RALPH'S WORLD Rocker finds niche in children's music

His inspiration began by teaching a weekly class for moms and tots.
By ISAAC GUZMAN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
With his band the Bad Examples, Ralph Covert played rock clubs the world over, turning up the volume on his Chicago-bred brand of indie rock.
Lately, however, Covert has been performing a lower-decibel brand of his smart pop songs. With Ralph's World, an outfit that includes several members of the Bad Examples, he plays music targeted at a slightly younger audience -- children.
Covert says there are only a few key differences between a Bad Examples gig and a Ralph's World show.
"With the Ralph's World show, there tends to be less smoking and more breast-feeding," Covert says. "It's just juice boxes on the floor instead of beer."
Differences
Musically, there really isn't much difference between a typical indie-rock band and Ralph's World. On the new album "The Amazing Adventures of Kid Astro," the title track and "Fee Fi Fo Fum" possess the intensity and groove that any rocker would be proud of -- and most parents would still appreciate after repeated listenings.
Except that the lyrics to "Kid Astro" could very well be the treatment for a new Nickelodeon show and "Fee Fi Fo Fum" owes an obvious debt to a classic fairy tale. But for Covert, the gap between adults' and kids' songs is slim.
"With a Ralph's World song, you're singing about pets instead of romance, but it's still about yearning," he says. "And Ralph's World songs tend to be shorter because of the attention span."
Getting his start
Covert began writing children's music in the late '90s, shortly after the birth of his daughter. He was teaching at a local music school and was asked to take over the weekly Wiggleworms class for moms and tots.
He began improvising silly songs such as "Mommy Needs Coffee" and found a new source of inspiration. As he began writing songs that would end up on albums such as "Peggy's Pie Parlor" and "Bottom of the Sea," he always had a place where he could try out ideas, and he discovered that kids like to rock, too.
"Wiggleworms was like having a weekly focus group," he says. "I could just goof off and have fun. And I realized really quickly that I was going to be bored stiff if I didn't play songs that were loud and upbeat, which parents and kids really respond to."