About Peter McCory

Peter McCory has been entertaining kids professionally since 1996. A life-long musician, he stumbled upon children's music by accident. While working as a hospital public relations director, he was asked to provide some music at a hospital-sponsored health and safety day for kids. When the day finally came, kids flocked around to listen and watch him play in the hospital lobby. Peter was hooked. Never had he found such an eager audience. He had a strange feeling his music would never be the same.

Today Peter performs several hundred shows for children a year. In between, he plays for adults, too. He has a special love of performing for seniors, and they seem to love his music as much as children do.

Peter was inspired by one-man band Bob Devlin, known around Washington, DC for his street performances and love of children. When Bob passed away, Peter began experimenting with his own one-man band sound, building on what Bob had done. And he found that playing different instruments simultaneously was fun! He decided to try to keep Bob's memory alive with his own one-man band act.

"I always tapped my foot when I played guitar, " Peter says. "I found out you could do a lot of things with those feet. One-man banding is kind of like toe tapping gone crazy. And it's crazy fun."

Peter loves to write... especially songs. He's written hundreds of songs in numerous different styles over the years. He's also written several works for the stage which have been produced, including a musical play (he wrote the script and songs), dramas, comedies, one-acts and children's plays.

Peter's CDs of original children's songs have won Parents Choice Recommended Awards and favorable reviews in School Library Journal and Booklist (the journal of the American Library Association).

Peter has another useful skill which came in handy. He grew up in his dad's workshop, and is very good with tools and tinkering. Many of the musical gadgets he plays had to be custom made in his shop. After all, you can't go to a music store and buy a gadget that lets you play snare drum with your foot. Some children get down on their hands and knees just to watch the levers and pulleys. Sometimes it's pretty obvious who tomorrow's engineers will be!

Pete's music doesn't stop when there's no kids around. When not performing for kids, you will often find him playing bass with the "Bristow Blues Band," Bristow, VA, and drums with the "Kena Shriners Band," Manassas, VA.

Way Back When...