Jon Gailmor

Vermont singer-songwriter Jon Gailmor roots many of his compositions in political and environmental concerns, yet his strongest material consistently targets younger listeners. As longtime host of the children’s program Just Kiddin on Vermont’s WDEV, a broadcast that began in 1979, he has delivered clever songs about circus animals in “Jumbo the Elephant,” dogs seeking schooling in “Randy and Ned Go to School,” the pleasures of sand play in “Dirt!,” the suburban transformation of the country in “Edifice Complex,” and global unity in “Letters.”

Born in Ossining, New York, Gailmor relocated with his family to a Philadelphia suburb at age four and then to Connecticut at age fourteen. He absorbed much of his political outlook from his father, William Gailmor, a Daily News and PM magazine reporter who also hosted a radio talk show before being blacklisted in the McCarthy period. The household regularly featured the folk music of Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, and Josh White, while Gailmor’s sister Wendy Newton later established and ran the Green Linnet record label.

After earning a sociology degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1970, Gailmor pursued music and formed a duo with singer-songwriter Rob Carlson. The pair issued the Polydor album Peaceful Kingdom in 1973, yet Gailmor grew dissatisfied with its polished production and the label’s attempt to position the act as the next Seals and Crofts. He stepped away from performing, spent two years busking across Europe, and supported himself by making affordable jewelry.

Upon returning to the United States, Gailmor resumed work as a solo artist and issued the adult-focused album Passing Through in 1978. The decisive shift occurred the next year when he began playing for children; what started as a single radio broadcast proved popular enough to become a weekly series still on the air two decades later. His first children’s-inclusive collection, Gonna Die with a Smile, appeared in 1979. The later release Dirt! brought further recognition when its title track earned an honorary mention for Best Children’s Song from the National Academy of Independent Record Distributors in 1984.

Gailmor’s subsequent recordings address both adult and young audiences. Generations, released in 1987, and Childish Eyes, issued in 1995, drew directly from his and his wife Cathy’s experiences raising their three children, Aaron, Maya, and Michaela.