Hamilton’s own Mr. Ben 4 x CDs release party
Hamilton children’s entertainer Mr. Ben is holding a quadruple CD release party
It seemed like every time Ben Bowen — known to his pre-schooler fans as “Mr. Ben” — came to the end of one of his music classes, parents would come up and ask for a CD so their children could continue the singalong at home.
So he decided to record one. Then parents started asking for a new one. Then another and another.
Before he knew it, Bowen had recorded four Mr. Ben albums in the short span of 12 months.
His students loved them, so did the parents. More than 400 of the CDs were quickly gobbled up. It only made sense to reach out to a broader audience.
That’s what Bowen is doing Saturday, June 23, at St. John’s Anglican Church Hall in Ancaster — holding two quadruple Mr. Ben CD release parties (prenap and postnap) for “Let’s Sing a Song vol.1,” “Beautiful Day,” “Let’s Sing a Song vol.2,” and “O Watch the Stars.”
“I did four over the course of the last year,” Bowen explains. “But I haven’t had a moment to breathe let alone do individual CD releases. So I thought I’d just do one big one for all four of them.”
About 40 per cent of the tracks are new versions of old folk songs, another 40 per cent are Mr. Ben originals and the remaining 20 per cent are based on classical melodies — Debussy, Grieg, Beethoven and Mozart — adapted and set to lyrics.
A student of the music of the late folksinger and children’s entertainer Pete Seeger, Bowen particularly likes songs that children can sing along with.
“A lot of kids’ music being made now is OK for listening to, but it’s not made to be sung in a group,” Bowen says. “Folk music, however, is really intended for people to sing together.”
Bowen, a 42-year-old father of two, has been playing music all his life, picking up trumpet in high school while living in Ottawa, and studying jazz and popular music at Humber College before taking a MA at York University, focusing on children’s songs and folk music.
He played trumpet for several bands in Toronto, including Great Aunt Ida and Ronley Tepper before moving to Hamilton about 15 years ago.
A newcomer to the Hamilton music scene, Bowen turned to his background in children’s music to make a living. He began performing at local preschools and then found his popularity spreading farther afield — Ancaster, Burlington, Oakville, Mississauga and Toronto.
At the same time, between 2012 to 2016, Bowen was running the Jitterbugs musical theatre program for children, 3 to 5. His road schedule was becoming almost impossible to maintain.
In 2016, Bowen heard that Martha Krueger had retired from teaching her popular Open Door Music program from a space in the Binkley United Church on Main Street.
It seemed like a perfect opportunity and Bowen took the space over. It’s now called Mr. Ben’s Open Door Music.
He teaches two early childhood classes a day, ages 4 months to 6 years, with an emphasis on participation — singalongs with lots of movement, shakers and tambourines.
The CD release shows, however, give him an opportunity to perform on a stage again.
“The classes are great and I really enjoy doing them, but I’m also a performer at heart and I’ve missed playing in front of an audience,” Bowen says. “I also enjoy the fact that I’m going to be playing with other people, I’ve hired a band to back me.” Still his priority is the children. “I love teaching music to kids,” he says. “Sometimes people teach music to kids because it's what you do to subsidize the rest of your performing career, but I have genuinely found that I enjoy hanging out with little kids. It keeps you young.”