won Parent's Choice 'Best Album'!  This song addresses difficulties we face with going to sleep, particularly when we're in a hospit...

    Our 'Song To Chew' today is UNDER THE RAINBOW.  Some might call it a 'woke' song, because it's full of hope.  There are some very mystifying things in this world.  I haven't got a clue about how they happen, so I don't rule out prayer, magic, supernatural religions, being "woke" or anything else that might help us all survive together!  I know that 'when someone holds a belief, we can't get th...

Today's 'Song To Chew' is NEVER SPEAK WITH YOUR MOUTH FULL!  It seems like a 'fun little song', but it opens doors to deeper topics like, 'Where do our rules come from?' and 'How do they become laws?'  Kids deal with 'grown-up rules' all the time.  We teach children rules, so they'll learn to be socially responsible adults; people who care about other people.  Adults who sing this song with their...

    Our 'Song To Chew' today is I'M A LITTLE COOKIE, written by Larry Penn. It reframes the concept of 'having a disability' for kids and grown-ups.  When a traumatic event happens, and something in us changes or 'breaks', we can feel like we're 'un-whole'!  It's true that as we change and grow and learn, difficult things do happen to us, but we're still fully human no matter what!  We may be 'dif...

Our SONG TO CHEW this week is PEACEFUL FEET, from my 'Grow It At Home' album.  I wrote it as part of a challenge sent out from Rounder Kids Records asking some of the best artists in children's and family music to create a one-minute song for an album called "HEAR AND GONE IN 60 SECONDS" It included my friends Bill Harley, Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer, Justin Roberts, Kim and Reggie Harris, Tom Paxto...

    This week's 'Song To Chew' is GNARLY DUDE.  'Gnarly' means 'twisted and knobby', but it's also slang for 'something unpleasant or unattractive', or for the opposite, 'something excellent or very good'.  To be a 'gnarly dude', we have to figure out how to be tough and cool at the same time! Sounds challenging! One of the unwritten lessons we learn in school is that we need to study the subject...

   This week's Song To Chew, 'HOME WHERE THE HEART IS', opens the musical stage play I wrote with Ellen Geer, “Pie In The Sky", which  ran as part of our 1987 theater season at the Theatricum Botanicum. It takes place in a small American town that has its own nuclear reactor. The kids of the town want to get rid of it because it's creating health problems, but the grown-ups are slow to respond.  I...

My SAMIT AND THE DRAGON song comes from our “In The Hospital" album, recorded with my buddy Bill Harley and the two pediatric nurses from Seattle Children's Hospital who instigated the whole project, Diane Gates and Penny Pefley.  We won the Best Children's Album of the Year Award from the National Assn of Independent Record Distributors in 1983!  Doctors and nurses in pediatric hospitals still us...

    Our SONG TO CHEW this week, is STRANGERS, from my 1992 child abuse prevention concert with KidPower and actor John Ritter.  Before people turn 18, one out of four of us will have been sexually abused.  Our feelings are like an early warning system.  If we feel uncomfortable about a situation, we need to listen to that little voice and get to safety!  Adult social interactions can be very confu...

    Our 'Song To Chew' this week is 'NO, NO, NO!'  Little kids like to say 'No!'.  We learn that from the adults around us!  "Can I have a puppy?" No!  "Can my friend come here to play?" No!  It's impossible to be a perfect parent.  I was spanked as a kid, but I never hit my kids, and they turned our pretty great.  With the world situation being what it is these days, I don't want to teach childre...

Today's 'Song To Chew', "IF YOU LOVE A HIPPOPOTAMUS" was written by Connie Kaldor, a wonderful Canadian singer-songwriter.  It brings up the delicate subject of our size and our behavior and our appearance. If we don't look or behave the way other people think we should, we can get excluded, and become overly-critical of ourselves.  We beat ourselves up for eating too much or exercising too little...

