Roger Day Creates Music from the Heart and the Head

What does a former camp counselor who studied German and spent ten years playing college coffeehouses do with his life?  Write and sing award-winning children’s music, of course.  Roger Day takes inspiration from The Beatles, U2 and even The Clash. A Parents’ Choice® Gold Award winner, he’s worked with artists such as the Indigo Girls, Nanci Griffith and The Crickets  (Buddy Holly’s legendary band). Roger’s skilled musicianship combines with his wit and wordplay to create a musical experience that parents enjoy as much as their kids.

First Song for Kids

Roger Day wrote his first children’s song one Christmas when cash was short and the family gift list was long. The reaction from nieces and nephews was an enthusiastic “More please!” Encouraged, he kept writing. Soon he had enough songs for an entire show – he just wasn’t sure where to play them.

College Community Service Shows

Then Roger got an idea. Whenever a college booked his regular coffeehouse show, he would come into town early, meet up with group of student volunteers and put on a community service children’s show at a local Head Start program. These made such an impact that the National Association of Campus Activities recognized Roger with The Harry Chapin Award for Contributions to Humanity, its highest public service award.

Leap of Faith

By this time, Roger had two children of his own, with one on the way. He loved playing for colleges but knew that writing and performing for kids was his true calling. So in a leap of faith, with no clear idea of where it would lead, he retired from the college circuit, became a full-time stay-at-home dad, and started writing full-time for kids while his wife Jodie worked as an elementary school speech pathologist.

Award-Winning Children’s CDs

That leap of faith paid off. Roger now had enough songs for an entire CD. He released ROCK ‘N’ ROLL RODEO in 1998 followed by READY TO FLY in 2001. Roger won a Parents’ Choice® Recommended Award. Word spread. In 2003 he filmed a family concert DVD ROGER DAY LIVE! He won another Parents’ Choice® Recommended award. And The Film Advisory Board Award for Outstanding Family Video. The following year he made his Public Television debut.

DREAM BIG! came next in 2007. Radio Disney played the title song. Another song, “I like Yaks,” went to number 1 on Sirius/XM’s Kids Place Live. He won a Parents’ Choice® Gold Award and started selling out shows from the Children’s Theatre of Charlotte to the Library Theatre in Birmingham.  By this point Roger’s music had spread far beyond the family’s Christmas tree.

Schoolhouse Rock for the 21^st Century

Roger’s fourth release Why Does Gray Matter? … And Other Brainy Songs for Kids features 14 tracks that make innovative use of “the brain” as a theme for every song.   “I’m pretty sure it’s the first recording session in Nashville to research Web MD for fact checks,” says Roger.  “One song is even co-written with a college friend who is a real-life neuropathologist. It’s the only kids’ song I know of that uses the terms ‘corpus callosum’ and ‘deep basal ganglia’ while referencing Ringo Starr.”  

The Schoolhouse Rock quality of his latest project is impossible to ignore and one of its best features. If you didn’t hear these songs on this CD first, you might think you knew them from watching cartoons on Saturday mornings years ago. For this reason, Day’s music counts adults as some of its biggest fans.  Roger acknowledges, “I’ve had more than one parent admit they listen to my CDs even when their kids aren’t around.”

Born in Birmingham – Educated in Virginia – Boy Scout Volunteer

Roger was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama.  A 1985 graduate of Washington & Lee University, Roger currently lives in Franklin, Tennessee with his wife Jodie and their three children. An Eagle Scout, Roger spends his free time as a volunteer leader for Cub Scout Den 7 and Boy Scout Troop 137. He’s also been known to deliver a Girl Scout cookie or two.