Saskatchewan performer Brenda Baker came to the Reid-Thompson Library to entertain children and adults alike with original songs about Megamunch the T-rex in Regina, and old favourites like “The Cat Came Back” on Aug. 5.
“I thought it went great. It was a really nice summer audience,” Baker said.
She added that summers tend to draw kids to other activities, so she’s “honoured” when a large group comes out.
Baker didn’t start out as a children’s entertainer – she started writing songs at 16, but originally worked at becoming an art teacher. But that didn’t last long after she took a drama class for her degree and got hooked.
“I guess I just realized at about the age of 24, 25, that I really wanted to pursue being a songwriter, because I love the stage, I love to write, and I could sing,” she said.
She pursued writing for an adult audience, but soon discovered children’s audiences.
“(Children’s audiences are) ever changing, for one thing,” she said. “They’re a challenge in that you have to keep everybody with you the whole time. Not that adults aren’t that way, but children are much more easily distracted. I also just like the energy of children … It’s nice to write a playful song once in awhile rather than just a heavy, political song or a love song or whatever.”
But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t like playing to the adults in the audiences as well.
“One of the things I enjoy doing is playing to the parents. Over time I’ve found ways to talk to the adults that keeps them somewhat entertained as well. That’s important to me and that’s a lot of fun,” she said.
Despite the fact that some of her songs are educational or teach a lesson, she said that was never her goal, and in fact is sometimes the opposite of her goal with her music.
“I’ve never been about education per se, other than educating people to understand that music doesn’t have to be educational in that didactic way to be valuable,” she said. “In some ways, I’ve kind of fought that idea that every song I do has to teach them a lesson of some kind, when in fact, there’s lots of music that’s just about being, it’s just about experiencing. I work pretty hard at making sure that’s understood because … kids are taught all day long, all kinds of things, and when I go to a school I want them to have the experience of communication that’s deep and kind of spiritual.”
All the songs require some kind of participation on the part of the kids, and she says overall, no one song gets much more of a reaction than the others. In fact, she works hard to get a good reaction from the kids with every song.
“I think (my favourite thing is) just realizing there’s a lot of beauty in the world when you hear sad and negative stories in the news. One of the (ways) I get reenergized is by seeing the innocence and beauty of kids,” she said.
These days, performing for children isn’t her main gig. She has a six-year-old at home and she works part-time. She also runs a choir called Kids of Note, which is composed of kids with and without intellectual disabilities. In addition, she’s an author and was nominated for an award in the U.S., so she is going to travel to Billings, Mont. to see if she gets it in October. She’s also a creativity coach and has a four-day workshop in La Ronge coming up.
