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Listed below are some of the Canadian children's authors whose poems appear on my recordings. I'm very excited to be singing the work of these amazing writers to children in schools and libraries wherever I go! If you'd like to know more about Canada's most renowned children's poet, Dennis Lee, take a detour to www.alligatorpie.ca. Also, check out my CD, Alligator Ice Cream - Jelly Delight! (Fat Flea Music, 2002) - a tribute to Dennis' timeless and witty poetry. In Canada, the word 'storytelling' and the name Robert Munsch are synonymous. Two of Robert's humourous poems now appear as songs on my JUNO nominated CD, Gonna Keep Dancing (Fat Flea Music, 2007). You can find the lyrics for "Happy Vacation" and "Pets" on the poetry page at his website. Loris is not only an incredible and prolific poet, but an illustrator and presenter of pure excellence. Her poem "Dirty Dog Boogie" gave me such a chuckle when I discovered it that the music just couldn't help itself! You'll find it all dressed up and raring to go with sax, piano, guitar, bass, and drums on Gonna Keep Dancing! Jo Ellen, an award-winning children's author and biographer, is well known for her storybooks such as Gifts, Jeremiah Learns to Read, Malcolm's Runaway Soap & Sarah Saw a Blue Macaw. A little-known fact is that she is also a very prolific poet. My songwriting partnership with her has produced many songs in past years that have been a lot of fun to sing and play. Six of these songs made their recording debut on Gonna Keep Dancing. My upcoming CD, Sleepy Sky Lullaby contains three new pieces featuring Jo Ellen's lyrics. Around the time when I was first starting to dabble with poetry and song, a friend lent me a book called Jumbo Gumbo (now out of print). In that book I found one of my first poetry/song projects, a very clever (untitled) poem about forgetfulness written by Charles Wilkins (the author apparently forgot the title!) With a little help from the folks at Thunder Bay Public Library, I was able to get in touch with Charles. He told me about his book of poems titled Old Mrs. Schmatterbung and Other Friends (McClelland & Stewart, 1987) in which the above mentioned poem appeared. Upon seeing the book, I immediately fell head over heels in love with the title poem, "Old Mrs. Schmatterbung" and wrote a rockin' melody for it! It is featured on my CD, Gonna Keep Dancing, along with his untitled poem, which I've since called "Once Upon a Time". Check out Charles' latest book for adults, In the Land of Long Fingernails (Penguin, 2008).
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