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Pierce Freelon has been writing music for kids as long as he has been a father. But it wasn’t until his father, the late Phil Freelon, became ill with ALS that he began to follow his calling and career path as a children’s musician. A Grammy^®–nominated musician, author, and educator, towards the end of his father’s life, Freelon became one of his primary care givers. The quiet moments beside his father while he rested became meditative, and in that meditation, Freelon rediscovered the songs that he had written for his own children. 

Of those prayerful moments in his father’s presence, Freelon said, “They brought me back to fatherhood as a place of joy and abundance. Creative richness.” In fact, the songs he rediscovered during that time became his first children’s album, D.A.D., which was released almost exactly a year after his father’s passing.

“It was a part of my grieving; it was a way to transform my energy into a celebration of fatherhood. It was really important to me…my being drawn to produce from that space was more like a calling.” 

Since the creation and release of D.A.D. Freelon has taken his writing talents into the world of children’s books. His first book, Daddy-Daughter Day, was originally a song by him and his daughter, Stella, about their time in the studio together (written while eating ice cream).  A publisher from Little, Brown and Company heard them on NPR, watched the music video, and immediately reached out to Freelon about writing a children’s book. Now, Freelon’s second book, Daddy and Me, Side by Side, about him and his son taking a camping trip, is slated to come out next year. 

When you listen to Freelon’s music, you are listening to his life. Former Durham City Councilman, and Professor of Political Science, Music and African, African American and Diaspora Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina Central University, Freelon’s music has been featured on programming such as the Today Show, NPR, Billboard, Rolling Stone, Now This, Parents Magazine, and MSNBC with Reverend Al Sharpton. He is the writer, composer and co-director of the animated series History of White People in America, an official selection of the Tribeca Film Festival, as well as the co-creator of Beat Making Lab. His album Black to the Future was nominated for Best Children’s Music Album at the 2022 Grammy Awards^®.

Those encountering his work, first realize that they are experiencing a labor of love created through the unique culture-making of his family, both biological and chosen. Indeed, familial connection is the well from which Freelon draws when composing music for children; continuing his family’s legacy of future-building, to which end he says, “I hope my kids feel the same kind of enthusiasm and love for the moments that I’ve plucked out of our very private, intimate spaces and offered as a gift to the world.”