Not many people can say they've had a song recorded by country-music icon Willie Nelson.
Up until six years ago, children's musician Tom Hunter never even thought about it.
But that all changed when Hunter's song "Rock Me to Sleep" was chosen to appear on Nelson's 2001 children's CD, "Rainbow Connection."
Nelson's daughter had worked in a child-care center and heard the song, Hunter said. She pitched it to her dad, and it is now part of the Red Headed Stranger's permanent catalog.
"I had the notion that this song that wouldn't normally get to Willie Nelson fans was now heard more widely than I could ever could make it," said Hunter in a phone interview from Washington state. "It was a great honor."
That's the way things work for Hunter, a 40-year veteran of the children's music scene who will perform at Sam Hughes Elementary School Saturday night as a fundraiser for Second Street Children's School, a nonprofit educational center for preschoolers.
People are also reading…
While acts such as the Doodlebops and the Wiggles play arenas to thousands of kids on a regular basis, Hunter is more underground — the Talib Kweli of kids tunes, if you will. His songs like "My Turtle Fred" and "We've Been Waiting for You to Come to This Place" have crept their way into classrooms across the country, and many have become standard singalong treats.
Hunter considers himself a "straight-ahead folk singer," and he attributes his love of music to his own childhood.
"When I was a kid, we sang in the car a lot," Hunter said. "We would turn off the radio and sing on road trips, 'I've Been Working on the Railroad,' 'Red River Valley.' It was so much fun. We are singing less as a culture these days. I love these events where I can get together with these families and encourage them to sing."
• What: Tom Hunter performs in a fundraiser for Second Street Children's School, a nonprofit educational center for preschoolers.
• Where: Courtyard of Sam Hughes Elementary School, 700 N. Wilson Ave.
• When: 5:30-7 p.m. Saturday.
• Cost: $12 through Antigone Books, 411 N. Fourth Ave.; the Second Street School office, 2430 E. Second St.; or the Tucson Community School office, 2109 E. Hedrick Drive.
• Hear more online at myspace.com/tomhuntersongs.
