If life had turned out differently, you might already know Paul Lippert’s name.
He was playing the guitar at age 8 and by his teens, Lippert was backing up a family musical group and performing his own songs at coffeehouses in his hometown of Cincinnati.
Dan Bates / The Herald
Edmonds recording artist Paul Lippert is surrounded by a talented family, (clockwise from upper left) wife Julie Beckman, and daughters Sophie, 17, Clara, 14, and Iris, 12.
His guitar teacher urged him to put off college and join a rock band.
His parents disapproved, so Lippert attended Harvard and studied sociology instead.
It was one of several crucial junctures in Lippert’s life when he could have plunged into music full time – but life got in the way. He started a family and later earned a doctorate.
“I went back and forth about whether I was a musician or something else connected to my academic interests and training,” he said.
At 45, Lippert, now living in Edmonds, may make it work this time.
He recently released his third children’s album, “Humpty Jumpty,” after committing himself to music full-time two years ago. “Humpty” earned a National Parenting Publication’s Gold Award. An adult album, “Life is Changing,” is planned for release in January.
Music was part of the daily fabric of Lippert’s young life, with impromptu family singalongs on car trips with his seven siblings and musically gifted parents.
When Lippert was in college, influential folk musician Geoff Bartley became a mentor, and Lippert played small venues in Cambridge. After graduation, he moved to Washington, D.C., and joined the rock band Eddie Current, which quickly fizzled when the lead vocalist went to jail.
He took a job at a think tank and later left it to pursue higher education and a career as a college professor, a job he thought would give him time to be a musician.
“I had this imagination that a college professor could do something beyond pursuing tenure,” he said.
“Humpty” is a blend of Lippert’s original work and familiar songs such as “Polly Wolly Doodle” and “All Around the Kitchen.”
He’s included traditional pieces from Liberia and Japan and one song “from a terrific contemporary” artist, a version of Bill Staines’ sweet ballad, “The Little Cowboy’s Lullaby.”
In the cover song, “Humpty Jumpty,” Lippert transforms the traditional nursery rhyme into an upbeat rock song – Humpty’s so busy dancing sometimes he falls or nearly loses control “flirting with the dangers of rock-n-roll.”
Lippert’s folk-rock style is bound to get kids’ feet moving. His lyrics are warm, approachable and fun, and if they seem a bit sweetly simple at times for an adult’s ear, it’s because he planned it that way.
The album is geared for preschool and elementary age children. He decided not to make the album as edgy, opting for something that would both nurture and stimulate young children. Fred Rogers is a hero to Lippert, and the musician strives to make “a real heart connection” with his audience, just as the gentle children’s television star did.
In Lippert’s version of “Puff, The Magic Dragon” for example, he opts for a message of redemption, replacing the sad ending with a more hopeful one that doesn’t leave the dragon alone.
“Kids need to be sheltered and protected from the worst part of our world,” he explained. “When they’re younger they need to feel more secure.”
Despite the quality of Lippert’s work, he’s found it tough to get noticed in the children’s music market when he released his first CD in 1992. Top-selling kids’ music usually has some connection to television shows, movies or celebrities. Musician Dan Zanes, former member of the 1980s band the Del Fuegos, has successfully sold kids’ music by recruiting big name artists like Sheryl Crow to participate.
The music on these types of CDs is more about what parents think their children will like, Lippert said. He hopes to offer children music and lyrics that are more finely crafted, rather than celebrities who may not have any special “kid gifts.”
Lippert learned to sell his work by getting it into the hands of reviewers at the School Library Journal and the American Library Association’s Book List. Both are important places for children’s music to be discovered by librarians, teachers and others who work with kids. After his first album, “Rainbow in the Sky,” was re-released, it has sold steadily.
Lippert learned he had a gift for kids’ music when he had children of his own. He discovered Raffi, “the Elvis of kids’ music,” when his oldest daughter, Sophie, was a toddler. Raffi’s fun, clever singalong music was a big change from the circuslike, goofy kids’ music he’d listen to on a dusty record player in the basement as a child.
“I remember driving around with Sophie listening to Raffi,” he said. “We’d have a ball.”
When his girls were little they would dance around the living room as he sat on the floor with his guitar, strumming Raffi songs. Soon, Lippert began writing his own music.
Some of these have found there way onto this album, including “Iris,” a song he wrote for his youngest daughter.
All three of his daughters have capably contributed to his CDs. Clara, 14, and Iris, 12, sing on several songs in “Humpty.”
Music – so central to Lippert’s own early years – is the center of his children’s lives. His oldest daughter Sophie, now 17, is an accomplished classical pianist. The two have a bet about who will be famous first – Sophie may have to wait her turn.
Reporter Debra Smith: 425-339-3197 or dsmith@heraldnet.com.
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