Laurie Berkner and Brady Rymer holiday concerts for kids come to Long Island
Laurie Berkner will perform a holiday concert on Dec. 4 at the Paramount in Huntington. Credit: Jayme Thornton
It’s not every family musician who pens lyrics about a chipmunk who works at a gas station and calls relatives to help him turn the pump into an electric charging station in an effort to save the planet — but that’s one tune Laurie Berkner will sing when she comes to Huntington for a holiday show on Dec. 4.
“Laurie Berkner: A Live Holiday Concert” at The Paramount will be Berkner’s first show on Long Island since before the pandemic. In addition to playing crowd favorites like “Chipmunk at the Gas Pump,” during which audience members jump to represent the chipmunk who has to leap to reach the pump, Berkner will perform tunes from her newest album, “Another Laurie Berkner Christmas,” released in October.
Originals such as “I Live Inside a Snow Globe (Shake It Up)” will be on the set list, as will “Candy Cane Jane,” which she says always gets requested at her holiday shows. She’ll also do traditional Christmas songs such as “Frosty the Snowman” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and Hanukkah songs. And, of course, her hits including “We Are the Dinosaurs” and “The Goldfish (Let’s Go Swimming).”
WHOLE LOTTA SHAKIN’
“It’s a very interactive, active show; I really encourage the kids to get up and move,” Berkner says — for instance, there’s a whole lot of shaking going on during the Snow Globe song. “A lot of my songs involve movement in them … whether it’s singing, dancing, jumping, clapping, running, or hand motions.”
Laurie Berkner: A Live Holiday Concert
WHEN | WHERE 11 a.m. Dec. 4 at The Paramount, 370 New York Ave., Huntington
INFO Tickets range from $19.50 to $87.50 for a meet-and-greet that includes photos with Berkner and autographs; 631-673-7300, paramountny.com, laurieberkner.com
Berkner also encourages children to bring a favorite stuffed animal with them, as during her song “Pig On Her Head” she asks the audience to put the animals on their own heads, and she’ll sing about the noises made by some of the animals she sees. “It’s so funny, people bring things such as a narwhal, they bring sloths,” she says.
Families should also come to the show dressed for the holidays, she says — Berkner plans to wear a “sparkling red dress.” The one-hour acoustic guitar and vocals performance has no intermission; merchandise including T-shirts, light-up tambourines and Berkner’s albums will be for sale.
Berkner, 53, who lives in Manhattan, is celebrating her 25th anniversary of her first family album this year; People magazine has called her “The Queen of Kids’ Music.”
Brady Rymer and members of The Little Band That Could “Noon-Year’s Eve with Brady Rymer"
WHEN | WHERE 11 a.m. Dec. 30 at the East Meadow Library, 1886 Front St, East Meadow.
COST Free and open to anyone, but advance registration required beginning Dec. 13 on the library's website; 516-794-2570, eastmeadow.info, bradyrymer.com
Brady Rymer will be bringing two other members of his Little Band That Could to perform with him live at the East Meadow Library — Larry Eagle on Drums and Liz Queter on mandoline and vocals. “It’s a real sweet combo,” says Rymer, who will play acoustic guitar and sing during the upbeat concert. “We’ll be playing some of the originals off our ‘Revving up the Reindeer’ album, including ‘Baby New Year.’ At the stroke of noon, we’ll celebrate.” The Southold resident's band will also play songs from their new album, out in June, called “That Friday Feeling,” and take requests from the audience for favorites.
Beth Whitehouse writes about families, parenting and great things to do with the kids on Long Island. She’s been a Newsday editor and shared a 1997 Newsday staff Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.
