Jessie Farrell and The Gumboot Kids perform live at Highlands Elementary School, 3150 Colwood Dr., North Vancouver on Saturday, Oct. 27 at 2 and 4 p.m. and at West Pt. Grey Community Hall in Vancouver on Sunday, Oct. 28 at 4:30 p.m. For details visit gumbootkids.com.
Despite all those wide open spaces, country music can be a tad claustrophobic.
Kris Kristofferson wrestled with his eternal soul between the cigarette smoke at the ceiling and sawdust on the floor. Johnny Cash found himself damned in a cell. And every time Ernest Tubb drank a bottle of booze he stuck one boot in a tavern and the other in the grave.
But something amazing can happen when the angel steps out of the honky tonk.
Jessie Farrell was writing and singing about love and loss, meet ups and turn downs, when she found a new audience.
“I had this little one year old staring back at me,” she says.
Raising a daughter and son, Farrell found herself taking her kids for walks through the forest and fielding every kid’s favourite question: “What’s that?”
To answer, she started writing songs.
“I don’t even think I realized that I was writing one song about something different in nature every day,” she says with a laugh. “I may be talking about skunks instead of meeting a guy in a bar but it’s all an evolution.”
It’s made her a better songwriter, Farrell says, explaining she’s tried to weave tunes that children can hold onto and sing along with.
In writing for her own children, she also found an instant feedback loop that told her what worked and what didn’t.
“They tell the truth,” she says. “When their bodies are moving or they say, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, that one,’ or they snap or they clap or they feel it or they’re just really calm and quiet and happy, you just know it works.”
And while Farrell was writing dozens and dozens of songs about skunks, cows, clay, butterflies, and dinosaur fossils, her sister and brother-in-law were working on a TV show for children: Scout & the Gumboot Kids.
Serendipitously, the purpose of the show was to show children the wonders of nature. Farrell’s songs were a natural fit.
“My daughter and my son are in the show,” Farrell says proudly. “It’s a family business.”
Jessie & The Gumboot Kids eventually became a spin-off series featuring 40 music videos that draw from Farrell’s three children’s albums.
The live show is meant to be a gentle, low-stress experience, Farrell says, explaining there’s no expectation the kids clap in rhythm or stomp on cue or even pay attention.
“It’s not making kids be anything that they’re not,” she says.
The kids can colour or dance or sit on lily pads on the floor.
“It’s a really free couple of hours. And really, the mascots are huge for the kids,” Farrell adds, noting that Scout, True and Daniel Tiger are all set to make appearances.
As a parent, Farrell is passionate about defending the traits that make each child unique.
“When we’ve only been on this planet for a year or two or three . . . we have to be so brave,” she says.
As her own children grow up Farrell has continued to write songs that meet their interests, she says, explaining that “Shake It Up” is: “a bit rappy and kind of edgy,” to mesh with her daughter’s newfound love of pop music.
Farrell has plans for another country album in the next couple years, but that doesn’t mean she has any inclination to stop writing music for children.
“I can do both at the same time and I think for a while I didn’t know I could do both,” she says.
Discussing her life on Vancouver Island, Farrell explains that her next song is usually a short hike away.
“I go for a walk with my kids every day and I put my gumboots on,” she says. “I can always find inspiration.”
Sometimes the moon will be full or her kids will find something incredible. And other times they’ll only think they found something incredible. Either way, it moves Farrell.
“I’m surrounded by inspiration mostly through the eyes of my very, very excited kids.”
