Ceilidh-jo Rowe

I’m Ceilidh-jo Rowe from the south west of England. I’ve really loved and felt the benefits of singing from a very early age. I don’t read music – I feel it instead! I have had a stammer all my life, though I’ve never stammered while singing. Music has been a great tool in my working life too - really helping with speech development, creative play and providing an inclusive opportunity for all kinds of people of all ages. Everybody has their own way of engaging with their kids and I’ve found that music helps me be more present with my own children. Singing together creates a truly connecting experience. For me music and singing is a place of freedom and flow – I sing everything I do!

While bringing up my first child I personally couldn’t find much quality, acoustic music for children that parents would also enjoy, so I started to collect and record children’s folk songs from around the world. I now have 5 albums of children’s music!

For Little IMP Songs I wanted to revisit some traditional and early years songs at a slower, calmer pace than the way they’re often delivered. As with all my music I also wanted to use only acoustic instruments – with parts that children can maybe even play themselves. The IMP stands for Inclusive Musical Play by the way.

When it came to Many Moons I had plenty of songs that I still wanted to produce, and I was keen for this collection to appeal to a broad age range. I’ve recorded these songs with the goal of being both accessible to little ones and with a depth that allows adults to really enjoy the repeated listening.

I’ve loved the fact that my children’s music has been enjoyed by families in the car, at home playing, relaxing, at bedtime and celebrating seasonal changes. As part of the journey of each album I try and include a warm up beginning and a calming ending, so the music can be enjoyed all through the day, as well as themes to relate to all through the year. The children’s albums have also been used in creative play by early years settings, and as a resource to support carers who are looking for a calm but engaging connection to children. I draw on my work in speech development and sign language to try and create a magical world that can be loved by all the family and above all I hope I can help children foster an early engagment with music.

I’ve always been looking for screen-free access to music for young people, and my own children immediately loved the Yoto player when it arrived at our house. I’ve found the rise of streaming and video-based music challenging so I’m really excited to team up with Yoto for these releases.

There are always plans cooking! I have 3 more albums currently in the collection of children’s music and I would love to see those come out as Yoto cards one day. I’ve also recently started recording again after a break, so hopefully I will be able to add more to the collection soon.