Betsy Woodman is a songwriter, Grandmother and Artist. With her producer and musical partner Christopher Plante, Betsy has created her first Children’s Music Album titled “World of Imagination”

An unlikely pair, Betsy Woodman and Chris Plante teamed up in 2014 to write, record and produce children’s songs.  Woodman, a grandmother, and Plante, a composer and producer began a journey that would lead them to record over 70 songs.  Along the way, he became a husband and a new father. Chris is the grandson of Bill Plante, the long-time legendary editor of the Newburyport Daily News.

They were brought together by their teacher and mentor, Les Harris, Sr., a jazz drumming legend who taught at the Berklee School of Music in Boston for 30 years and was a great friend of Chris’s grandfather. A noted jazz piano player and Berkelee student himself, Plante and Harris had sessions where Woodman sat-in to listen; eventually, Plante proposed that she should take piano lessons from him, which she began.  During that time, she introduced her children’s lyrics to Plante, and thus began their collaboration.  He took her lyrics and their melody line and composed, arranged, orchestrated, designed, recorded and often did the vocals for each song until they had 24 songs.  Meanwhile, Woodman illustrated each song with colored pencil and ink drawings.  Their original intent was to produce a book with a CD.  

Before that could happen, Betsy’s beloved husband, Jonathan, a noted Newburyport architect and pioneer who was responsible for rehabilitating the first building on Inn Street in the early 1970s in the Urban Renewal District in the downtown, contracted ALS, a devastating illness to which he succumbed in March, 2019.  By necessity, their song project was put on hold.  

Following Jonathan’s death, in order to maintain her mental sanity, Betsy continued to write songs, but she shifted to writing adult lyrics about her survival and healing. She and Plante kept on with their collaboration and have produced over 45 adult songs to date. 

With Plante at the helm, they have begun the process of releasing their songs.  CDs have become obsolete for many, so they have gone to streaming, which is now the way that most people listen to music.  Amazon will, however, produce a CD on request. 

The duo have rearranged elements from Woodman’s drawings for their first two album covers.  The “World of Imagination,” is an album consisting of 12 children’s songs.  “There’s a Ghost in my Closet,” is a single release just in time for Halloween.  These songs will debut on line on all platforms from Youtube to Amazon, to Spotify to Pandora, etc., and even TikTok on Friday, 23 October 2020 under Betsy Woodman’s name.   

Before year end, they hope to introduce a single release, “Ongoing Storm,” about the pandemic and continue on with their second album of children’s songs, titled, “Just Bein’ a Kid!” In 2021, they plan to introduce a two album, “Healing, Hope and Halleluja,” a jazz album, one of dance songs, one of contemporary songs and one of Christmas songs.  Meanwhile, the writing of new songs continues.