Justin Roberts

Few American singer-songwriters have found a home in children's music quite like Justin Roberts, who was born around 1970 in Des Moines, Iowa. He performs with the Not Ready for Naptime Players, and his songs grew out of a job he took alongside his first band: teaching at a Montessori preschool in Minneapolis. Those classroom songs became the foundation of a catalogue that has earned him attention well beyond the nursery.

Roberts's debut, Great Big Sun, came out in 1997, after a tape of Christmas songs sent to his college friend Liam Davis persuaded Davis to make them into a record. By 2001 he was playing full time to appreciative crowds, and his shows have taken him to the Symphony Space in New York, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Moore Theatre in Seattle and Chicago's Ravinia Festival, as well as Lollapalooza. His Grammy nominations came for Jungle Gym in 2010, Recess in 2013 and the song Lemonade in 2017. A Greatest Hits collection appeared in August 2016, followed in October by an acoustic album of original songs featuring Robbie Fulks.