Singer’s stories delight children
When Patti Ecker first started performing her children’s shows, she included only songs. Then, to the delight of her audience and the chagrin of her ego, she began using stories, too.
“When I started telling stories I noticed that the children’s faces would change and they would be right inside the story with me,” she recalls. “It hurt my feelings a little because I thought that only music could do that.”
Now Ecker will transport children with folk songs and traditional stories when she performs as part of the monthly Children’s Festival in the Inn at University Village on Saturday.
Many of her stories tell of America’s early settlers. “I don’t like to limit myself to pioneer stories, but I’m getting such a kick out of finding them,” she says. She has taken some from a children’s book she found in Michigan that was inspired by letters written long ago. Many pioneer letters are being brought out of attics, and more and more books about pioneer life are beginning to appear.
“I think this is a trend. All of a sudden there are many, many books about Pioneer life coming out that aren’t just ‘Little House on the Prairie,’” Ecker explains. Although the stories may be about life long ago, the themes are far from old-fashioned. Ecker says, "I like the fact that people are always just people. Hopes and dreams don’t really change whether you live in 1850 or 1994.”
Ecker, who first began performing for children at The Grove National Historic Landmark in Glenview, also says that she feels a responsibility to pass history on to young generations. She brings a banjo, she says, so she won’t be fibbing when she sings “I come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee.”
Then she explains to children that the American banjo was inspired by an instrument made out of a gourd, goat skin and cat gut that African-Americans had played in their native lands.
Children’s Festival performance by Patti Ecker, 2 p.m. Saturday, The Inn at University Village, 625 S. Ashland Ave., free
Nancy Maes - Chicago Tribune