By Stephen Dafoe
Morinville – Singer, songwriter, performer and Juno Award nominee are a few of the hats children’s entertainer Mary Lambert wears. Lambert will be bringing her high-energy show to the Morinville Community Library Mar. 27.
Lambert has performed more than 3,000 shows since beginning her career 20 years ago. Those performances have included libraries, schools and music festivals. Over the past two decades she had released a dozen CDs and two DVDs of her live concert performances.
Interview with Mary Lambert
Morinville News: What can families expect from your upcoming Morinville show?
Mary Lambert: Lots of fun! A concert full of songs about things we see and experience around us during the spring season. “Sing Into Spring” is an interactive musical concert, full of colourful costumes and props, and lots of humour. Some audience members will actually wind up on stage becoming part of the performance.
MN: Having performed for children and their families for the past two decades – have you seen a change in audiences or has the fundamental performer / audience relationship remained the same?
ML: The relationship has remained pretty much the same. The only change I’ve noticed is young children actually becoming involved with the pop music culture at a younger age than they used to. I’ve also lived through the change from selling mostly cassette tapes to CDs, and now people downloading more albums than buying physical CDs.
MN: You have performed more than 3,000 shows at libraries, schools, music festivals and other family-focused events. Is there one type of venue that is more enjoyable than another?
ML: My favourite venues are libraries and elementary schools. I love to perform at libraries because they are usually smaller, more intimate venues and you get a chance to meet families after the performance.
MN: Your latest CD Worms & Dirt was released in 2012 and shares the same name with your library and festival show. How is the music from this collection a particularly good fit for a spring library show?
ML: Because “Worms & Dirt” is full of songs about earth and the beautiful world around us, it’s got songs about planting, growing and lots of creatures we see around us. Springtime is a time of renewal, where trees and flowers bud, and we see GREEN everywhere. Songs such as “Go Go Green”, “Dig Me”, which is about dirt, seeds, sun, water and trees, or “Rockin’ Robin”, which is the bird I see when spring is here, permeate the CD and my spring-time performance. There will be songs performed from some of my other recordings as well.
Lambert will be bringing her high-energy show to the Morinville Community Library’s program room Mar. 27 at 10:30 a.m. Admission is $3 per person, $10 per family.
