Justin Roberts is known as a Children’s Indie Rock singer/songwriter. While trying to make it in the Indie Rock Adult world with a group called ‘Pimentos for Gus’ in the 1990’s, he took a day job in a preschool. Taking his guitar to entertain the kids, he began writing songs for them and produced his first album “Great Big Sun” (1997). Still unsure of his path, he headed to the University of Chicago to pursue a Ph.D. in religious studies. The music writing continued and was getting more attention than his studies, soon turning Roberts into a full fledged rocker with 7 albums released to date.

Many interviewers denote that Justin’s music is often adored by adults as well as kids. Themes range from milestones such as getting glasses and picture day at school, to family dynamics of moving and sibling relationships with the song my kids love, ‘My brother did it’.

Robert’s isn’t afraid to tackle the tough subjects either, as in ‘Sand Castle’ the song I was listening to with my kids. He wrote this song for a friend who lost his Mom. The music is mellow and slow and has a sorrow about the melody. In fact, I think it was this sense of sadness that made me stop to hear what the words were saying. The imagery is subtle, telling about this child and father out at the beach remembering and saying goodbye to the child’s mom. The last lines “She slipped through our hands/Just like a balloon returns to the sky/So Dad and I/Knew you’d be somewhere out in the sea/In a million sandcastles to be”

I think kids are a unique population when it comes to dealing with death and loss, so to have stumbled across another possible resource was a delight. I’d be interested if anyone knows of other children’s music that deals with death?

I’ve posted the song below to listen to with the lyrics here. For email/rss subscribers you may need to head to the original post site to hear the song (Scroll to the bottom of the page)

Sand Castle (2006)