Toot! Toot! I’m Conductor Jack!
Toot! Toot! Hi, friends! I’m Conductor Jack, and you might know me from my viral YouTube channel or from one of my interactive family concerts, where phones get forgotten and preschoolers rock out in a toddler mosh pit to my simple, homemade folk music. As Parent Magazine put it, “it’s an old-fashioned concert where kids are delighted to participate and become the stars of the show.”
I come from a background in early childhood education, and I love getting kids excited about real instruments like the banjo, ukulele, guitar, steel guitar, harmonica, kazoo, and drums. I make homemade music, always human, never AI.
My puppet sidekick (who also happens to be my cousin) NayBob joins me for the fun, and he’s very funny. Along the way, I’ve been named Nashville’s #1 Kids Entertainer four years in a row, won an Emmy as a songwriter, had my songs featured in an Oscar-nominated film starring Willem Dafoe, and hosted a TV show seen on over 100 PBS Kids member stations.
On YouTube, I read children’s books every day of the week to promote literacy and help kids get excited about reading in a safe, low-stimulation space. My channel has over 135,000 subscribers and more than 85 million views, which is a lot of kids discovering the joys of reading! In this age of screens, AI, and nonstop stimulation, I like to keep things simple: acoustic instruments, paperback books, and good old-fashioned family fun.
My wife Kitty (who does everything for me, see below, LOL) and I live in Minneapolis, Minnesota and London, England. I also perform folk music for grown-ups (as “Jack Norton”) and even host a syndicated radio show where I play old 78 rpm records from the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s.
Now Meet My Cool Wife Kitty!
Ok, so my wife Kitty is truly the “brains behind Pa”. Hehe. She writes the music (and a LOT of the lyrics) to all my songs. She films, edits, and posts all of my YouTube videos.
Kitty was a preschool teacher for many years, so she draws from her classroom experience to help us create content for concerts and online videos.
Let’s get this outta the way right now: Yes, Kitty is her real name! And she really does have an uncle named Bunny! Kids love when I tell them this! LOL! But seriously, Kitty’s mum was from Jamaica, and her uncle is Bunny Wailer – band leader for reggae legends Bob Marley and the Wailers! So music is literally in her blood. Hehe.
We are high school sweethearts and have been best friends since we were 14. We’re now married soulmates (and still best friends, imagine that!). We’ve worn lots of hats over the years: traveling the country in our old beat-up pickup truck as bluegrass musicians, playing rowdy tunes in honky-tonks back in the day, teaching preschool, writing books, and even working on an organic farm and yoga retreat center! But through it all, two things never changed: our love for each other and our passion for educating, entertaining, and inspiring folks.
Our mission is to spread joy and celebrate the simple things in life. We feel called to do this by educating children through simple, organic, old-time entertainment. In addition to our YouTube channels and albums, we have a special live solo show starring, well, me: Conductor Jack. To learn how you can bring Jack to your school, theatre or event, click here.
The puppets and songs I sing were born in Kitty’s classroom as teaching tools to engage children in daily lesson plans. When parents and fellow teachers kept asking for more, we knew we had something special. We recorded simple albums and made teacher training materials so our peers could use our songs in the classroom too! Then we hit the road as digital nomads, traveling the back roads of America’s heartland, sharing our songs and stories with families and educators.
We’re not fancy folks with deep pockets, but we pour our hearts into everything we do. We are now focused on building our YouTube Kids channels. From writing songs, performing them, filming, editing… we do it all ourselves. Why? Because we believe in spreading hope, kindness, and good old-fashioned honesty to the world — one child at a time.
Give a subscribe to Conductor Jack’s Story Channel and Conductor Jack’s Song Channel.
Finally, to all the teachers, parents, and caregivers out there shaping young hearts and minds: YOU are our heroes. Thank you for nurturing imagination and learning. We’re so grateful to be on this journey with you!
With love,
Jack and Kitty Norton
Career Highlights
2003 – Kitty earns her degree in Early Childhood Education and starts working as a preschool teacher. Soon, Jack is bringing his guitar and the duo start writing songs under the name The Zinghoppers.
2005 – Conductor Jack starts performing at kid’s birthday parties and small appearances throughout Minnesota. Eventually, he appears at major venues such as The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, the Minnesota State Fair, and the Mall of America.
2009 – The Zinghoppers move to Nashville and began performing concerts across Tennessee.
2009 – Conductor Jack partners with HIT! Entertainment and appears at Day Out With Thomas events across the United States, performing alongside Thomas the Tank Engine.
2010 – Conductor Jack is named Nashville’s Best Children’s Performer by Nashville Parent Magazine. He would win the award for the next five years, before moving back to Minnesota. Performances include the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, the Bluebird Cafe, and CMA Fest.
2010 – Produced first PBS concert special for fundraising telethon. Filmed live in Cookeville, Tennessee.
2011 – The Zinghoppers first world tour! 24 country children’s concert tour for Armed Forces Entertainment and the U.S. Pentagon – performing for U.S. Military families serving overseas.
