Ralph Covert, the creator of Ralph's World, a children's music group, is out with a new album Feb. 9. Previously of Chicago-based indie-rock group “The Bad Examples,” Covert uses high rock n’ roll energy with kid-friendly lyrics.

Favorite song on your new “All Around Ralph’s World” album: “
My Magic Trick,” which is the lead off track, is a fun song. There’s also a song called “Funniest Joke in the World.”

Favorite part of job:
Probably meeting the kids before and after the concerts because they’re just so excited. It’s fun. Writing the songs, recording, playing the concerts.

Nine albums in nine years! How did you manage that?
I don’t know. I think just the fun of doing it is what propels it (making albums.) We keep having fun doing it and the kids and parents love the songs. They keep making more kids, we keep making more records.

How is this album different from the others?
It’s got a bunch of different of travel songs and it’s kind of why I went with the “All Around Ralph’s World” title. Working some things like that into it, fun things the kids will accidentally be learning, that’s one of the neat things about music. You can put stuff in it that mixes fun with learning stuff. With the “Sally’s Trip” song, the girl is going around town counting out the time.

The “Pull-up” song for Huggies and similarly the steps of the “Potty Dance” song are the basic steps a kid would do with pull-ups. The song works because it’s a fun, catchy song, and they learn the dance and they accidentally learn how to pull up their diaper. It’s fun the way you can work the learning opportunities into the music and incidentally they learn how to tell time or put on their diapers or names and places around the globe. In the “All Around the World” song, it talks about all the places they can go.

What places do you talk about?
Everywhere. In one song, a boy travels around America with his parents to different cities and finds foods, things they have in each city. In the “All Around the World” song, it’s got everything from seeing the Eiffel Tower in Paris to seeing the market in Singapore to Mozambique to the Statue of Liberty. Fun stuff from all around the world. Yet in the great outdoors song, it ends up talking about things in your backyard to tie in the idea that the world is as big as your imagination, but it’s also as close as your own backyard.

What was your inspiration?
Children’s music started when my daughter Fiona was young and I was asked to do a class at Old Town School of Music. I enjoyed making music with her.

On Feb. 18 we’re doing a mom and kids event at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. On Feb. 14 we have a show at the Old Town School where it all started. I’m excited to kick off the new album then.

How is this different from your indie-rock group?
It’s more similar than you might think. I think a good catchy song is a good catchy song. The elements that make up a good song-good beat, catchy melody, clever lyrics, singing about something that matters to the listener-all those things are the same. With a kid’s song it might be singing about a wanting a puppy dog instead of wanting a girlfriend but both are yearning for companionship.

What are some of your goofiest lyrics?
One of the goofiest ever is one off the new record called “Pickle Juice.” The whole song is one big silly nonsense lyric. It might be the most nonsensical song I’ve ever written.

What do you want parents and kids to know?
My goal with every album has been the same from the beginning. I’m not interested in making a kids’ album per se. I’m interested in a great album that parents and kids can both love. I hear from parents all the time that they listen to the records even when their kids are not around. I think that’s the goal. Something the kids love and the parents love, too. That’s giving them something they can share. That’s pretty awesome.

What are your future plans?
We’re going on a nationwide tour.

Can you tell me about your work outside of kids’ music?
I’ve got a bunch of books. Two new books last year: Me and My Animal Friends is a picture book version of that song. Laurie Keller did the illustrations on that. She’s kind of a rock star in children’s books. She did the new CD cover, too. The other book is a picture book version of the Nutty Nutcracker Christmas, which is a musical I had running. G. Riley Mills is my playwright partner. The other musical was a version of Eleanor Este’s novel, A Hundred Dresses.

Do you like branching out?
It’s great. It’s so much creative fun and great to have the privilege to explore different forms of creativity. Also, my adult rock band has an album coming out this spring.

That’s adventurous. You’re a busy guy.
Yeah, last year was two books so it only seemed right to do two albums.