I grew up on Raffi.  Who is Raffi?  He’s a Canadian singer-songwriter who was very popular in the children’s music set back in the 80s.  He sang Baby Beluga, Bananaphone and Down by the Bay, among many, many others.  We had a whole section of Raffi records in our record collection and listened to them regularly.  I even went to a Raffi concert when I was about eight and waited in line to get his autograph (which I’m sure my parents still have – along with all of the records). 

I’ve sung Raffi’s biggest hits many, many, many times – first as a kid, then as a baby sitter and preschool teacher and then as a parent.  We sang I Like to Eat Eat Eat Apples and Bananas to Clare when we were trying to get her to eat applesauce and bananas.  We sang Down by the Bay daily for about a year when it was Clare’s favorite song.  Tonight Jeremy sang Baby Beluga to Sammy at bedtime since he asks for it as his bedtime lullaby.  We are big, big Raffi fans around here. So when I saw that Raffi was playing a concert in Portland – well, I jumped on it.