Families laugh as toes start to tap

Former indie music artist Justin Roberts has earned praise for his deft and witty children’s songs ever since what he calls the “folkie simplicity” of his first album, “Great Big Sun,” in 1998.

During the years, Roberts’ family music has taken on a bigger rock band sound -- the Washington Post calls his latest CD, “Meltdown,” “almost Beatlesque” for its musical and harmonic layers and “quirky instrumentation” (horns, keyboards, guitars and banjo, ukulele, mandolin, vibraphone, tambourine and more).

People magazine, meanwhile, praises Roberts’ songs as what “the best children’s music manages to be -- on-your-feet fun and laugh-out-loud funny.”

“Every time I go in to make a record, I’m just trying to make something I would want to listen to myself,” Roberts said by phone from his Chicago home.

He was preparing for a multi-city concert tour that will include a stop at 11 a.m. Sunday at the outdoor Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga with band member Liam Davis.

Roberts’ previous lives as a Montessori preschool teacher and a member of the Minneapolis band Pimentos help fuel his kid-savvy lyrics and sophisticated tunes, but he also draws on his own childhood and everyday observations.

His “Meltdown” title song was sparked by a certain stress and panic that the creative well had run dry “and there was nothing else to say.”

“I Chalk” was inspired by chatting with friends while their kids made chalk drawings on the sidewalk.

“We’re sitting here talking about the weather and these kids are making these great temporary art pieces, totally involved in the moment of creating something, and I was thinking, ‘How come adults grow up and don’t do that kind of thing anymore?’ ”

Roberts’ increasing popularity has led to his first hip and quirky music videos, produced by Oil Factory (whose clients include Coldplay, Gwen Stefani and Madonna) and now running on children’s cable channel Noggin. He’s also excited about his first-time performance on the “Today” show on Aug. 22.

“I keep waiting for it to get old,” he said. “But there’s something about seeing kids and families together, seeing a kid start dancing right at the beginning of a concert, or a 4- or 5-year-old that knows every single word to a song when the lyrics are fairly complex. It’s just an amazing feeling.”

-- Lynne Heffley