Krista Tatschl Eyler ’98 has been singing and playing a guitar since high school but these days her audiences may need the occasional diaper change.

Strumming her signature red guitar, nicknamed Rhetta, she entertains kids and parents by performing more than a hundred shows a year in the Kansas City area. Her fan base is growing and last year she landed a gig playing the annual White House Easter Egg Roll.

It all started about five years ago when she signed off from her job as an on-air reporter at KMBC-TV in Kansas City after giving birth to son Joseph. She shifted careers to become a preschool music teacher, rekindling her passion for music and the joy it brings to kids.

That passion led her to create Funky Mama Music, which she describes as original funky music for kids that isn’t grating on parents’ ears.

She blends rock ‘n’ roll, bluegrass, gospel, funk and soul in high-energy tunes such as “Giggle Jiggle,” “Wishin For Fishin” and “Change My Pants, Please.”

“The way I’m doing it is kind of different from what others are doing,” she said of other popular kid entertainers such as Laurie Berkner and The Wiggles. “I have a more soulful sound – it’s not something you expect. I also sing a lot of different styles from Broadway to soul to rock ‘n’ roll. My music goes across all genres and generations.”

Eyler, who grew up in Overland Park, Kan., returned to the Kansas City area after graduation, eventually marrying Jarrod Eyler. The couple have two children, Joseph, 4, and Charlie, 9 months.
This spring she’s recording a new CD titled “Moo Juice” and working to take her music to the national level.

Read more at www.funkymamamusic.com.