Faith Zhao & Ben Aviles

From top to bottom: 1. On protecting the Boundary Waters, Otis Environmental Author Amy Freeman said, “If you’ve been before, try and take someone new the next time you go. I think the more people that know about the place [they] understand it, love it, and want to protect it.” 2. Lower schoolers danced around the stage, eventually forming a mosh pit. The dancing intensified, leading to the band to ask kids to return to their families. 3. The Bennett Gallery features nature artwork from students of all grade levels, including Arthur Risdall ‘37 and Lilah Mairose ‘28. The curators wanted the gallery to feel like taking a walk outside. 4. Eighth graders in Woodshop created canoe paddles for the exhibit. The canoe was a reference to the Freemans’ book, “North American Odyssey, 12,000 Miles Across the Continent by Kayak, Canoe, and Dogsled.” 5. Students listen during assembly as the Freemans share their experiences in the JNA. 6. Alex Rozumalski ‘26 made artwork in a joint project between Block Printmaking and Marine Biology. The text by Rozumalski’s artwork said, “We have over-harvested, pollluted, and physically altered ecosystems, in some places irreparably. But it doesn’t have to remain that way.” 7. Lower School students created an eco-friendly felt art piece of the natural world. Most of the wool was dyed naturally with onion skins, choke berries, indigo, and dahlia flowers. 8. Many families enjoyed the Okee Dokee Brothers concert. Overcash reminisced, “My dad has always been a fan of folk music, so the Okee Dokee Brothers reminds me of him. I think he got me into it.”

     On Apr. 22, kids danced and yelled in the JNA– that is precisely what the Okee Dokee Brothers wanted. They performed as part of the Earth Day Odyssey. 

     “Let’s just keep it simple,” sings banjoist Justin Lansing on the song “Can You Canoe.” For Sonny ‘36, it was simple. His favorite part of the night was “just dancing with my friends.”

     “Can You Canoe” is off the album that won the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Children’s Music Album. Following the Grammy, they have been nominated for Best Children’s Music Album four other times. Despite acclaim, Lansing and guitarist Joe Mailander have “ke[pt] it simple.” Since childhood, the band has been grounded in the power of nature and friendship. 

     The playful duo started in kindergarten because their sisters were friends. Mailander said it started with “playing in the backyard, and then it turned into sports, and then it turned into imagination, then music and songwriting.”

     In their Colorado childhood, the outdoors was a second nature. Mailander said that the friendship took off as camp counselors, “encouraging each other to write songs and learn Bob Dylan songs and John Denver songs.” 

     From camp counselors, their friendship only accelerated. As teenagers, they began camping together. Mailander said the scenic backdrop “slowed things down so that we could deepen our friendship. Moments were stretched out longer.” He said they connected with “the life force pulsing through nature and our own bodies.”

     The two performed in a larger folk band during college, but wanted a more “portable, affordable” version of the band, where they did not have to stay up until 2 a.m. They leaned into children’s music, forming Okee Dokee Brothers in 2005. Mailander said, “It fit our personalities.” 

     Their bluegrass-based family-filled music broke through with their Adventure Album Series. From 2012 to 2016, the Okee Dokee Brothers rooted their albums in adventures. This included a 30-day canoe expedition on the Mississippi, an Appalachian escapade, and a trip along the Southwest Continental Divide.  

     All three adventure albums received at least a Grammy nomination. However, they made sure to “keep it simple.” Still, the pillars of simplicity and nature remain vital. He said the goal is to “provide a venue where people can connect and remember the simple beauties of life: getting outside, getting creative, and connecting with our families and friends.”

     The nature of kids makes this goal easier. “Family music keeps you humble,” Mailander said, “There are always kids yelling at the show.” “They remind us not to take ourselves too seriously.” Mailander believed that the recognition was not an endpoint, but rather “a signal for us that we were on the right path and to keep going.”

      Mailander said, “It’s not really about us. It’s about the intergenerational interactions in the audience where parents are dancing with their kids or a grandparent singing with their grandchildren.”

     This was true for students at the Earth Day Odyssey, too. Attendee Milo Richard ‘28 said, “I listened to them when I was younger, and it was a throwback moment and super nostalgic.” Superfan Willow Overcash ‘28 shared that moment of nostalgic friendship with Richard. For her, the concert “reminded me of camping with my friends and family.” 

     Mailander thought this intergenerational connection transcends divides. Mailander said music has the power to “remind us of our humanity.” “We’re all humans trying to remember how to stay grounded and healthy and loving.”

     For this reason, they don’t care if they are performing at the Austin City Limits Festival or alongside Minnehaha Creek. In the end, “it doesn’t matter if it’s a big fancy venue with thousands of people buying tickets or if it’s kind of a smaller local thing, because the message of the songs is the same: keep it simple, and we’re all connected.”