Matt Pryor has a secret identity.

At night, he’s the singer-guitarist of The New Amsterdams, a Lawrence pop-rock band that’s toured the globe and performed such coveted slots as “The Late Show with David Letterman.”

By day, he’s a mild-mannered dad who composes songs involving owls and chocolate milk.

“It seemed to me like a fun idea to write a regular song and have it be about dinosaurs and lions — as opposed to being about heartbreak,” Pryor says.

The musician is busy recording his first children’s record. He hopes to release it by December “so I can give it out as Christmas presents.”

Pryor is just one of an expanding number of Lawrence musicians who either partially or exclusively devote their grown-up skills to writing songs for children. He and a batch of other kid-friendly artists will be gathering Saturday at the Red School Rockin’ Block Party — a concert to benefit the Lawrence Community Nursery School, 645 Ala.

While Pryor and his quartet — which doubles as The New Amsterdams — will be debuting many of these children’s songs for Lawrence audiences on Saturday, it isn’t the first time they’ve performed the tracks live.

“We actually just got back yesterday (Sunday) from playing the Bamboozle Festival in New Jersey,” he says. “The New Amsterdams played our regular set in this theater on the acoustic stage. Then we set up outside for the fans who couldn’t get in because the show was sold out. We just played a bunch of the kids songs, and they were the big hit of the whole day. They were like, ‘Play that dinosaurs one again!'”

Pryor is collaborating with respected underground artist Travis Millard to release the CD in tandem with a book of short stories. Millard had previously created album covers for The Get Up Kids, Pryor’s renowned Lawrence rock act that disbanded last month after a successful decade together.

He admits the demo songs have gone over well with his 3-year-old daughter Lilian and 9-month-old son Elliott.

“Although (Lilian) did tell me the problem with the song about dinosaurs is it didn’t have a volcano in it,” Pryor confesses. “It’s my first critique.”

The simple things

Unlike Pryor, Melanie Dill never played in any bands. She’s always poured her musical passions into children’s music.

“It all started when my daughter (Siel Snowden) was 2. I took her to a ‘music with parents’ class. I thought it was OK, but I thought I’d like to hear music that would appeal to everybody.

“When I set out to do it, I never thought I’d be doing an album.”

Audio clips with Matt Pryor On certain words or topics that appeal to children On the market for children’s music On whether hardcore fans of The Get Up Kids will be surprised by his involvement in children’s music

Seven years later, Dill has released two records — “Alphabet Parade” and “Rainbow Lemonade” — and is busily working on her third.

She says, “It’s either going to be called ‘See-Saw Serenade,’ ‘Swing Set Serenade’ or ‘Sidewalk Serenade.'”

Although her previous recording involved input from more than 80 local musicians, Dill says she likes to keep the tunes fairly basic.

“Kids really love simple things,” she says. “I don’t think it works well when people use too many words. One of the favorite songs of mine among kids is ‘Look out the window / Look out the window / And see what you can see.’ They love that song.”

Cynthia M. Colwell, an associate professor of music education/music therapy at Kansas University, explains youngsters react better to topics or words that are concrete and within the context of their understanding.

The New Amsterdams' Matt Pryor makes faces with his son, Elliott. In the background from left are bandmates Dustin Kinsey, Bill Belzer and Eric McCann.

“Children respond well to songs about animals, about movement actions, about pre-academic skills and social skills that they are currently experiencing and learning: colors, numbers, shapes, manners, etc.,” she says.

On the flip side, she says material can musically alienate children if it is too large in range, too rhythmically challenging or contains too many melodic skips. Pryor agrees.

“We’re trying to make the songwriting and song structure as absolutely simple as possible,” Pryor says. “You figure you don’t want to do ‘prog rock’ for kids.”

Rock the block

Tricia Klein, an organizer of the Red School Rockin’ Block Party, says several hundred people showed up to the event in 2004 to hear a dose of kid-friendly tunes.

“It was a blast,” she recalls. “People were dancing. The kids were having fun. The parents were hanging out for hours. I think that made a huge difference for the musicians, too. They’re donating their time, but they had an audience that REALLY appreciated the work that they do.”

In addition to Pryor’s band and Dill, performers for the fourth annual event include bluegrass act The Prairie Acre, jazz ensemble The Tommy Johnson Experiment and Barry Barnes, a beat poet/musician who occasionally plays dressed like a cow.

Pryor is still debating whether to come up with a whole other name for his children’s side project or to release it under The New Amsterdams moniker.

“I’ve been resisting this because I’ve done the whole multiple band thing for a couple years now and I don’t really like it,” he says. “Whereas I think someone who liked The New Amsterdams wouldn’t have a problem with the kids stuff, I wonder if someone who was just looking for the kids stuff might not understand the other. Like some grandma going, ‘Oh, songs about drinking and death.'”

Melanie Dill sings to children during a Oread Books Childrens Music Hour.

Either way, Pryor says he’ll likely be compelled to render a few standard Amsterdams anthems at the show because “the kids songs are really short.”

As for making a living in children’s music, Pryor sees it as part of a natural progression in his songwriting career.

“My wife was joking that I’m going to do this kids music, and you can listen to that until you’re about 14. Then when you go into your angsty teenage phase, you can listen to The Get Up Kids stuff. Then when you go to college, you can start listening to The New Amsterdams,” he says. “It’s like my own little Viacom.”