Even Randy Newman's kids don't appreciate him

Strange but true: Lots of people only recognize

Randy Newman

from his movie scoring work, as the voice and tone setter of the Pixar/Disney animated films "Cars," "Toy Story" and Monsters, Inc.," and as tuner-upper for comedies such as "Leatherheads," "Fun With Dick and Jane" and "Meet the Fockers."

OK, so maybe you also recognize his raspy voice as singer/writer of "It's a Jungle Out There," that scared-of-everything theme for the TV show "Monk." Tony Shalhoub's comically obsessive/compulsive character is in perfect synch with Newman's twisted wit and methodically perfect, Louisiana-soul-meets-Gershwin-pop tunesmanship.

But some of the gang that knows his movie work well hardly has a clue that Newman is also among the most perversely funny of songwriter-observers who ever hit the charts, with politically incorrect challenges such as "Short People" and "Rednecks," and the sexually bizarre "You Can Leave Your Hat On," maybe the most covered of Newman songs.

Even Newman's two kids with Gretchen Preece, his second wife - Alice, 15, and Patrick, 16 - don't really give him his props.

While they're the audience he "saves his best material for" and "works hardest to entertain," they weren't around when his musical curios (also including the is-he-really-cheerleading "I Love L.A." and the haunting ballads "I Think It's Gonna Rain Today" and "Marie") were FM rock-radio staples in the 1970s and '80s.

And he muses that the kids don't really get what he's doing today to keep food on the table in their spacious Palm Desert, Calif., home.

"They leave me at the house in the morning, sitting at the piano," Newman said, "and when they come home, I'm still there. They think I've been loafing all day."

Writing and orchestrating for the movies is a gig Newman was destined to undertake, given that his three uncles - Lionel, Alfred and Emil Newman - were "golden age" Hollywood composers and arrangers.

And, no question, that scoring gig pays great, Randy conceded. But writing music for films is solitary work, and drawn out.

Newman told me that he's creating songs for another Disney project, "The Princess and the Frog," that's a "four-year undertaking."

"They won't even get started on the animation until after I've finished the music," he said.

Also on his table is "Toy Story 3," a venture that probably won't see the light of day until 2011.

Those repeated jibes from his kids finally nudged Newman to create another album with his name top billed, his first in nine years, so he could effectively demonstrate "that's what I do." Or at least, used to do with regularity.

The result is the newly out and critically approved "Harps and Angels," on the Nonesuch label.

Now Newman has been motivated to haul his butt out on tour, landing at the Keswick tonight for a solo, man-and-his-piano performance that will juggle past gems with the pure cubic zirconiums from the new disc.

If you haven't heard it, this fresh set finds Newman driving again into a big vat of hot water, with outspoken declarations and perverse character studies that dare you to ponder, "Is this guy for real or what?"

In "A Few Words in Defense of Our Country," he suggests that never in our nation's history has our leadership been as bad as it is now. But on the bright side, he punch lines, at least the shamblings of the Caesars were worse. "I'm not sure this song will have the legs of 'Political Science' [Newman's infamous war mongers' cheer to "drop the big one now"], but it's something I just had to say."

Elsewhere, he offers sarcastic advice to exploited migrant workers to "Laugh and Be Happy," argues that we should emulate the child-rearing ways of "Korean Parents" and delivers an odd (and in some quarters, misunderstood) shout-out to Jackson Browne ("A Piece of the Pie") for sticking to his principles and not selling out.

"I was worried he would take it the wrong way, given my reputation for cynicism, but I hear he got it and liked it," Newman said.

Elsewhere, the 64-year-old Newman ponders love and mortality in heart-on-sleeve ballads "Feels Like Home" (a charmer originally written for his pop opera "Faust") and "Losing You" (inspired by Holocaust survivors' inability to get over the loss of their son to cancer).

And then there's that amazing title track, wherein a heart-attack victim testifies about his brief encounter in heaven with God and the angels. The Almighty glibly throws him back to Earth because it wasn't his time to expire.

"I'm not much of a believer," Newman said, "but I meant this one as a 'wouldn't it be great if there really is an after-life.' "

Do tell. *

Keswick Theatre, Easton Road and Keswick Avenue, Glenside, 8 tonight. $39.50 and $49.50, 215-572-7650, www.keswicktheatre.com.