Laurie Berkner Coming to The Bushnell, 6/21

The woman USA Today calls "the undisputed queen of kindie rock" is coming to The Bushnell in Laurie Berkner Solo! The You and Me Tour on Saturday, June 21, 2014. The children's music superstar will perform all her favorites, plus songs from her new album, Laurie Berkner Lullabies. The performance will take place at 3:00 p.m. in The Bushnell's Belding Theater as part of the Robinson and Cole Family Series.

Tickets prices start at $28.50 and are available by phone at 860-987-5900, online at bushnell.org, or in person at The Bushnell box office, 166 Capitol Avenue in Hartford. VIP packages are $100 and include preferred seating along with an after show meet and greet and photo opportunity with Laurie. Children under one year of age who will be sitting on a lap are free.

Laurie Berkner has been a professional musician since 1992, but her success as a children's recording artist was a surprise to her. "It was so unexpected," says Laurie. "I'd been performing in rock bands and struggling to write original music. Writing music for kids has not been a struggle at all. The more I started working on material for children, the more I realized that it opened up creativity in me that I never knew I had."

These days critics widely acknowledge Berkner's major contribution toward launching what is now dubbed the progressive "kindie rock" movement - less saccharine, more rocking music that is not dumbed down for children. According to Laurie, "When I'm writing a song, I'm thinking about whether the kids will like it and whether I'm going to connect to them through it. I'm also thinking about whether I want to sing it over and over again, so I guess that's the part that connects with adults. 'Old MacDonald Had a Farm' is a great song for kids, but I couldn't sing it 100 times!"

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