Caspar Babypants
| Caspar Babypants | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Seattle, Washington, USA |
| Genres | Children's music |
| Years active | 2009-Present |
| Labels | Aurora Elephant Music |
| Website | Caspar Babypants |
| Members | Chris Ballew |
Caspar Babypants is the stage name of children's music artist Chris Ballew, who is also widely known as the singer of The Presidents of the United States of America.
History
Ballew's first brush with children's music came in 2002, when he recorded and donated an album of traditional children's songs to the nonprofit Program for Early Parent Support titled "PEPS Sing A Long!" Although that was a positive experience for him, he did not consider making music for families until he met his wife, collage artist Kate Endle.[1] Her art inspired Ballew to consider making music that "sounded like her art looked" as he has said. Ballew began writing original songs and digging up nursery rhymes and folk songs in the public domain to interpret and make his own.[2] The first album "HERE I AM!" was recorded during the summer of 2008 and released in February of 2009.
Ballew began to perform solo as Caspar Babypants in the Seattle area in January of 2009. Fred Northup, heard the album and offered to play as his live percussionist. Northup, a Seattle-based comedy improvisor, suggested his frequent collaborator Ron Hippe as a keyboard player. "Frederick Babyshirt" and "Ronald Babyshoes" were the Caspar Babypants live band from May of 2009 to April of 2012. Both Northup and Hippe appear on some of his recordings but since April of 2012 Caspar Babypants has exclusively performed solo. The reasons for the change were to include more improvisation in the show and to reduce the sound levels so that very young children and newborns could continue to attend without being over stimulated.
Ballew has made two albums of Beatles covers as Caspar Babypants. "BABY BEATLES!" came out in September of 2013 and "BEATLES BABY! came out in September of 2015.
Caspar Babypants is a true do it yourself (DIY) venture with Ballew running the Aurora Elephant Music record label, booking shows, running the studio, and producing, recording and mastering the albums himself. Distribution for the albums is handled by Burnside Distribution in Portland Oregon.
Caspar Babypants has released a total of ten albums as of October 2015 and has announced that eleventh album "AWAY WE GO!" will be released on August 12th 2016 and the 12th album WINTER PARTY! will be released on November 18th 2016.
Partial discography
- PEPS SING A LONG! (released 2002, re-released as a digital download in 2010)
- HERE I AM! (released 2009) Special guests: Jen Wood, Fysah Thomas
- MORE PLEASE! (released 2009) Special guests: Fred Northup, Ron Hippe
- THIS IS FUN! (released 2010) Special guests: Fred Northup, Ron Hippe, Krist Novoselic, Charlie Hope
- Many Hands: Family Music for Haiti CD (released 2010) - Compilation of various artists
- SING ALONG! (released 2011) Special guests: Fred Northup, Ron Hippe, "Weird Al" Yankovic, Stone Gossard, Frances England, Rachel Loshak
- HOT DOG! (released 4/17/12) Special guests: Fred Northup, Ron Hippe, Rachel Flotard (Visqueen)
- I FOUND YOU! (released 12/18/12)
- BABY BEATLES! (released 9/15/13)
- RISE AND SHINE! (released 2014)
- NIGHT NIGHT! (released 3/17/15)
- BEATLES BABY! (Released 9/18/2015)
