When Brady Rymer got the call informing him that he was being inducted into the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame, the three-time Grammy-nominated musician was standing in his kitchen in Southold.

On the other end of the line was Tom Needham, the organization’s vice chairman, delivering the unexpected news.

Rymer was stunned.

“Really? Are you sure about that, Tom? You got the right number?” Rymer recalled asking him. “This isn’t Dee Snider from Twisted Sister, you know. This is little Brady out in Southold.”

But Needham had the right number, and on Dec. 6, Rymer will join the ranks of more than 130 musicians and entertainment industry figures honored by the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame.

For Rymer, 60, the induction celebrates a remarkable musical journey that has taken him from the East Coast rock circuit, where he shared concert bills with Bob Dylan and Dave Matthews Band, to becoming one of the country’s most successful children’s music performers.

Along the way, he’s earned three Grammy nominations, released more than a dozen albums and spent more than a decade playing bass with children’s music superstar Laurie Berkner.

And for nearly 25 years, he’s called Southold home. Rymer and his wife bought their house in 2000 and moved from New York City to the North Fork full time in 2002, when their children, Gus and Daisy, were young.

“We were just looking to change our life,” he told the Sun in an interview. “We kind of just stumbled out here on a little vacation and loved it so much. We found a house and we just plunged in.”

It was a decision he’s never regretted.

“We went on a gut feeling that this was going to be a beautiful place for the next chapter.”

From Good Homes to good mornings

Long before he was entertaining children, Rymer was the bass player in From Good Homes, a New Jersey-based rock band that developed a devoted following during the 1990s.

The group, whose eclectic sound blended rock, folk and improvisational jams, toured extensively and shared stages with some of the biggest names in music.

One particularly memorable show came in the summer of 1997, when From Good Homes opened for Bob Dylan at Loon Mountain in New Hampshire.

The concert happened to fall on Rymer’s birthday.

“Just to be able to kind of be on the same bill as Bob Dylan, it was very surreal,” he recalled. “It was such a fun day.”

Rymer watched Dylan’s band soundcheck and later caught the legendary singer’s performance from the audience.

He also tried to get close to Dylan as he emerged from his tour bus and headed toward the stage.

“He had a big bodyguard with him, and so I got as close as I could,” Rymer remembered, laughing.

But by the late 1990s, From Good Homes was winding down, just as Rymer’s personal life was opening up an entirely unexpected musical direction.

His son Gus was born in 1996, followed by daughter Daisy in 1998.

Suddenly, the songs he was writing were about being a father.

“I just started writing songs about being this new thing that was happening, being a dad with a kid and family,” he said.

He joked that the material wasn’t exactly suited to his old band’s repertoire.

“Hey guys, I got a new song. It’s called ‘You Got to Eat Your Fruits,’” he recalled imagining telling his bandmates. “And they’re like, ‘What are you talking about?’”

With help from From Good Homes horn player Dan Myers, Rymer recorded his first children’s album, Good Morning, Gus, in his New York apartment.

Initially, he had no ambitions of launching an entirely new career.

“I didn’t even know there was a kids’ music scene,” he said. “I just recorded those songs and put the CD out as a gift to my family and a gift to Gus, really.”

But one performance led to another. He met musicians through his children’s preschool and neighborhood parks, eventually assembling the Little Band That Could.

A second career was born.

Rock ‘n’ roll for the whole family

Rymer’s approach to children’s music was never about abandoning his rock roots. Instead, he drew inspiration from the musicians he’d always loved — Chuck Berry, the Grateful Dead, Motown and Bruce Springsteen. His goal was to make music would appeal to both children and their parents.

“I just try to write stuff that feels good, first of all, for me,” he said, drawing on experiences that are personal but also universal.

He sees little difference between engaging an audience of preschoolers and entertaining a crowd of rock fans.

“All the rock ‘n’ roll greats had these great ways of engaging audiences,” he said, citing James Brown and Springsteen.

The formula worked.

His albums Here Comes Brady Rymer and the Little Band That Could, Just Say Hi! and Press Play earned Grammy nominations in 2009, 2014 and 2017, respectively.

But some of his most meaningful work has taken place far from the Grammy spotlight.

Music that makes a difference

For nearly three decades, Rymer has performed for children with autism and other developmental differences, a commitment that began when his friend Monica Osgood invited him to perform at a New Jersey school she founded.

Rymer was struck by the children’s enthusiasm.

“They were up singing and dancing and playing with me,” he recalled. “There was a drum set there. Kids were playing along.”

He has returned regularly ever since. In 2011, those experiences inspired Love Me for Who I Am, an album developed with input from the students themselves.

Its title came from a young girl’s declaration: “Love me for who I am. Don’t try to fix me.”

Rymer continues performing at special education schools across Long Island and New Jersey, including through BOCES programs.

A full-circle celebration

The Dec. 6 induction ceremony in Stony Brook will bring together musicians representing three chapters of Rymer’s career: From Good Homes, The Little Band That Could and members of the Laurie Berkner Band.

And Rymer isn’t finished making music. He’s preparing a new album, Sleepy Highway, scheduled for release next spring — his first collection of lullabies. It’s a project nearly three decades in the making.

After recording songs inspired by Gus, Rymer began writing gentle, old-fashioned melodies for Daisy, whom he described as a peaceful child and an “old soul.”

Some of those songs date back to 1997 or 1998. Now, 27 years later, they’re finally getting their own album.

“I wrote my son a record,” he said with a laugh. “I need to write my daughter a record.”

The new project, he said, has brought his musical journey full circle.

“I’m really happy about it,” he said. “The band and the musicians just played so sweet.”

For a musician whose career began with rock clubs and concert tours, and blossomed through songs inspired by his children, the Hall of Fame honor is another unexpected milestone. And there’s plenty more music to come.

The induction ceremony will take place Sunday, Dec. 6, at 6 p.m. at the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame, 97 Main St., Stony Brook. The event is open to the public, with tickets available at limusichalloffame.org.