Paul Epp is shown in his studio. The 2000 Free State High School graduate living in Nashville, Tenn., came up with the idea for a self-empowering children’s album after a stint as a substitute teacher.

Paul Epp plays trumpet and piano in addition to composing and arranging music.

Charlie the Cheetah can’t seem to slow down and pay attention. Lori the Lion hogs the ball on the soccer field. Roy the Rhino suffers from a serious video game habit. Gary the Goose is a big bully.

But, on Paul Epp’s new CD, “Animal Friends,” the creatures turn bad habits into good ones thanks to hard work, common sense and the support of family and friends.

Epp, a 2000 Free State High School graduate living in Nashville, Tenn., came up with the idea for a self-empowering children’s album after a stint as a substitute teacher.

“I did my master’s degree at (University of) Cincinnati,” Epp explains, “and after I finished, I worked in the public schools there. I got to see a lot of kids and saw what they were listening to and how it was affecting them. And these kids weren’t listening to kids’ music; they were listening to hard-core rap that they were kind of living out. It wasn’t good for them, in my opinion.”

When Epp discovered that a friend worked for a children’s music producer in New York City, an idea started to hatch.

“I was also listening to a lot of kids’ music, at the time, and a lot of it is really bad,” he recalls. “It’s kind of cheap, and not very thoughtful. And I thought if I was a kid, I wouldn’t listen to that.”

So Epp, who plays trumpet and piano in addition to composing and arranging, invited his college friend, singer and composer Charlie Anderson, to join him on the project.

Between the two, they wrote 12 songs featuring lovable yet flawed animal characters. Epp did all the arranging and even drew preliminary sketches of Workout Sloth, Rabbit Jack and the others for the CD jacket.

Then, with money saved from his substitute teaching days (he was back in Nashville by this time, gigging and teaching piano), Epp hired musicians to help him record the tracks and rented a studio. Charlie sang lead on all the songs.

“I wanted to use real instruments — as opposed to prerecorded tracks and synthesizers — and do professional studio musician-quality music,” Epp explains, “something that wasn’t silly and cheap but was more musically validating, so the parents would enjoy it. Each song has a positive message about how to be a better person. We have ragtime, and Stevie Wonder and Beach Boys influences — stuff like that — because if the parents don’t like it, they won’t encourage their kids to listen to it.”

Epp hopes to market the CD to teachers as well as parents.

“We’re going to parent magazines and we have a good shot at getting reviewed on some parent and grandparent Web sites,” he says. “I want to hit educational retailers. Some of the songs, a gym teacher could use for a class.”

Pam Bushouse, Epp’s choral teacher at West Junior High and Free State and director of Choristers, a training choir for the Lawrence Children’s Choir, featured a song from the album, “Andy the Blue Raccoon,” in the group’s fall concert.

“The songs teach kids a lot of cool things, and the melodies are great and nicely sung,” Bushouse notes. “My favorite children’s CD used to be the King Singers’ “Kid Stuff” and I’d give it as gifts to everyone. Now, I’ll be giving this one.”