Laurie Berkner Tickets

Laurie Berkner
Known for her work as a children's musical artist, Laurie Berkner plays guitar and sings in the Laurie Berkner Band. Berkner began to perform as a professional rock musician in an all-female cover band called Lois Lane in 1992.

When she started a band that played original music, Red Onion, she found song-writing to be a struggle. But this problem disappeared when she started writing children's music.

In 1997, working with Susie Lampert, Mueller and guest bassist Adam Bernstein, Berkner put out her first album, entitled Whaddaya Think of That?. She had been encouraged to continue by the parents of the children she worked with.

The album contained original songs like 'We Are the Dinosaurs' and 'I Know a Chicken', along with covers of classics like 'The Cat Came Back' and 'Wimoweh (The Lion Sleeps Tonight)'.

In 1998, Berkner formed her own independent record company, Two Tomatoes Records. She released her second album, Buzz Buzz under this label. The album spawned hit singles like 'Pig on Her Head' and 'Monster Boogie'.

During an interview she once said, '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'. Some of her initial performances as a children's musician were birthday party gigs at $125 a show.

Remembering those days she says 'Those days were intense and I used to arrive early to memorize every child's name, so I could feel like I knew them'.

With 1999's Victor Vito, she achieved national fame, appearing on the FX network's American Baby Show. She also won a Parent's Guide to Children's Media Award.

Laurie's second album grew her fan-base. Local toy stores and children's specialty shops began selling her music and distribution companies began purchasing quantities of her recordings.

Around this time, Laurie took the bold step of hiring a publicist, also named Sarah. She also hired Danny O' to help with computer graphics and Jonathan as an assistant.

Laurie then appeared on the 'Today' show and later 'Two Tomatoes'. In the meantime, her closets were becoming more and more stuffed.

Realizing that running the record label remained no longer a part-time job, Laurie decided to give up her teaching. After the 2001 VHS debut, she with her band increasingly found themselves on the road, performing in concerts across the country.

In 2002, shortly before the release of Under A Shady Tree, Jenny joined the Two Tomatoes team as an assistant/marketing person while Laurie and Jonathan prepared to move into an upper west side office.

In 2005 all the tomatoes moved whereas Laurie, Brian and Lucy moved into a new more spacious apartment. The apartment was just one block away the office.

Laurie's music is generally in a major key and in what she calls the 'human tempo': 100-120 beats per minute, the speed of walking or marching. Her lyrics have been called 'self-effacing and confessional?. She released her latest album, entitled Rocketship Run. It came out in August 2008.