WHERE WILL I GO WHEN I'M DEAD AND GONE? is one of my more controversial songs.  Why write a song for kids about death and dying?  Because it's a subject no one wants to talk about!  Curiosity about death is completely human and understandable.  Kids need safe people to talk with about it; to ask questions and process some of the huge feelings that come up when we lose someone or something importan...

    This week's SONG TO CHEW is ASK AWAY from my “Grow It At Home" album!  The concept is simple!  'Ask others for help', but that can be difficult for some of us.  We don't want to impose or look weak or confused.  Some think it's gender-linked to men, as many men would rather drive around lost for hours instead of asking for directions, but we know this affects everyone.  When we ask for clear i...

Our SONG TO CHEW this week is US KIDS BRUSH OUR TEETH from my 'Stayin' Over' album.  A four-year-old doesn't brush their teeth just to get them clean!  That's what adults do!  Kids have a completely different agenda!  If we get upset with our kids for "not acting like adults", we miss the delight and playfulness of how our children brush their teeth.  It's called "appreciating diversity!"  They'll...

Our SONG TO CHEW this week, is a 'batch of songs'.  We'll listen to the IRISH SEATBELT JIG, APPLE JUICE, ME-ME-ME, and SPIN AROUND.  We'll 'chew on' how impactful these repetitive little children's songs can be!  This kind of song gets into our heads, like some of the commercial jingles and 'ear worms' we find ourselves humming or singing to ourselves, word-for-word, years later!  Unnoticed by us,...

    This week's 'Song To Chew' is I CRIED by Ruth Pelham from my 'Stayin' Over' album.  I first heard Holly Near sing this wonderful song, then I met the wonderful Ruth Pelham in person.  She's an educator, songwriter and performer and she's dedicated her life to helping children learn by using music.  Her school programs and songs blend her years of experience with her innovative approach to educ...

    Our 'Song To Chew' this week, PAT YOUR DADDY ON THE KNEE comes from my “Uh-Oh!" album.  When we scratch the surface of these 'family music' songs, we find important life-lessons for adults too.  Adults who don't have any kids tell me, they learn from 'chewin' on' these songs!  Life-lessons for little kids can help big grown-ups too! Everybody in the world has rough times when things happen tha...

   Our 'Song To Chew' this week, from my “Family Roles" album is THE NEWBORN, written by Rosita Perez.  Technically, it's a 'Poem To Chew' from her book, "THE MUSIC IS YOU: A Guide to Thinking Less and Feeling More".  I love this poem because it points out how the words 'belief' and 'faith' are different.  When someone chooses to hold a 'belief' in something, no matter what evidence or verifiable...

    This week's SONG TO CHEW is the title cut from my "Uh-Oh!" album, so of course it’s called 'UH-OH!'  Making messes is something all humans do from time to time.  Actually, when we make a mistake, it’s a great opportunity for us to practice forgiving ourselves!  When we can do that, it makes it easier for us to accept and forgive others around us who make mistakes.  When we practice loving and...

    This week our 'Song To Chew' comes from my “Pluggin' Away" album.  It’s called NO ONE'S NORMAL.  I wrote it because if you tell someone they're 'normal', they can get insulted by that!  But if you say they're 'abnormal', they don't like that either.  Maybe we should get rid of these 'label' words and stick to action words!  Tell me what someone does, not what category they fall into!  Everyone...

    Our 'Song To Chew' this week is the title cut from my TAKE ME WITH YOU album.  This song exemplifies the 'naughty child' themes that I find so appealing, and use so often in my family songs.  Kids are really smart.  They figure out what works best for them to get what they want from their parents.  When we're little, we have to depend on big folks around us to supply us with what we need!  Foo...

    This week our 'Song To Chew' is MY GUMS GROW TEETH from my ““Uh-Oh!" album.  One of the 'rites of passage' for all kids, is 'losing a tooth'!  I thought I'd write a song about that for my 'pre-schoolers' album, but then I realized, pre-schoolers aren't losing their teeth, they're growing them!  That's probably pretty scary, like, "How do my gums know what to do?  How come they don't get all mi...