Red Grammer | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Robert Crane Grammer [1] |
Born | East Orange, New Jersey, United States | November 28, 1952
Genres | Children's, folk |
Occupation(s) |
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Instrument(s) | Guitar |
Years active | 1981–present |
Labels |
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Spouse(s) | Kathy Willoughby |
Website | redgrammer |
Robert Crane "Red" Grammer (born November 28, 1952) [2] [3] is an American singer and songwriter.
The East Orange, New Jersey native started college as a pre-med student at Rutgers, but he transferred to Beloit College in Wisconsin, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in music in 1975. After several years of performing as a solo artist, he became a member of the folk group The Limeliters, replacing Glenn Yarborough. He was the guitar-playing lead tenor with the group from 1981 to 1988. [4]
Grammer is best known for his music for children, having recorded songs made up for his young sons. His songs teach human values including truthfulness, gratitude, integrity, kindness, and fairness. His album Be Bop Your Best was nominated in the 2005 Grammy Awards for Best Musical Album for Children. cELLAbration: A Tribute to Ella Jenkins, won a Grammy Award on which Red was a featured performer. [5]
Teaching Peace, named by the All Music Guide as “one of the top five children's recordings of all time”, was the recipient of a rare Parents' Choice Classic Award. [6] Though it did not win any awards the year it was released, it is now considered one of Grammer's best albums. [7]
Other albums for children include: "Circle of Light: Songs for Bucket Fillers", Hello World, Down the Do-Re-Mi, Can You Sound Just Like Me? and "Red Grammer's Favorite Sing-along Songs." Albums for adults are Soul Man in a Techno World and Free Falling.
Grammer has performed in every state in the U.S. as well as in 22 other countries around the world, including China, Russia, Ukraine, and Israel.
He is often a keynote speaker and performer at national and regional educational conferences in the United States and Canada.
Grammer is a member of the Baháʼí Faith.
He met his first wife, Kathy, when they were students at Beloit College. They have two children, including pop singer Andy Grammer.
Melissa Lou Etheridge is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and guitarist. Her eponymous debut album was released in 1988 and became an underground success. It peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard 200 and its lead single, "Bring Me Some Water", garnered Etheridge her first Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female in 1989. Her second album, Brave and Crazy, appeared that same year and earned Etheridge two more Grammy nominations. In 1992, Etheridge released her third album, Never Enough, and its lead single, "Ain't It Heavy", won Etheridge her first Grammy Award.
David Nesta "Ziggy" Marley is a Jamaican reggae musician. He is the son of reggae icon Bob Marley and Rita Marley. He led the family band Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers until 2002, with whom he released eight studio albums. After the disbandment, Ziggy launched a successful solo career, releasing eight solo studio albums on his own label, Tuff Gong Worldwide. Ziggy continues his father’s practice of recording and self-releasing all of his music. Marley is an eight-time Grammy Award winner and a Daytime Emmy Award recipient.
Alex Hassilev was an American folk musician who was one of the founding members of the group The Limeliters. Educated at Harvard and the University of Chicago, he was also an actor with a number of film and television appearances to his credit. As a musician he played the guitar and the banjo and was fluent in several languages. After retiring from the Limeliters, Hassilev remained active in the field of record production.
Children's music or kids' music is music composed and performed for children. In European-influenced contexts this means music, usually songs, written specifically for a juvenile audience. The composers are usually adults. Children's music has historically held both entertainment and educational functions. Children's music is often designed to provide an entertaining means of teaching children about their culture, other cultures, good behavior, facts and skills. Many are folk songs, but there is a whole genre of educational music that has become increasingly popular.
Glenn Robertson Yarbrough was an American folk singer and guitarist. He was the lead singer (tenor) with the Limeliters from 1959 to 1963 and also had a prolific solo career. Yarbrough had a restlessness and dissatisfaction with the music industry which led him to question his priorities, later focusing on sailing and the setting up of a school for orphans.
