And every audience is different and every audience, the vibe is different and influences what the show becomes and it's a marvelous dialogue because there is that push and pull. There are artists that stick to a set list, but to me that's missing half the fun. To me the fun of it is that if you're in tune with the audience, they help lead the artist.

Over the course of six Ralph's World albums, Ralph Covert has written more really good songs for kids and their families than probably any other artist. So it's not that much of a surprise that Disney recently signed Covert up to release those albums and his next album. It's also not much of a surprise that he's touring House of Blues venues and other classic rock venues this spring. Covert took some time out of his schedule a couple weeks ago to chat with me about his tour, performing, writing songs, and watching his daughter grow older. All that while worrying about a lost tour banner. (You'll have to read on...) Zooglobble: Thank you for taking the time with me for a few minutes about this tour. So you just played the House of Blues and the Fillmore in San Francisco -- what was that like? Ralph Covert: Oh my gosh, it was a blast. Both shows went great. The Fillmore, I mean, how cool does it get? It was really neat because one of the reasons we've tried so hard to do stuff like this tour where we've tried to keep the rock 'n' roll vibe in the Ralph's World show and bring it to these rock 'n' roll venues is so that parents and kids can have that shared experience. It's cool for the parents because it still has that authentic rock 'n' feel and it's cool for the kids because they get to go somewhere they never would get to go. And at the Fillmore the parents were excited to be there and the kids were excited about having their first concert at the Fillmore, and the band's excited... One of the stage managers said he felt it was the best show they had there all year. Musically, it was great, but even more important than that, every audience member walked out with a smile and every staff member was grinning from ear to ear for the entire show. Are you doing anything different on this tour? I know you've played some larger venues in the past (such as Ravinia and the Jamarama tour) but are you doing anything different since you're playing larger houses and more traditional rock venues? Well, Jamarama tour was one of these packaged tours with a bunch of different acts with their little slot. Most of the other acts were pretty much more in the traditional kids' pop thing where they're playing the tracks. They're entertaining the kids but they're not doing it by playing real instruments and playing rock. There are some that are doing that and I think that's great -- that's part of the whole new wave we're part of. But the Jamarama tour is very much about that other packaged thing. What we're doing, really at the heart of it, it's a rock concert experience for kids. To that end, it's exciting to take that kind of rock 'n' roll energy to a big venue, to a rock venue like the House of Blues, like the Fillmore, because we obviously know from many years of social and cultural experience that rock shows are pretty fun. [Laughs] Is that a sociological statement there? It is a sociological statement -- rock shows are fun.