2012 – Season One of The Zinghoppers Show airs on PBS Kids, with Nashville Public Television as our presenting station, and The National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA) as our distribution partner.
2012 to 2018 – Conductor Jack performs an average of over 500 shows at schools, libraries, festivals, and theaters every year.
2013 – Conductor Jack performs at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
2013 – Kitty Norton and Jack Norton win regional Emmy Award for songwriting, Janet’s Planet, airing on PBS.
2013 – Season Two of The Zinghoppers Show airs on PBS Kids, with Nashville Public Television as our presenting station, and The National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA) as our distribution partner. Over 100 PBS Kids member stations air the interstitial series.
2013 – Produced second PBS concert special for fundraising telethon. Filmed live in Franklin, Tennessee.
2013 – Brand partnerships with KidzBop, Chick-fil-A, and Whole Foods. The Zinghoppers Show airs on over 174 countries thanks to licensing partnerships with The Armed Forces Network’s Family Channel and Trinity Broadcast Network’s Smile of a Child (preschool education channel).
2014 – Kitty and Jack move back to Minnesota.
2014 – Produced third PBS concert special for fundraising telethon. Filmed in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
2015 – Three Kitty Norton and Jack Norton songs appear in the soundtrack for Jug Band Hokum, a feature film acquired by Amazon Prime, starring Garrison Keillor, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Dom Flemons, and Charlie Parr.
2017 – Kitty Norton and Jack Norton compose and perform four original songs as the Zinghoppers for The Florida Project, an Oscar-nominated film starring Willem Dafoe, directed by Sean Baker (Anora, Tangerine). The film premieres at the Cannes Film Festival.
2019 – Conductor Jack returns to touring Europe, with family concerts in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Hungary, Czechia, and Denmark.
2020 – Founded a multimedia publishing company, where Kitty currently serves as President and CEO. Jack continues to tell bad jokes.
2023 – Founded a lifestyle and travel blog — averaged 500,000 monthly visitors. In October 2024, the blog gets 1.4 million unique visitors.
2025 – The Zinghoppers return with a new series for YouTube Kids which includes live action, animations, puppets, and more. The channel eventually becomes a vehicle for showcasing Conductor Jack’s Songs on YouTube.
2026 – Conductor Jack’s Story Channel on YouTube Kids launched, has over 5 MILLION views in first three months! In first 9 months the channel has 85 MILLION views and over 135,000 subscribers!
2026 – Conductor Jack launches “secret” Santa Storytime channel on YouTube – earns over 1 MILLION views and is monetized in less than five months.
Music for Healing: Volunteering At Children’s Hospitals
My wife and I passionately volunteer our time bringing joy to children’s hospitals across the country. We create uplifting experiences for young patients and their families.
Our performances, filled with singing, dancing, and laughter, aim to inspire hope and provide a dose of happiness, reflecting our deep commitment to supporting children in need through the healing power of music and play!
Why Don’t You Have Social Media?
I did! For a long, long time. And I watched my young audience change over time. Attention spans decreased as over stimulation online increased. Platforms changed too. Sites like Facebook were first introduced as ways to bring families and friends together, then they slowly transformed into a nonstop feed of ads, troubling news (anger increases engagement), and now AI slop. Instagram and TikTok are exploiting children and adolescents, and that also makes me sad.
I have always felt adults should “lead by example”, and I personally feel compelled to put down my phone, engage with the world in real life, and enjoy a simpler/more peaceful existence. I have no disrespect for others still using social media, in fact, I truly hope every person choosing to be on socials is finding joy and happiness.
It’s definitely been hard as an indie musician to delete the apps and walk away from the never ending self promotion, but the peace and serenity I find is so worth it.
Why Do You Hate AI So Much?
Because I love humanity! I love our planet! I love REAL homemade art and all its imperfections. I love artists and their creations. AI, by its very nature, is designed to steal, and that also is concerning.
I want kids to grow up in a world where their creativity is given a nurturing and safe space to grow. AI undercuts this. If you ask a child to draw a tree – and they use AI to “create” a tree – well, that “tree” will look perfect. This means in the future the world will never have an impressionist like Van Gogh or a cubist like Picasso – all creativity will be gone. Future art movements and breakthroughs, lost forever. Folks will press a button – and see what a corporation wants them to see – based on stolen work from the past. There is no future in a machine that only regurgitates the past. And don’t even get me started on AI-generated music or books.
To end this answer on a positive note, my goal is to get kids excited about “old-fashioned” things: like making their own music on real instruments and reading real books made my real authors. The world is uplifted through real art, and in that magical place of creation the soul discovers its humanity!
Are You Just A Grumpy Old Man?
Hahaha, no, but that movie was filmed in Minnesota (my home state). Wait, maybe I am a grumpy old man – if you see my wife Kitty at a show, you can ask her. She’ll tell you plenty about my love of coffee and hatred for how many guitar strings I break. So, yeah, no coffee and too many broken strings makes Conductor Jack a Grump! LOL.