Since 2009, award-winning family recording artist and activist Steve Elci has created rocking music with positive messages for children and adults. On his sixth album, All Together Now, Steve’s inspiring songs encourage kids to “imagine a world like never before.” All Together Now, with special guests, Grammy-winning Alphabet Rockers, will be released on July 19, 2024.

 

All Together Now is an incredibly personal album for Steve Elci, and every song connects to the recurring theme of “change” that has run throughout his life. Growing up in the ‘80s, Steve witnessed music changing the world, especially through the Live Aid and Farm Aid benefit concerts and charity singles like “We Are the World.” Inspired by the powerful impact that music can have, Steve conceived of All Together Now as a vehicle for real change. He hopes to connect children with parents, motivating them to make a difference in their communities and beyond.

 

“All Together Now represents my vision for family music, and in many ways, it pushes the genre’s boundaries,” says Steve Elci. “Lyrically, the album is poetry that speaks to children with passion, promise, and comfort, while resonating with parents through hope and love. This dual layer of writing weaves a musical tapestry that forms the foundation of my efforts. The album also broadens the scope of my musical style because today’s young listeners are very hip and savvy to contemporary sounds. But most of all, All Together Now is a call to action!”

 

A highly accomplished artist and producer who was inducted into the New England Music Hall of Fame this year, Steve Elci crafted the songs on All Together Now with the “musician’s musician” in mind, striving to reach new heights in performance, fidelity, and design. In a departure from his previous releases, he embraced the “one-man band” recording process, taking on the roles of writer, performer, producer, and engineer.

 

All Together Now covers topics as wide-ranging as saving the environment, working toward peace, fighting bias, loving yourself for who you are, chasing your dreams, and the fulfillment inherent in friendship, love, and hope. A standout is “We Rise Above,” with its compelling vision of a world without war, hunger, bias, or pollution. Other highlights include “Puppy,” an alt-rock ode to love for a family pet, co-written and featuring Grammy-winning Alphabet Rockers, and the rollicking sea shanty, “Pirate Sails, Ginger Ales, And Tall Tales,” which showcases a crew of very friendly pirates! The joyful pop-rock “The Power Of The Sunflower” was inspired by a walk Steve Elci took through Harkness Park in his hometown of Waterford, Connecticut, where there is a garden of majestic sunflowers whose faces always point to the sun. Steve says, “Anyone who meets these flowers falls under their spell of happiness and peace.”

 

All Together Now will be available on all major platforms.

 

ABOUT STEVE ELCI:

A professional musician and activist for 34 years, Steve Elci’s love for catchy hooks and his soaring vocal style have won acclaim from fans and critics alike, including an Emmy nomination for his 2013-14 children’s web series, Kidsploration, and induction into the New England Music Hall of Fame in 2024. Steve is just as thrilled to entertain local fans in Connecticut as he is when performing as far afield as Franklin, Tennessee’s Pilgrimage Festival, where he shared the bill with Justin Timberlake and Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder.

 

Steve’s dad, himself a Connecticut-based musician, performed, directed, and arranged for many regional Big Bands from the late 1940s until 2010. Growing up in Waterford, Connecticut surrounded by the sounds of Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, and many others from the Big Band Era, Steve soaked it all in and knew he was destined to become a musician. He learned to play drums in grade school and soon added guitar, writing and playing original music throughout high school. A degree in TV, Radio, and Video Production from New England Institute of Technology led to a ten-year stint as a television news editor, but Steve always knew that he would return to music.

 

That return took the form of co-founding a surf/punk band called Superbald, whose primary claim to fame was writing and recording “Submarine Town,” a theme song used by Connecticut politicians to save the Electric Boat Submarine Base from closing in 2004. During that period, Steve played with several other rock bands, and he also became a dad. At his elder son’s third birthday party, Steve took out his guitar and, on the fly, made up some songs for the kids. Seeing kids and parents dancing and singing to his spontaneous compositions brought an almost instant realization that Steve’s true calling was to be a children’s musician.  He founded his group, Steve Elci & Friends, in 2009, and the rest is history!

 

Steve explains, “I realized I loved those songs and writing kids’ music. It might have started as an accident (I thought I was a punk rocker for life, right?), but I went out and performed my kids’ songs and felt happy and fulfilled as a musician and a writer – and it’s been working ever since!”

 

Previous albums include Nutmegger (2022), Jump in the Puddles (2018; Parents’ Choice Award), Imagination Nation (2014; title track, Akademia Award), Crayons in a Box (2012; title track, John Lennon Songwriting Contest finalist), and Vowels (2009; Parents’ Choice Award).

 

Album Details: All Together Now

Release Date:  July 19, 2024

Label: Imagination Nation Records

For all ages

SRP: $12 (digital download, limited CDs available)

Running time: 33 minutes