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Ray of Sunshine
mr. RAY is literally rockin' the cradle
by Marcia Worth-Baker
Article is from Matters Magazine
Growing up in the West Orange house that once belonged to Carole King - with the doorbell that chimed her early hit, "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" - young Ray Yodlowsky knew early on that music would be his life's work. While living on the street that inspired King to write the Monkees' hit "Pleasant Valley Sunday," he started playing drums at age seven. Guitar and piano followed, and soon the young musician began writing his own songs.
While still a teenager, he jammed with Bruce Springsteen at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park. Soon the singer-musician-songwriter became known as Ray Andersen, taking the stage name from the children's author Hans Christian Andersen. Musical successes followed in short order: as part of Meat Loaf's band, Andersen traveled internationally and performed on The View, VH1's The Storytellers, Hard Rock Live, and for David Letterman and Jay Leno. With his wife, Patti Maloney, Andersen formed a pop/rock duo they named Blue Van Gogh, and they toured nationally and in Germany.
Closer to home, though, Andersen was becoming famous for another type of music. "One day, my wife, who at that time was working at a daycare center, asked me to come in and sing. I enjoyed it, and the children loved it…. What an amazing job, I thought."
Easily recognizable for his trademark glasses and colorful, stickered guitar, Andersen soon became known as "mr. RAY." "I wanted to be known as something more like Rocket Ray. But some kids called me Mister Ray and I was stuck."
Andersen's biggest fans are between ages two and six, but his second biggest group of fans may be their parents. His songs teach - "Roy G. Biv" describes the color spectrum - with a beat that appeals to adults, as well. "Kalien the Alien" is another much-requested hit, while "When I Grow Up" is a song that fans clamor to sing with mr. RAY.
Besides the rock-and-rollers he looked up to as a kid, Andersen was a fan of zany television and movie personalities such as Jerry Lewis, Danny Kaye, and Dick Van Dyke. Their influence is obvious in Andersen's interactive - emphasis on active - performance. Andersen begins a show by greeting his young audience and immediately asking them to shout answers to his questions. "Is this a microphone?" he asks. "What letter does microphone begin with?" mr. RAY mimes a giant letter M in the air as he launches into a song about the alphabet. In addition to their physical comedy, Andersen admired his screen idols for "keeping one foot in child-land, and one foot in the grownup world. It's a delicate balance."
Maintaining such balance is a challenge for Andersen, especially as mr. RAY grows ever more successful. Parents were the first to clamor for an album for "those long car rides with the kids." Andersen complied: Start Dreaming was released in April 2001. Songs from the Kids' Lounge followed in August 2004. A 39-minute DVD features live footage and animation based on his songs. Toys R' Us plays his music in stores, and Radio Disney has two songs from Start Dreaming on the play list. A Kalien the Alien plush toy, the first in a series that includes Zibby the Zebra and a few other favorites, will soon be in the backpack of a preschooler near you.
Meanwhile, Andersen keeps his focus close to home by performing as often as he can for the preschool set. "With this age group, you have to make them interact or they lose interest after ten minutes," he explains. "I engage all their senses, get them dancing, guessing which instruments I'm playing or what genre of music it is. I just try to turn kids on to the beauty and joy of music."
Even closer to home, Andersen has a big following. He and his wife adopted daughter Layla in 2004. One of Andersen's big hits is the song, "When I Grow Up." With any luck, Layla is singing along and dreaming of the day when she can join her dad on stage. Or perhaps, from the lyrics of another toddler fave, she'd "rather be a dinosaur."
To see if you'd rather be a dinosaur, check out a show. While mr. RAY performs at preschools each and every week, they are not open to the public. To find out more about his schedule, go to www.mrray.com.
Marcia Worth-Baker and her three kids bop to the beat of "Kalien the Alien" in South Orange.
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