Jim Parker
ON MY STREET
Following the release of Around the World I continued to tour with Ernie Coombs and appear on his television show. Through that national exposure, I became more well known and by 1993 I was ready to make another record. Again, with Chris Evans at the helm and Frank Watt behind the board we went into The Playroom recording studio and through August to October recorded the next record which was titled, ON MY STREET. The concept for this album was based on the idea that children’s worlds were really their home and the few blocks around it so rather than travelling somewhere far away we would just walk down the street. I wrote the songs over the previous years both at home and while touring and once again my wife Susan helped out. We brought back Professor Bellybottom and introduced a new character, Hogey the Hobo Hippo. Hogey became a mainstay character on my live show for many years after as a puppet Susan made.
Once again I played most of the acoustic guitars and Chris played the electrics. This time we used real drums which I played and had more friends in to play various other parts. They were Lance Anderson (keys), Rodrigo Chavez (percussion), Rick Cormier (fiddle), Paul Irvine (saxophone and piccolo), Fraser Lawrason (bass), Shannon Lew (BG vocals), Norm Ryan (saxophone), Paul Saftich (percussion), Robert Saftich (percussion), Pete Vuur (percussion). Once again we had kids on the record this time from North Agincourt Public School in Scarborough.
The songs were…
ON MY STREET
IT’S WALKING TIME
I’M A HOBO HIP-HIPPOPOTAMUS
LISTEN TO THE RAIN COME DOWN
SING A RAINBOW
CLEANER WORLD
THAT’S HOW HAPPY I AM
ABC ROCK
BAZOO BAZAA
OUT ON THE FARM
EVERYBODY’S WORKING TO MAKE IT BETTER
I LIKE YOU