The Limeliters are an American folk music group, formed in July 1959 by Lou Gottlieb, Alex Hassilev (banjo/baritone), and Glenn Yarbrough (guitar/tenor). The group was active from 1959 until 1965, and then after a hiatus of sixteen years, Yarbrough, Hassilev, and Gottlieb reunited and began performing again as The Limeliters in reunion tours. On a regular basis a continuation of The Limeliters group is still active and performing. Gottlieb died in 1996, Yarbrough died in 2016, and Hassilev died in 2024, the last founding member, who had remained active in the group, retired in 2006, leaving the group to carry on without any of the original members.
Bill Harley is an American children's entertainer, musician, and author who has been called "the Mark Twain of contemporary children's music" by Entertainment Weekly. He uses a range of musical styles, and his audience includes both children and adults. Harley began singing and storytelling in 1975 while still a student at Hamilton College. Much of his material is autobiographical, focusing on vignettes from childhood.
Justin Roberts is an American singer-songwriter of children's music. He performs with the Not Ready for Naptime Players. In 2010, his album Jungle Gym was nominated in the "Best Musical Album for Children" category for the 53rd Grammy Awards, Recess was nominated in the same Grammy category in 2013, for the 56th Grammy Awards, and "Lemonade" was nominated in 2017 for the 60th Grammy Awards. Justin Roberts released a Greatest Hits album in August 2016, and his new album of acoustic original songs, featuring guest Robbie Fulks, was released in October 2016.
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Beethoven's Wig is an American vocal group that sings lyrics written to classical music. Created by lyricist, lead singer and producer Richard Perlmutter, the group has been a featured performer with numerous symphony orchestras. Beethoven's Wig has recorded five albums.
Jonathan Sprout is an American songwriter, performer and recording artist from Pennsylvania, US. He has released twelve albums, many of which feature children's music. Sprout has performed more than 6,500 concerts and taught more than 800 songwriting workshops throughout the United States. In 1994, Sprout began a 20-year stint researching, writing, and recording songs about American heroes. This resulted in four albums that received 26 national awards including a Grammy nomination in the Best Children’s Album category. In 2010 his ninth album, American Heroes #3, was nominated for a Grammy Award in the "Best Music for Children" category.
"Morningtown Ride" is a lullaby, written and performed by Malvina Reynolds. It was covered by The Seekers and their recording reached No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart. The song tells the comforting story of the journey through nighttime made by all the "little travellers" (children), on board a train, with the Sandman as guard.
Thaddis Laphonia "Kuk" Harrell is an American songwriter, vocal producer, arranger and engineer. He was a member of a songwriting–production team composed of himself, Christopher "Tricky" Stewart and Terius "The-Dream" Nash. In 2011, Kuk Harrell and partner Tricky Stewart joined the ranks of Fox's American Idol along with music mogul Jimmy Iovine, producing many of the songs performed on television by the contestants and released via iTunes. 2011 marked the highly anticipated return of Jennifer Lopez and her album LOVE? in which Kuk served as Album Vocal Producer. Earning his fourth Grammy for the vocal production of Rihanna's No. 1 Billboard Single "Only Girl ", Harrell is also the vocal producer and co-writer of Rihanna's Grammy-winning single "Umbrella". A composer and engineer on Beyoncé's chart topping "Single Ladies " from the album I Am... Sasha Fierce, he is also vocal producer and engineer of the Diane Warren-penned "I Was Here" from Beyoncé's 2011 album 4. He also produced the majority of the vocals on Mary J. Blige's Platinum album Growing Pains, which won the 2008 Grammy for Best Contemporary R&B Album. The first single from Growing Pains, "Just Fine", earned a Grammy nomination for best R&B vocal performance in 2007.
Lonnie "Meganut" Marshall is an American bass player, singer, and songwriter from South Central Los Angeles. He is best known as the frontman and founder of Weapon of Choice, and is the inventor of the Nutmeg Potty Plunger.
Good News is a studio album by American country artist, Kathy Mattea. It was released on September 21, 1993, via Mercury Records and the PolyGram label. It was the eighth studio album of Mattea's career and her first collection of Christmas music. The project featured mostly new recordings that embedded gospel music sounds. Good News made the American country albums chart in 1993 and received an accolade from the Grammy Awards in 1994. Critics and writers remarked positively of the album and highlighted its uniqueness as compared to other Christmas album projects.
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