Hi everyone and thank you for tuning in to the 343 episode of Awards Chatter,

the Hollywood Reporters Awards Podcast.

I'm the host Scott Feinberg,

and my guest today is a singer-songwriter

who has recorded and produced 32 albums

over the last 45 years, several of which have gone

gold and platinum. But what makes this three-time Grammy nominee such a trailblazer

and a rarity is that his music has almost exclusively been created for children.

Indeed the Los Angeles Times called him quote the first children's music

superstar close quote and quote the springstein of the preschool set close quote, and quote, the Springsteen of the preschool set, close quote.

The New York Times said he is quote, a superstar for the nursery school set, close quote,

and is quote widely credited with setting a new standard for children's music close

quote and the Washington Post described him as quote the most popular children

singer in the English speaking world world, close quote.

I'm talking, of course, about Rafi Kavukian, the 2006 recipient of the Fred Rogers Integrity

Award who is better known to and loved by kids as simply Raffy.

Over the course of our conversation,

the 72-year-old and I discussed his own childhood,

which he previously described in his 1999 autobiography, The Life of a Children's Troubadour, as quote,

melancholy, close quote. The invitation that in the early 70s led him, an aspiring folk singer and guitar player who was trying to be like

Bob Dylan and James Taylor to perform in front of children for the first time and

how that in turn led to his breakout 1976 children's album,

...