How Kayte Became Auntie Kayte

Auntie Kayte is the second of eight children. She started singing at an early age, performing in a variety of school and community theater productions, as well as in a local folk group. She wrote her first two songs, You Can't Find Santa Claus in the Telephone Book and Hey Dr. Frankenstein when she was just 13, and started taking guitar lessons at 14.

It was also her job to keep her younger siblings in bed at night, so as a teenager she would sit in the hallway and sing them to sleep every night. When she was 16, she wrote Lullaby (now Lullaby of Hope) for her younger brothers and sisters, and it became part of their nightly ritual.

After college, Kayte took a different career trajectory, working for a number of years in social services and youth programming before becoming the internationally published travel photographer and writer, Kayte Deioma.

As a busy writer and photographer, Auntie Kayte didn't think a lot about writing or recording  songs until her youngest nephew was old enough to talk. When her 3-year-old nephew always wanted to be the "bad guy" at play, she felt like it might be useful to his development to see some other perspectives beyond just good and evil. So she started writing songs again, addressing specific issues that came up in conversation, like whether you should go around sinking pirate ships, and whether Dark Knights and dragons are inherently bad.

With lots of input from parents and teachers, Auntie Kayte has developed a collection of songs to help kids aspire to be the "good guy" in their own lives, while being themselves, making good choices and taking care of the planet.

She also has a collection of lullabies to help sooth babies and kids to sleep with melodies and messages of healing, love, comfort and safety (no falling cradles!).

The two CD set of Sleepy Time Songs and Happy Time Songs is in the works. In the mean time, you can listed to a few songs on the Music Page and see some lyrics to more songs from the new album on the Lyrics Page.