The GRAMMY Award-winning musical duo, The Okee Dokee Brothers, once wrote an album called Through the Woods while hiking part of the Appalachian Trail (AT). They also wrote an album (Can You Canoe?) while canoeing on the Mississippi River, and they wrote yet another album (Saddle Up) while horseback riding on the Continental Divide. The Okee Dokee Brothers’ outdoor adventures and the resulting music inspire people of all ages to “keep it simple—unplugged and outside.” And I love that about them.

Though categorized as children’s music, The Okee Dokee Brothers meld American bluegrass and folk to create nature-infused songs that go way beyond what I would consider “children’s music.” Sure, some songs are silly and perfect for kids, but others offer profound insights, and most of them will make you want to tap your feet and sing along—whether you’re listening at a campsite or just driving in the car.

I recently had a chance to sit down with Joe Mailander, who makes up one half of The Okee Dokee Brothers, while the other half, Justin Lansing, was out on paternity leave. We discussed the duo’s journey thus far, as well as their music and how their outdoor adventures have shaped it.

Becoming The Okee Dokee Brothers

Mailander, 39, and Lansing, 40, are Colorado natives who met when they were just three years old. They’re not actually brothers, but the two grew up together, and their love for music and nature blossomed in those early years.

“We had a shared childhood of just playing together, imagination, [and] outdoor adventure,” Mailander says. “[Eventually] we just started making music and writing songs, playing Bob Dylan and John Denver songs, and we were camp counselors at a summer camp in the Rockies and we would sing folk songs around the campfire. We loved getting people singing and just the idea of communities connecting around music, and we always loved songs about the outdoors. It just felt right. Our first song that we wrote together was called ‘In the Mountains.’ So, we’ve always been writing about nature.”

As the two started playing for different crowds, they realized how much they preferred to play family events with mixed age groups, including kids.

“We started thinking about what if we played more park concerts and all-ages events at libraries and schools and theaters,” Mailander says. “And we started writing those types of songs to get kids and families dancing. And we realized it didn’t have to be preschool stuff; it could just be old folk songs that don’t have to do with drinking or murdering anybody.”

“We found some great folk songs that worked for all ages, and we thought we should start a band and we came up with The Okee Dokee Brothers, and that had so much momentum and energy behind it that we kind of just put all of our focus on that project. And that’s what we’ve been doing now for 16 years.”

Writing Music in the Great Outdoors

Mailander says the outdoors has been an important source of inspiration for him and Lansing, both as individuals and as a band. He talks about nature almost reverently, explaining that the idea behind their excursions on the AT, the Mississippi River, and the Continental Divide was to carve out time for their minds and bodies regulate to the natural rhythms of nature and then see where that would lead creatively.

“[Nature is] the place we go to kind of slow our thinking down and get into a different headspace,” explains Mailander. “That’s where you can start noticing little details about the natural world around you and how they can teach you little lessons. And a lot of our songs or poetry comes from just observing—for instance, just what it feels like to float down a river or observe how a dragonfly lands on a plant and how its wings kind of catch the sunlight. Those are images that find their way into our songs, and it just requires a little bit more intention and slowness, I guess. So that’s the reason we go out there.”

Another important goal with their album-writing excursions was to study the music from the various regions they traveled to. In the case of Through the Woods, the pair dug deep into the music of Appalachia, including “back-porch banjo picking and fiddle music.” With Can You Canoe?, they tapped into old river songs, and with Saddle Up, they explored western music.

Ways to Listen and Support

Each of The Okee Dokee Brothers is a dad, and in addition to raising their families, the duo will continue touring in 2025. They’re also working on a new album that’s filled with nature-inspired songs. Live shows start up a week from today, February 15, 2025, in St. Cloud, Minnesota. (Having seen them live with my family, I highly recommend the experience.)

If you have young kids, check out “Brambletown”, a musical film by The Okee Dokee Brothers on PBS Kids. Their latest album, released in 2023, bears the same name, Brambletown. Another favorite in my household is “Thousand Star Hotel,” an audiobook by Mailander and Lansing that has an accompanying same-titled album.

For families that love to sing around a campfire, The Okee Dokee Brothers’ Songs for Singin’ is a must-listen. (You can even buy the album with an illustrated songbook, which includes lyrics and chords.) And nature lovers shouldn’t let winter pass without listening to Winterland, an album inspired by Mailander’s and Lansing’s adventures ice fishing, dog sledding, and other seasonal shenanigans.

With several GRAMMY nominations and a GRAMMY Award for Best Children’s Album already under their belts, The Okee Dokee Brothers have come a long way from their time as camp counselors leading folks in song around a campfire. And yet, in a way, that’s still exactly what they’re still doing.

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