Full-time dad on the go-go creates CDs for kids

By paying close attention to the musical tastes of his two young sons, John Boydston has carved out a niche for himself as Daddy A Go Go, a swinging musician who records rock 'n' roll tunes in his basement and sells CDs over the Internet.

"I'm my own boss," he says. "I can spend all the time I need getting things the way I want, without the pressure of paying for studio time."

A former TV newsman in Miami, he decided to try life as a stay-at-home dad after his corporate-executive wife was transferred to Atlanta. The music he and friend Walt Brewer, a mortgage broker, play and record is designed to suit a split-level audience: kids under 10 and adults 30-and-over . "It's kind of like grownup rock 'n' roll for kids," Boydston explains. "Nothing too complicated. A lot of three-chord pop songs."

The music is all original, with the Beatles his major influence. "All the Beatles' early stuff is carefree, upbeat, happy," he says. "It's what my children respond to."

Boydston says he's no professional musician, only a guy who played in college. Nonetheless, as he got deeper into his hobby, he decided to produce his own CD, "Cool Songs for Cool Kids."

With no record company to promote it, Boydston has turned to the Internet with encouraging results, so much so that he created another CD, "Monkey in the Middle." Sample tracks from each can be heard at his Web site: www.daddyagogo.com.

The music is snappy and not very long. He says it's regularly requested in the carpool of kids he drives. Boydston is not into writing fantasy songs about "big, blue-haired frogs." He likes to focus on the lives of kids and their parents with tracks like "The Girls Are Always Chasing Me" and "A Dog Named Boomer."

"Kids find humor in everything, the simple everyday things of life. That's what I try to get into our songs."

(c) Copyright 2000. The Christian Science Publishing Society