The Paducah native composer, musician and producer took home the Children's and Family Emmy award for best music direction and composition for an animated program for his work on the second season of the show, which brings to life Arnold Lobel's classic children's book series.
At first, Mark Evitts said he wasn't sure if his hometown sound was right for the world of "Frog and Toad." The composer remembers struggling with the decision – one that he now feels is vindicated.
"Do people really want to hear the music of Western Kentucky? Do they really want to hear my influences of Western Kentucky? And the answer is, it's bigger than me," he said. "Yes, the world wants to hear that, and the world should hear that."
All the episodes in the first two seasons of the animated series feature original scoring by Evitts. The composer said its melding of genres reflects his foundations as a young musician at Paducah Tilghman Middle School, where he remembers choosing to join the orchestra to avoid gym class with a classmate.
"I'm like falling in love with theory, and I'm falling in love with Bach, counterpoint and just really loving theory and loving writing music," Evitts said. "Once I got to high school ... I would carry sheet music with me and write out whatever I was hearing in my head at the time."
He also remembers times when his enthusiasm for music would distract him in science class.
"I'll never forget my chemistry teacher said, 'Mark, I know you're a musician. The class– Everyone knows you're a musician. But for right now, let's focus on chemistry.'"
Evitts describes his artistic vision as being one focused on empowering the unique and specific voice of artists. That's what led him to pitching his hometown sounds of western Kentucky to the showrunner for "Frog and Toad."
The composer said that one of the best examples of the region's influences in the show's scoring is the song "Let Me Make the Cake" from its first season. In it, Evitts thought of individual instruments in a duet representing the characters. A piano for Frog and, for Toad, the violin.
"So Frog – he loves his friend Toad – and he wants to make Toad a cake. And, Toad is a little bit of a perfectionist, and he's watching Frog make this cake, and he sees him struggling. And so Toad is like, 'Let me take over a little, let me make my own cake.'"
As the scene continues, Evitts's duet becomes a violin solo as Toad takes command of the kitchen, and the situation.
"If you watch the show, when the fiddle takes over, the melody is really when Toad scoots Frog out of the way," Evitts said. "At first, it's like piano and fiddle, and then it eventually becomes just solo fiddle. And, I wanted that to represent what was happening on the screen."
The second season of "Frog and Toad" premiered on Apple TV+ in spring of 2024. A third season has not been announced by the streamer.
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