Take note: Musician plays for adults, kids

Published in the Ocean County Observer 08/14/05

By ADAM TALIERCIO
Staff Writer

Dawne Allynne of Long Branch has been having a busy summer.

Performing as "Dawnie," she has been playing her original children's music at as many as 14 shows a week to groups of kids and their parents. Singles from her most recent album, "Silly Critter Talk," have been played nearly 1,000 times on the Sirius and XM satellite radio stations. Recently, she performed a number of sets during the four-day Toms RiverFest in late July. Allynne also is planning a series of children's books based on her songs, which she will write as well as illustrate.

But she makes music for grown-ups, too; when not playing as Dawnie, Allynne performs her original contemporary rock songs either solo or with a backup band. Currently, she is working on an album titled "True Believer," aimed at an older crowd than her typical 7 and under audience, which she hopes to have released by the end of the year.

For the past few months, however, her work in children's music has demanded most of her time and attention. She hopes to rejoin with her old backup band and perform to support "True Believer" upon its release.

A self-taught musician, Allynne has been involved with music and art since childhood. She began playing guitar at 10; she and a group of friends learned the instrument together on folk songs by artists such as Joni Mitchell or Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. In her teenage years, she turned more toward rock, listening to artists such as Heart, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones and David Bowie.

She also wrote her first children's book in high school. "It was called "Moon Meeps,' " Allynne recalled, laughing. "It was a story about these little cute critters, and they lived on the moon. But it was very lush; my imagination had its own direction."

As a mother of four grown children, Allynne considers the memories she has of her kids growing up to be priceless, and said that when performing for children and their parents, the idea is to bring the families together to enjoy themselves and have great memories to look back on afterward.

"I tell them, just remember to get a picture of this, because you're going to want to show that to your son when he's going away to college."

Children make for the best kind of audience, Allynne said, because they really know how to enjoy a show. But the parents get into it, too; Allynne makes a point of that. She makes her show interactive, getting parents dancing and playing with their kids.

"I talk to everybody while I'm singing the songs," she said. "They're completely interactive from the very beginning. I joke with the parents and the children, and I don't stop. I have fun with them; I make them a part of the show. They do things they probably never thought they'd do. I tease them, and I make them dance and they love it."

Her plans include releasing the first in a series of children's books she is writing and illustrating connected with her songs. The first, "The Little Caterpillar and the Great Big Tree," is modeled after the song "The Little Caterpillar" off "Silly Critter Talk" and will be available at performances.

The song that inspired the book tells the story of a small caterpillar trying to climb a tree, and is one of three of Allynne's songs being played on satellite radio. This song, perhaps most of all, Allynne said, has garnered her a lot of positive feedback.

"They absolutely love the song," she said of parents who have written in to her. "I love it too, it's a great song, it really is. It's fun, it's educational, it's inspiring ... it might be me. I might be that little caterpillar and not even know. It could be very autobiographical, come to think of it."

After finishing "True Believer," Allynne will return to the studio to record another children's album, and plans to create more books modeled after songs on that upcoming CD as well.

"The one thing I want people to understand is that the reason that I do this is because not only do I enjoy it, but because to bring the kind of happiness to families and the children that are there with me means everything to me," Allynne said. "And I hope that it means that much to them. Because it's easy to be distracted, and a lot of things take away from a lot of the joy that parents get from their children. Especially at these young ages; these are the most important years of a child's life. This is the time where parents should take time out and really, really have a good time with these kids."

This month, Allynne will perform as Dawnie at the Colts Neck County Fair and the Clearwater Festival in Asbury Park; next month, she will perform in Seaside Heights on Sept. 24 for Pride Day. In September, she will open for John Eddie at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park.

"There's a lot going on," she said with a laugh. "We'll probably be doing a Dawnie live CD for kids, the series of books ... I may do a line of stuffed animals as well, or puppets. I have a thing about stuffed animals. If you came to my house, you'd know.

"I think I've always had a very powerful imagination," Allynne added. "To me, my world was "the sky's the limit, and anything can happen.' And I still look at things that way. You have to make them happen, but they happen. I guess I've never changed."

For more information about Allynne, visit www.dawniemusic.com for her children's music or www.dawneallynne.com for her more grown-up sounds.

Published on August 14, 2005, in the Ocean County Observer