Ask most preschoolers who the greatest rock 'n' roller is and the answer could easily be Raffi, Canada's toddler troubadour. And after 25 years of sing-alongs, there's no sign the 53-year-old is growing weary of hanging around tykes.
In the past three months Raffi has released a new CD, performed at a UNICEF concert with Nelson Mandela, asked governments to ban chemical pesticides from lawns, and written a song about peace for the children of Israel and Palestine.
Salaam Shalom, Side by Side was launched last week at , a Web site where Raffi has posted music for free download. On the track he sings "Sister, Brother/Mother, Father/Learn a new dance/Sing a new song/Find a new path/Make a circle where we all belong."
Aside from the grey hair and a couple of new wrinkles, you'd never be able to tell the mild-mannered performer has been making children smile for a quarter century. He's got the same love-makes-the-world-go-round attitude he had in 1976 when he released his first album, Singable Songs for the Very Young.
"No matter how much the adult world around them changes, children's need for an unhurried life, for a life of play, doesn't change," he said in an interview during a recent stop in Toronto to attend Dad Walk 2002, an event to raise awareness about ongoing violence against women.
"They have the universal need to be loved, to be accepted for who they are, to discover their own life's purpose."
That purpose, according to Raffi, is defined by play time and therein lies the motivation behind his latest album, Let's Play!
The 16 tracks -- a combination of children's classics such as Eensy Weensy Spider, pop covers such as the Beatles' classic Yellow Submarine and original songs such as Jane Jane, a tribute to chimpanzee researcher Jane Goodall -- are vintage Raffi with lots of finger-snapping and toe-tapping rhythm.
Growing tired of society's drive for speedy food, service and growth, Raffi wanted to remind parents that children need to be given adequate time for frivolous fun.
"Unlike a computer, a child cannot be made more powerful or faster," said the author of the children's anthem Baby Beluga. "The gadgetry and the technology can come later. Let's all just take a deep breath and play with life."
And, for the most part, Raffi lives by the motto too. He took a seven-year hiatus from recording music to pursue his other passions, mainly as a children's advocate and crusader of environmental change.
He's taken his celebrity status on the road and spoken at numerous conferences in support of his causes. In February, he took his guitar to Ottawa and sang in honour of toxic-free fruits and vegetables.
"The idea is to have a good life, good food that you're not afraid of eating. Any child would not vote for a corporation having the right to pollute his home or environment," he said.
Raffi, who now lives in Mayne, B.C., spent the past several years building up his Vancouver-based Troubadour Institute for Child Honouring, an organization dedicated to promoting children's well-being.
The self-taught children's expert (he has no kids of his own) stumbled onto the field by chance.
Raffi had his first play date in the early 1970s when his former wife, a Toronto nursery-school teacher, invited him to bring his guitar into her classroom.
"Some early magic happened with me and the three- and four-year-olds," he recalled.
The mild-mannered performer then began making music "with respect for the young listener" and has recorded 13 albums since.
In any given week over the past two decades, 10 out of the top 25 bestselling children's recordings belong to Raffi, his label boasts.
He'll prove his love of playtime this fall when he embarks on a 15-date tour of Canada and the United States.
"It's just wonderful for the music to come alive in the concert hall. It becomes a big love-in," he said of his rapport with tots.