Great news! Bucky Halker is happy to announce the completion of an illustrated children’s book and CD project featuring children’s songs by the legendary songwriter Hoagy Carmichael. The recording spotlights the charming and talented vocal work of Chicago children ages 4-18 on all fifteen tracks. Children also appear as instrumentalists on nearly all the tracks - acoustic guitars, taiko drums, jarana, piano, electric bass and guitar, Japanese flute, and mandolin. Older Chicago “kidz” (ages 19-70) bring their own instrumental artistry to the recording, all well-known veterans of Chicago’s jazz, folk, rock, bluegrass, world, and ethnic music scenes. Such prominent players as Dan DeLorenzo (upright bass), Andy Brown (guitar), Carlos Mejia (Guatemalan marimba), Don Stiernberg (mandolin), Eric Schneider (saxophone), Brian Wilke (pedal steel guitar), Steve Gibons (violin), Joe Camarillo (drums), Steve Doyle (electric bass), John Abbey (upright bass), Gerald Dowd (drums), Russ Philips (trombone), and Kioto Aoki (taiko drums), brought their skills to this collaborative effort. Bucky joins in on nearly all the tracks as well, performing on acoustic and electric guitars, percussion, and harmonica. This unique combination of expertise yields a powerful tribute to Carmichael and the creative talent of Chicago kids of all ages! Chicago Kids Play and Sing Hoagy was produced by Bucky Halker, Toni Halker, and John Abbey. The music was recorded at Kingsize Sound Lab in Chicago and engineered by John Abbey. Beautiful original illustrations for the book were done for each song lyric by Mark Anderson with graphic design by Cathie Van Wert.