With new album ‘Earworm,’ Sean McCollough unites ages
Sean McCollough is a user-friendly musician.
As the co-lead singer-songwriter with The Lonetones, he typically performs for adult audiences. But for more than 20 years, he also has performed specifically for children and families as a solo artist. For the past seven years, too, he’s hosted “Kidstuff,” the Saturday-morning children’s show on WDVX. His new album, “Earworm,” is a one of those rare creations that is made for children but that won’t drive adults crazy. In fact, the latter group might find itself listening to it when the kids aren’t around.
“I’m always trying to figure out what is that way that I can engage a fairly wide age range,” says McCollough over lunch at La Esperanza in North Knoxville. “So, for instance, with the ‘Earworm’ song, I think grown-ups appreciate the verses, and everyone appreciates the ‘uh-ohs,’ and I do hand motions for little kids. But I did it for a high school the other day and did the hand motions, and they all loved it.”
McCollough chuckles. A self-described “child of hippies,” he spent his early childhood near Lansing, Michigan, before his family moved near Cookeville, Tennessee, when McCollough was 13 years old. Later, he moved to Knoxville and attended the University of Tennessee.
“I was very inspired by people like Pete Seeger earlier in my college years when I was doing protests, and I’ve been inspired by him playing for kids. Just the idea that we need more community music-making, and I think it’s valuable. I don’t think there are many places for that in our culture, and performing for kids is one of the places where it’s still accepted and valued.”
Singing at protests, he says, isn’t that different from singing for children. Both usually involve singalongs and crafting simple songs with a message.
McCollough began performing for children when he first became a parent and fellow parents started asking him to perform at their children’s schools. At the time, McCollough was concert manager at the Laurel Theater for Jubilee Community Arts. In the late 1990s, the Jubilee organization had a program that sent music artists, including Nancy Brennan Strange and Sparky Rucker, into the schools.
“The person in charge of that program knew I was kind of interested, and she hooked me up with Nancy Brennan Strange,” says McCollough.
McCollough tagged along with Strange and then began doing his own shows. Not long after, he recorded his first children’s album at the Laurel Theater.
While that first album contains only one song written by McCollough, “Earworm” (his third children’s album) contains nine originals. Subjects include carsickness, the alphabet and the Sunsphere, and there is a song about goats called “Her Name Was Lady.”
Why goats?
“We had about 35 goats at one point, and we lived out in the country,” says McCollough about his childhood in Michigan. “There weren’t many kids around, so I hung out with the goats a lot. Matter of fact, when I had a birthday party, I did invite my human friends, but we had a slumber party in the barn with the goats.”
Another song, the catchy and upbeat “Don’t Let ‘Em Get Your Goat,” is a little more serious.
“Part of what I was inspired by was all of the bullying at schools, particularly around LGTBQ issues,” says McCollough. “I decided not to address that directly, but rather try to insinuate, ‘We love you for who you are. You need to know that there are those of us who love you for who you are.’”
McCollough believes kids need songs with some depth. As a result, he covers “Rag Doll” by Knoxville great Greg Horne.
“Greg didn’t write it for kids, but I put it on the album because I like that song, and I think kids need some sad songs. … I talk to kids a lot about metaphor when I’m performing. When I play ‘Rag Doll,’ I talk about, ‘This is clearly just a song about a doll, a toy that gets thrown aside for another toy, but it can also be a metaphor for, say, one of your friends decides they want to hang out with somebody else instead, and you feel like a rag doll.’ That’s what that song is about.”
McCollough is actually pitching that specific song as a single for adult radio play, as well as for kids’ programming.
There are two songs about getting motion sickness, one of which is based on a chant created by late Knoxville musician Phil Pollard. As McCollough describes in the song, Pollard created the syncopated chant to alleviate his own carsickness.
Then there’s “Big Ears,” a song inspired by “Kidstuff” programs aired during Knoxville’s Big Ears Festival and that feature Big Ears artists. It’s a trippy, six-minute, banjo-driven opus featuring children singing. It’s also another metaphor, this time for keeping an open mind about music.
“I very much think kids are very open-minded about different sounds and different music,” says McCollough. “Doing ‘Big Ears for Little Ears’ has proven that. I don’t think they necessarily know what to make of it, but they often seem more accepting of it than many of the parents. They’re like, ‘OK, this is what Sean’s having on the show today. I’ll listen to it!’”
“Kidstuff” has helped McCollough find his place within the realm of children’s music (more often called “family music” in recent years). He’s become friends with other performers in the genre after they’ve appeared on the show. He hopes the new album helps him gain a national presence, as well. The disc already has been honored with a National Parenting Product Award, and it’s getting airplay as far away as Australia.
The most important aspect of McCollough’s family music, though, may be that it helps bring kids and parents together for a common experience. While “Kidstuff” is only over-the-air for the majority of the shows, it is presented before a live audience on the Visit Knoxville stage on the second Saturday of each month.
“I think from a very young age, we’re pretty disconnected from each other and our culture with our phones and all that,” says McCollough. “I really just love for the opportunity for people to come together and it’s not about phones. It’s about being there together and doing something together as a community.”
