Tom Chapin has carved a niche for himself in the world of children’s recordings that no one else can quite fit. Equally at home with music or with books, he has become the go-to singer/storyteller for a burgeoning list of classic songs accompanied by gorgeously illustrated books.
It wasn’t the kids but their boomer parents who were most eager for Chapin to apply his chops to Steve Goodman’s The Train They Call the City of New Orleans. Michael McCurdy’s woodcuts accompanied the lyrics to Goodman’s song in a handsome edition, but with Chapin telling the story of one train’s odyssey from Chicago to Louisiana the book and song take on a new life. The subtle sound effects of train whistles, the click-clack of tracks and Tom Chapin’s rousing interpretation of the song are irresistible to both kids and parents.
The song has a special connection for Tom. “It was such a delight to do this because I knew Steve Goodman. We did a number of concerts and benefits together” where Train They Call the City of New Orleans was regularly performed. “Steve died much too young, like my brother Harry [Chapin].” This project also acknowledges that this song has true folksong status now: “It’s part of our world,” reflects Chapin.
“I love train songs—I grew up in New York City and I remember train trips to my grandfather in northern New Jersey. Part of the resonance for me of doing these songs is that I grew up steeped in the American folk music sensibility. It’s like visiting home.” And he brings that home into the studio when he records. “I feel like I’m reading to my daughters at the ages of four and six—though they’re grown now. This is part of their heritage.”
How did the folk singer and children’s entertainer evolve into award-winning audiobook narrator? “Arnie Cardillo [of Live Oak Media] kept calling my office for Mama Don’t Allow. He was adamant and finally I did it. Both Arnie and Rory Young are so professional and know how to make the recordings come alive,” explains Tom.
Chapin recalls that on his first experience working on Mama Don’t Allow “I hadn’t expected it would be this much fun and that I would be good at it. . . . Lo and behold it got a Grammy.” Next, was There Was an Old Swallowed Who Swallowed a Fly. “It was a terrific book.” Chapin laughs: “Even now, if I sing it in concert, everyone sings along.”
The entertainer also knows that there is a large audience of educators who find these audiobooks effective in the classroom. The map in the front of the book helps teachers and students track the train’s journey while McCurdy’s exquisite illustrations portray a bygone era of train travel.
“I spent a lot of time in the Brooklyn Public Library as a kid. My grandmothers on both sides were teachers and I learned to read very early.” Consequently, the library became very important to Tom Chapin. “I spent my teen years in the western section reading Zane Grey or Edgar Rice Burroughs. I remember so much of my imaginary world tied up in going to the library and living in those books.”
It’s the journey, not the destination that makes the biggest impression. Or, as Steve Goodman says of the imagination in The Train They Call the City of New Orleans:
