With his second children's album, Up and Up, and his sixth children's book out later this year, I've Got Feelings, Coy Bowles has written a permission slip for kids to express their emotions.

A guitarist, keyboardist, singer and songwriter in the Zac Brown Band since 2007, Bowles has won three Grammys and co-written the country hits “Knee Deep,” “Colder Weather” and “Sweet Annie.” Yet his interest in writing and creativity stretches all the way back to his childhood in Thomaston, Georgia. Bowles says his parents taught him how to communicate about the emotions he felt at a young age. Now, through his original children's music and children's literature, he is helping kids, parents and teachers to do the same. 

“Part of my growth as a human has been asking myself, ‘What do I do to give back when so much has been given to me?’ And that's really turned into helping kids,” Bowles says. “So many studies show that the most powerful way to impact the future is by investing in early education. So much happens from birth to seven years old, so if you're trying to aim for making a change or a brighter place, there's nowhere better to start.”

A teacher friend, exhausted from hearing the same “clean up song” in her classrooms, implored Bowles to write a new one. Bowles cheerfully accepted the challenge and composed “The Clean Up Song” with the songwriter/producer/multi-instrumentalist, Carlos Sosa. Due to the isolation of the pandemic, Bowles and Sosa solely shouldered the entire load of the album – writing, arranging and recording Up and Up, all in Bowles’ basement studio in Atlanta.

“‘The Clean Up Song’ started with Carlos and me talking about ‘It’s Tricky’ by Run DMC, and how infectious it is, and how modern it sounds. When you play it, it just rocks. It's so unbelievably well-produced, and it stands the test of time,” Bowles says. “We thought, ‘What if we borrow some Rick Rubin-style, AC/DC guitar things that are punctuated over a big drum beat, and do our best to come up with hooks that are from that era of earworms? Rap music in the ‘80s and ‘90s was something that you heard once or twice, and that was all it took to know the song.”

Over the course of experimenting with sounds and styles, Bowles’ two daughters would often come to the basement to listen to the new tracks. Their feedback almost always ended with the predictable: “Dad, I’m hungry.”

“Carlos doesn’t have kids, so one day he said, ‘Dude, is that all they say?’ I’m like, ‘They laugh, they play, and they’re hungry all the time. That’s what being a kid is all about.’ Then I turned around and looked at him and said, ‘I’m hungry… I’m hungry…. I’m real, real hungry…’ over this beat that we’d been working on. We didn’t have any lyrics or melody on it yet. Carlos and I have this creative freedom with each other, where there aren't any rules. We started riffing on it, and we knew we had hit on something cool when the girls came back down and were jamming along to it. There’s not much better than seeing your own kids dance to the music you created.”

Up and Up follows Bowles' 2020 debut children's album, Music for Tiny Humans. He returned to one of the songs on the first project, "I've Got Feelings," to serve as the basis for his newest book of the same name, I’ve Got Feelings. He notes that it’s the first time he’s written a book based on a song, rather than the other way around. 

In a similar manner, Bowles looked to his prior book, 2020's Behind the Little Red Door, to bring I’ve Got Feelings to the page. The now series' most colorful characters is none other than the Little Red Door itself, tagging along as young readers are introduced to emotions ranging from jealousy to joy. Bowles can trace the concept of the little red door to his great aunt Millie. During one childhood visit, she guided him to a special and surprising place in her home. Stepping through a little door, he found a playroom decorated with furniture and strings of Christmas lights. Though he didn’t realize it at the time, he’d also discovered a place where his imagination could run free. Now in his forties, Bowles believes that pivotal moment kept him on his creative path.

“Seeing the world through the little red door has always been this spot that I held near and dear to my heart and my creative brain,” he says. “I can always pop in there and hang out or see what the world's like. It manifested itself into a place for other people and other kids to enjoy as well. My experience with my aunt Millie as a child has gone such a long way in my life and it all had to do with the childlike presence and youthfulness and humor that she carried with her. I want to live like that, and I want to be around that. I want to view the world through the little red door as much as I can.”

Bowles published his first children’s book in 2012, even before he had kids of his own. Since that time, he has partnered with Lakeshore Learning for two successful social emotional learning kits based off The Little Red Door, Scholastic Book Fair and the state of Georgia’s early education system to bring his children’s literature to more young readers. One of Bowles’ most gratifying moments is when a classroom of students drew what they imagined behind their own little red door, then sent the drawings to him in book form. Bowles is also a proud advocate for early education, eager to share his experiences through public speaking engagements. He’s not only actively involved in his home state of Georgia’s early education system but is also a highly sought-after speaker at countless conferences across the US for NAEYC, Headstart Associations, school districts and many more. It’s through his "Connect to Your Calling" keynote for educators that he likens the power of music to the immeasurable impact teachers have on children. 

“I've arrived in this place where my whole person is getting used, I get to use every creative skill I’ve learned to support kids, teachers and parents,” Bowles says. “The greatest gift I was ever given was the foundation to understand how I feel by my parents. I think every kid deserves that, but I didn’t realize until I was older that talking openly about how you feel with people is a rare quality. I’m on a journey to spread that gift as much as I can, which for me, all starts with opening and looking through a little red door."

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