Connie Kaldor is one of Canada’s most prominent folk singers. In 1981 she established her own independent record label—now called Coyote Entertainment—and since then she has recorded nine albums. In 1983 she joined forces with Fleming, Tamulevich and Associates, one of the major independent acoustic music agencies in North America. And by 1984 Connie was headlining folk festivals across the country. She was part of a wave of Canadian talent, along with Stan Rogers, Ferron, Heather Bishop, Valdy, Roy Forbes, and Stringband, that was forging a distinctly Canadian sound.
She has toured India, China, Europe, and the United States and has appeared at most major concert venues in Canada. She has shared the stage with Shawn Colvin, Sylvia Tyson, the Chieftains, Daniel Lanois, and Tracy Chapman. In 1984 Connie was nominated for a Juno Award for Most Promising Female Vocalist for her performance on the album Moonlight Grocery.
Her collaboration on the children’s album Lullaby Berceuse with children’s entertainer Carmen Campagne won the Juno Award for Best Children’s Album in 1989 and a U.S. Parents’ Choice Award in 1990. (Berceuse is the French word for a cradle-rocking song, or lullaby.)
Rainbow Rumpus music and video editor Dan Marfield interviewed Connie for this issue of Rainbow Rumpus.
You spent a number of years involved in theater, and you’re still involved with various theatrical/film productions (Dust and Dreams, Nature’s Heart). How do you think your theatrical history affected your recordings and concerts?
I think that the theatre gave me a framework for performing. I think it gave me a different framework as a writer, too. I didn’t expect always to write from my personal experience or viewpoint. I could be a different character, and the sense of theatricality I think translates into my children’s songs for sure. They definitely have a bit of musical in them. I can just picture the dogs [from A Duck in New York City] dancing in formation.
Your website mentions the Beatles and Patsy Cline as musical influences. Are there any children’s artists—past or present—you particularly admire or would love to collaborate with?
I think less about collaborating with musical artists as I perform with musicians all the time. I have definitely some children’s performers I admire, like Heather Bishop or Carmen Campagne. Where I would love to collaborate is with theatre people or animators, dancers, writers. I saw a brilliant show called "TYPO" with a physical actor/circus performer that was wonderful. I would love to work with someone like that. I want to work with someone who comes at the same thing from a different perspective. I would love to develop a video game and music, for example. It is exciting to write for other characters like in animation or theatre. To me that is exciting. I like the creative process.
Are there any dream projects—film, music, photography, activism, etc.—that you’re kicking around or have in development?
I want to write a musical show with my children’s material. I want to take it to another place theatrically. Kind of play around with what you can do. I think it would be great. I would love to do school band arrangements for my songs and offer them free on the website. I think the school music programs need something for free. I just finished writing a song about the boreal forest here in Canada, and it will be arranged for a children’s choir. I like to have a creative project that is out of my normal repertoire as a songwriter. I just like writing songs, and I enjoy writing songs for children that have a bit of humor shared with the adults in the room as well.
A lot of your work is inspired by or focused on prairies. Do you remember the first time you were inspired to create a piece of music about the prairie landscape? What feelings were you trying to get across?
When I write about the prairies, I don’t have anything I want to put across. It is just a story or a thing that comes to my head. The prairies are part of my oldest and strongest memories. I don’t examine them as much as they just come into play.
Do you feel that you have a signature song? To put it a different way, what song or album of yours have people responded to the most?
I think the song most people here in Canada associate with me is a song called Wood River. I think that would be my signature song as of now.
Given that you’ve mostly recorded for adults, how did Lullaby Berceuse and A Duck in New York City come about?
Lullaby Berceuse was just an idea that I had. I had been writing songs for children of friends of mine. I didn’t have kids of my own at that time, and so I was in the babysitting mode for many of my friends. I think I just made them up to rock them to sleep. I think it started me thinking about lullabies and the power of them and importance and that they were the first songs of women handed down. Ironically, I remember my father being the one to sing lullabies to me. I also thought that every age has to make their own songs for their children as well as sing the old ones. So I decided to do it. I was talking to my sister-in-law, Carmen Campagne, over the table of her mother’s kitchen, and I asked if she knew any French lullabies I could use. One thing led to another, and we ended up recording them together.
A Duck in New York City was a song I wrote in a taxi cab in New York to keep myself from being bored on the way to the airport. I found a rubber duck in the cab, and away I went. Necessity may be the mother of invention, but boredom is surely the father. It was recorded by Heather Bishop for an album she did for kids. I had made up many of these songs, but it wasn’t until Roland Stringer of the Secret Mountain approached me about an album that I considered doing the project. It takes resources to take an album in another direction than what you have been pursuing. I knew that they did good quality work, and it would be done with wonderful illustrations. I must admit having a book with my name on it is a wonderful thing for me. I love to read. Writing the stories was also a new experience that was very gratifying. It is wonderful for me to read it aloud to kids.
Compared to writing for adults, how difficult is it to compose music for children?
I think I am a little more fun when I write for children. I think that is because it is usually from an idea that is out in left field. I just think of the poodle, and then off she is in Paris, and there is a Maurice Chevalier voice that comes out. I think generally I write to amuse myself initially, and then I try to get it in shape where it can entertain others as well. I try to use the same musical sensibilities that I use on my adult recordings. Writing for children allows me to write in many different styles and finally hear the horn section kicking in. It is fun to record. I always run the song past kids and see if it works. If it doesn’t work, it is soon forgotten. So generally it is easier, and it is often a foil to the things I am writing in my adult composing section. After all, it is about having fun.
The music on Lullaby Berceuse achieves the delicate balance of being a great album for both children and adults, i.e., it’s a great CD even if you don’t have children. Was it hard to find that happy medium?
In the lullabies you are really writing for the parents. I wanted the parents to sing them themselves eventually, so I wanted a song that appealed to them but was in the soothing style that actually calms down a child. Again most of them were written on the job of putting a child to sleep. That is why we have a baby making noises at the beginning of the record because I noticed that a baby will stop fussing when it hears another baby. Then they key into the music. I hadn’t heard another lullaby record before, so we just did what we thought would work.
What’s important for you about recording for children? What can music do for children?
I think it can do the same thing it does for us all. It can make us happy. It can calm us down, make us laugh, give us something to sing to ourselves. Hopefully it can give us courage or remind us of the things that are important. Maybe it can make us dance. Sometimes it can make us feel and express emotions. When it comes to recording, hopefully it can be done in such a way that it appeals to the child and doesn’t drive you crazy until about the hundredth time you hear it. Face it, as parents we will hear those songs again and again. That is why it is so important to have good musical arrangements, good instruments, good playing, and good singing. Children hear lots of music. You want them to hear the best.
Given that Rainbow Rumpus is a site for kids with GLBT parents, is there anything in particular you want to say to those kids and families?
The same advice I would give any parent. Sing and dance with your children. Learn songs, and sing along. You don’t have to be a great singer to sing a lullaby. The child hears your voice, and it means comfort. Sing along in the car. Have some fun.
Click here to listen to "I Have You" by Connie Kaldor
Click here to listen to "La Poulette Grise" by Connie Kaldor
