Musician Lucy Kaplansky to perform in Carrboro

Eric Peltoniemi, the president of musician Lucy Kaplansky’s record company, calls her the queen of Red House Records.

And on Saturday, Kaplansky’s extending her kingdom to The ArtsCenter in Carrboro.

Kaplansky, who plays the guitar, the piano and the mandolin, said her interest in music began when she was just a child.

Her father played the piano, and her brothers played various instruments, so she was always surrounded by music.

She started out playing in Chicago bars and then ventured into the music scene in New York City, but she seemed to hang up her interest in music to pursue a doctorate in psychology at Yeshiva University in New York City.

“She has a unique perspective in the sense that she has a past life of being a psychologist and working with people in need, so she has a perspective that is rooted in reality,” Peltoniemi said.

After getting a job at a New York hospital, she found herself constantly drawn back into the recording studio by friends who wanted her to sing on their albums.

Kaplansky eventually returned to singing full time, and she now has seven solo CDs under her belt.

Kaplansky said her favorite thing to do is record and make records.

“That creative process is just the most fun, gratifying thing. And I also love performing. I have the nicest audiences,” she said.

Art Menius, executive director of the ArtsCenter, said Kaplansky writes deeply moving songs that make her the perfect fit for audiences at the center.

“This type of acoustic, hand-crafted songs — songs with deep personal meaning — is a form of music to which our audience has a great deal of love,” he said.

Menius, who calls Kaplansky’s music rejuvenating and inspired, said he hopes her audience will leave feeling like they could write songs, too.

“That’s sort of the hallmark of a really strong singer/songwriter — that they can make people in the audience want to do that very same thing,” he said.

Peltoniemi said the audience will get to see a unique perspective on people who are often overlooked by society at the show through Kaplansky’s music, and they will see her explore the complexities of family relationships through different generations.

“Her last record, Reunion, was based loosely on her own family history, but it was something that everybody seemed to relate to, no matter where they came from,” he said.

But no matter what she is singing about, Peltoniemi said it will have great meaning behind it.

“I sometimes say she could sing the phonebook if she wanted to and make it sound meaningful. She’s just a great singer,” he said.

Kaplansky said she is always writing about something that moves her, which could be any number of things.

She said she hopes her audiences have fun and laugh but also hopes they are moved in a similar way.

“I hope they feel like they’re seeing me as a real person as opposed to trying to be something I’m not. I don’t think that’s what I do — I think I come across as just me,” she said.

arts@dailytarheel.com