The Marvelous Toy by Tom Paxton

Tom Paxton has been an integral part of the folk music community since the Greenwich Village scene of the early sixties. His classic songs, including Ramblin' Boy, The Last Thing on My Mind, and Bottle of Wine, have won him the admiration of fans all over the world. He hosted the acclaimed BBC Radio series Tom Paxton's America and was chosen as honorary chairman of the board of the World Folk Music Association. He has created six songbooks, thirty-two albums, and countless memorable concerts. Philip Elwood of the San Francisco Examiner noted, What seemed like the entire audience was singing along. No one told them to, or directed them-they just were.

Paxton's songs, inspired by everything from family love to homelessness and recorded by such diverse stars as Willie Nelson and Placido Domingo, have stirred the emotions of three decades of audiences. Paxton is also finding ways to influence a new generation through such beloved children's songs as My Dog's Bigger Than Your Dog, Going to the Zoo, and The Marvelous Toy. Under his children's label, Pax Records, he has released several acclaimed albums, including Suzy Is a Rocker, winner of the prestigious Parents' Choice Gold Medal. His children's music has led him into a successful new career as a picture-book author. I love the way books inspire songs and vice versa, he says. But, most important, I have a real sense of discovery in having found yet another place where I belong.

Scott Alarik of the Boston Globe praised Tom Paxton for applying the same tools he developed for adult audiences to his children's songs, giving them an intelligence, wit and lack of condescension too rarely heard in today's booming children's music market.

Tom Paxton lives in East Hampton, New York, when he is not on tour. He and his wife, Midge, have raised two daughters, Jennifer and Kate.