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Moey Blogged
August 1-15
FUN IN THE SANDBOX
[AGES 3-8]
THINGS TO DO
Time Out New York Kids / Issue 30 : Mar 15–Apr 15, 2008
Changing tune
After years of creating adult music, a mom finds her calling writing songs for the sing-along set. By Susan Avery
Melissa Levis takes her place in front of her adoring fans and begins belting out original tunes as the crowd readily sings along. In years past, she has performed in concerts at downtown venues like Mercury Lounge, and even had a successful run Off Broadway as the lyricist for the musical The Joys of Sex. Now, under the jolly stage moniker “Moey,” Levis plays kid birthday parties and regular gigs at Gymtime Rhythm & Glues and P.S. 158. Her inventive songs cover topics like hygiene (the bluesy “Pierre Wouldn’t Wash His Hair”) and meal time (the a cappella “Sushi Symphony”). While her short-statured fans jump around, no doubt a few of their parents have wondered how Levis came to the role of kiddie entertainer.
Melissa Levis poses with her new
fan base.
Photograph: Cecilia Ohlssen
In 1995, she formed a band, Melissa and the Moguls, with a few high-powered friends she’d met through her uncle Bruce Wasserstein, the investment banker and magazine owner, and aunt Wendy Wasserstein, the late Pulitzer-winning playwright. The group still gets together to jam once in a while on songs like “A-list”: “For big benefits, we write big checks. / We’re in Peggy Siegal’s Rolodex. / We got a trophy wife and an angry ex. / A-list, A-list.”
In 2002, while spending time in her native Vermont with her son, Monty, now four, Levis began plotting her next move. In an effort to get Monty into a sold-out Vermont nursery school, she volunteered as a music teacher. The rest is mommy-rock history. “I gave up the A-list to sing the ABCs,” she laughs. “But my family thinks I’m a celebrity.”
By LAUREL GRAEBER
Published: July 11, 2008
FOR CHILDREN
Review
The biggest drawback with most children's records (especially if the tots in question take a liking to them) is that they will inevitably become a huge part of the parents' day-to-day life (this would explain the near universal disdain for a certain furry purple dinosaur). Melissa Levis, a prolific and award-winning off-Broadway songwriter who began writing for children after the birth of her son, knows that there are bigger ears in the room, so she bolsters her singalongs about "getting dressed," "sharing," and "sitting while you eat" with a clean indie pop backbeat peppered with acoustic guitars, alternating between the quirkier side of Leslie Feist and the amiable down-home cookies-in-the-oven swagger of Loretta Lynn. Moey's Music Party, described by Levis as "a 45-minute music class featuring piano, drums, guitar, puppets, and contemporary fairytales," is based on an actual class she teaches as head of the music department at New York City's York Avenue Preschool. Empowering, funny, and catchy, Levis' songs never overstay their welcome, and her eclectic pre-toddler rock history makes itself apparent on album highlights like "Pierre Wouldn't Wash His Hair," the folky and autobiographic "Me and My Mom," and the Ramones-style rocker "New York City Kid."
by James Christopher Monger
Summer Blast Off Party!
Far Upper East Siders sure do love Carl Schurz Park,
especially those with kids. The park throws a summer-afternoon party with a concert by none other than
another neighborhood fave Moey of Moey’s Music Party. Toilet-training types should put in a request for
her potty song. — Alexandra Zissu
Moey's Music Party
Music teacher Levis's peppy alter ego delivers classic-sounding tunes that will turn any under-5 shindig into a mini American Bandstand.
Weekend Events
Sandbox Sing-alongMoey’s Music Party passes out pompoms, maracas and inflatable guitars to jam along to citified children’s tunes.
When: Thurs. 7/24, 11am; Free.
Where: Central Park, East 100th St. Playground, centralparknyc.org.
The Central Park Sandbox Program is a kids music
festival that takes place in 16 playgrounds throughout the Park from July 7th through August 15th. With two concerts a day,
every day, it's your best bet for free kids entertainment without the crowds. The performers are all teaching artists and
include the Central Park Brass and GlobalArts to Go, story-
teller Dan Kitrosser, and the not to be missed Moey’s Music Party
with hits like New York City Kid and I Gotta Go Potty.
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