Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Donna Larsen wants more than Wiggles & Raffi

Turning a cloudy day into children’s play

Donna Larsen set out to make the kids’ music she wanted them to hear.
Donna Larsen set out to make the kids’ music she wanted them to hear.

Donna Larsen knows singing, songwriting, producing, and promotion. But when it came to making music (and eventually books) for kids, she fell back on the most reliable test market she could find: her own children. “They had a lot of trouble falling asleep,” recalls Larsen, who’s throwing a musical launch party for her new project In My Own Backyard on December 11 at Amethyst Moon in La Mesa. “So as I lay next to them, naturally, my way to soothe them was to sing them to sleep. I missed performing, but always kept writing music, and so I would just build on to the little ditty from the night before that I had made up.”

Past Event

Donna Larsen

  • Saturday, December 11, 2021, noon to 4:30 p.m.
  • Amethyst Moon, 8329 La Mesa Boulevard, San Diego

After a while, she says, “I came to realize that I had enough to do a little show that I called Pajama Time. We would lay blankets and pillows down on the floor, and parents would set their kids there. It’s a fun memory, seeing all these little ones crawling all over each other while parents sat watching and listening. You really have to be a performer to keep kids’ interest. I don’t remember any meltdowns. But it did really take the village to keep them all corralled.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

Larsen grew up in Redlands, but moved down to San Diego to major in drama. After studying at Grossmont College (former school of famed music critic Lester Bangs), she moved over to Ocean Beach, which she loved for “the vibe, and being able to take my dog to the beach each day.” A stint in Lemon Grove found her running Soundsations Recording Studio during her first marriage.

Time spent at O’Hungry’s in Old Town led to jamming in twos and threes; she joined a band called Sapphire, and then one called Messenger. Her second marriage caused her to set music aside, partially for the kids, while she worked in federal court — although she did release a solo album, Expectant World, around 2000.

She loved discovering stuff with her kids, but noticed “there was so much children’s music out there with really bad drum loops, people singing off-pitch, and lyrics that were just, well, lacking in substance or joy… There seemed a belief, somehow, that children’s music needn’t be held to the highest standard. I just didn’t get that. And I didn’t want that for my kids. Other than Raffi, the Wiggles, and Trout Fishing in America, I couldn’t find much kids’ music that was worth listening to.”

Her zeal to rectify the situation led her to create (and now launch) In My Own Backyard, an illustrated children’s book with songs included on an accompanying CD. For an illustrator, she picked San Diego native Michelle Haglund. “She does such amazing works of art in encaustic — painting with melted beeswax.”

Larsen stresses that “In My Own Backyard is written from a different perspective than the old love songs I used to write, or the music from Expectant World. That was about the world from my cosmic point of view, a very adult point of view examining our world. Writing, to me, has always been a spiritual experience. As human beings, we are also energetically connected to the archetypes of angels, fairies, dragons, birds, butterflies. It all has symbolism and deeper meaning, so I’m hoping parents will enjoy that part of In My Own Backyard. Some of the songs, like ‘I Forgot to Ask the Angels’ or ‘The Magic Key,’ may seem overtly spiritual or at least introspective to an adult. The song ‘This Tiny Thing’ is about a little flower bending in the wind in the rain. A child would see it that way, but a parent may think more deeply about how the words we use, and the situations we put our fragile little ones in, can mold a child for their entire life. ‘It’s A Sunny Day’ is just a fun simple, bouncy blues song. But if you take it deeper, it’s about our choice in how we perceive things: Could be a cloudy day/But we still can play.”

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Melissa Etheridge, The Imaginary Amazon

Events April 1-April 3, 2024
Next Article

Angry Pete’s goes from pop-up to drive-thru

Detroit Pizza sidles into the husk of a shuttered Taco Bell
Donna Larsen set out to make the kids’ music she wanted them to hear.
Donna Larsen set out to make the kids’ music she wanted them to hear.

Donna Larsen knows singing, songwriting, producing, and promotion. But when it came to making music (and eventually books) for kids, she fell back on the most reliable test market she could find: her own children. “They had a lot of trouble falling asleep,” recalls Larsen, who’s throwing a musical launch party for her new project In My Own Backyard on December 11 at Amethyst Moon in La Mesa. “So as I lay next to them, naturally, my way to soothe them was to sing them to sleep. I missed performing, but always kept writing music, and so I would just build on to the little ditty from the night before that I had made up.”

Past Event

Donna Larsen

  • Saturday, December 11, 2021, noon to 4:30 p.m.
  • Amethyst Moon, 8329 La Mesa Boulevard, San Diego

After a while, she says, “I came to realize that I had enough to do a little show that I called Pajama Time. We would lay blankets and pillows down on the floor, and parents would set their kids there. It’s a fun memory, seeing all these little ones crawling all over each other while parents sat watching and listening. You really have to be a performer to keep kids’ interest. I don’t remember any meltdowns. But it did really take the village to keep them all corralled.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

Larsen grew up in Redlands, but moved down to San Diego to major in drama. After studying at Grossmont College (former school of famed music critic Lester Bangs), she moved over to Ocean Beach, which she loved for “the vibe, and being able to take my dog to the beach each day.” A stint in Lemon Grove found her running Soundsations Recording Studio during her first marriage.

Time spent at O’Hungry’s in Old Town led to jamming in twos and threes; she joined a band called Sapphire, and then one called Messenger. Her second marriage caused her to set music aside, partially for the kids, while she worked in federal court — although she did release a solo album, Expectant World, around 2000.

She loved discovering stuff with her kids, but noticed “there was so much children’s music out there with really bad drum loops, people singing off-pitch, and lyrics that were just, well, lacking in substance or joy… There seemed a belief, somehow, that children’s music needn’t be held to the highest standard. I just didn’t get that. And I didn’t want that for my kids. Other than Raffi, the Wiggles, and Trout Fishing in America, I couldn’t find much kids’ music that was worth listening to.”

Her zeal to rectify the situation led her to create (and now launch) In My Own Backyard, an illustrated children’s book with songs included on an accompanying CD. For an illustrator, she picked San Diego native Michelle Haglund. “She does such amazing works of art in encaustic — painting with melted beeswax.”

Larsen stresses that “In My Own Backyard is written from a different perspective than the old love songs I used to write, or the music from Expectant World. That was about the world from my cosmic point of view, a very adult point of view examining our world. Writing, to me, has always been a spiritual experience. As human beings, we are also energetically connected to the archetypes of angels, fairies, dragons, birds, butterflies. It all has symbolism and deeper meaning, so I’m hoping parents will enjoy that part of In My Own Backyard. Some of the songs, like ‘I Forgot to Ask the Angels’ or ‘The Magic Key,’ may seem overtly spiritual or at least introspective to an adult. The song ‘This Tiny Thing’ is about a little flower bending in the wind in the rain. A child would see it that way, but a parent may think more deeply about how the words we use, and the situations we put our fragile little ones in, can mold a child for their entire life. ‘It’s A Sunny Day’ is just a fun simple, bouncy blues song. But if you take it deeper, it’s about our choice in how we perceive things: Could be a cloudy day/But we still can play.”

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Angry Pete’s goes from pop-up to drive-thru

Detroit Pizza sidles into the husk of a shuttered Taco Bell
Next Article

San Diego Reader 2024 Music & Arts Issue

Favorite fakers: Baby Bushka, Fleetwood Max, Electric Waste Band, Oceans, Geezer – plus upcoming tribute schedule
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.