Lisa Loeb is the big headliner of the fourth annual SoCalMoms Great Big Family Play Day at the Autry in Griffith Park on Sunday.
But don’t tell that to her kids, ages 7 and just shy of 5.
“Normally, I take my family,” she says. “But this year it coincided with a big year-end school culmination festival at my daughter’s school, so they won’t be there. I’m trying not to let them know they’re missing it because they’ll be so upset. They had a really good time last year.”
The Great Big Family Play Day is a daylong event that features carnival rides, interactive experiences and live music from different artists in addition to Loeb, who’s back by popular demand for a second year.
She performs two sets, at 10 a.m. and noon.
“We picked Lisa to headline the Great Big Family Play Day because of her energy and the appeal of her music to both parents and kids alike,” says Tracy Fredkin, CEO and co-founder of Fun Family Brands. “We’ve heard from so many parents who are Lisa Loeb fans and are excited to share her new music with their kids.”
Loeb, who burst onto the scene in 1994 with her No. 1 hit “Stay (I Missed You)” from the “Reality Bites” movie soundtrack, has kiddie cred thanks to her children’s recordings. Her latest is last year’s “Feel What U Feel,” a winner of a Parents’ Choice Gold Award and on the American Library Association’s list of Notable Children’s Recordings. But she likes to think it appeals to listeners of all ages.
“All my kids stuff is inspired by entertainment of the early ’70s, when it was not geared toward kids as much,” she says. “There was still a lot of grown-up elements in the level of humor, storytelling, earnestness and silliness. I’ve tried to tap into that.”
For Loeb, kids music is like musical theater.
“There’s so much more variety,” she says, adding, “It inspires me to tell different kinds of stories, use different instruments and explore different textures than I would normally do in the singer-songwriter pop music world.”
As it turns out, she’s less and less in that world.
Loeb first dipped her toes into the children’s genre on the 2007 Barnes & Noble exclusive release “Catch the Moon” with singer-songwriter Elizabeth Mitchell, her freshman roommate at Brown University and one-time collaborator in the singing duo Liz and Lisa. She followed it with the 2015 Amazon music original “Nursery Rhyme Parade!”
That album features 35 familiar nursery rhymes and songs.
“I enjoy writing original music, but after playing so many kids shows I realized that kids respond to nursery rhymes, even my own kids,” she says. “They rush the stage and sing along, which is really wonderful.”
In fact, she often plays her kids songs at grown-up concerts.
“I think people enjoy hearing a variety when you’re at a concert,” says Loeb, who performs with Billy Lawler at the Grand Annex in San Pedro on May 13. “It’s more playful, more thoughtful, more interesting I think.”
