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Boulder Daily Camera
by Susan Glairon, November 25, 2003
On a recent afternoon at Bear Creek Elementary in Boulder, more than 20 kids sit quietly on the floor, patiently waiting for Mary Sue Rogers and Cari Minor to start playing for a concert for the YMCA's after school program. The children know what to expect-- most have seen the Boulder musical duo perform other shows.

Rogers grabs her guitar. Minor puts a green bug-like puppet with bulging pink eyes on her hand. Soon the kids are bopping to the music, including an impromptu percussion group of four little boys in the front row, slapping the floor
and their bodies.
"Got a really big tick on me and it's sucking all the good stuff out of me," the musical duo sings. Then Minor grabs a kazoo and plays a sillier version of the song.
The kids are delighted. They are clapping--sometimes not to the beat--and laughing. When asked for help, the group gladly obliges.

"OK guys, make your bug noises," Minor says.
BZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
The children are watching Boulder's "Mary Sue & Cari", a local kid's music group that has been around for about a decade. Their new CD, "Here We Go Again", is due out next month.

As the music continues, the kids enthusiastically sing along. There are songs about fun kid stuff--using bodies as musical instruments, big green bugs in your ear, deciding whether to eat gum drops or chocolate. But the children are most excited about the song, "Spiders and Snakes." Minor grabs a Miss Spider puppet and Rogers a dulcimer to a resounding "Yeahhhhhh!"

"Spiders and snakes. Spiders and snakes. I'm gonna learn to love them no matter how long it takes," the two sing.
"They must have spent a lot of time on their songs and voices because it sounds really cool," says Emily Bryant, 10.

Mary Sue & Cari's first CD, "Music with Kids," has sold about 700 copies since it was released in 2000. The duo have performed locally at the Chautauqua Community House in Boulder, at libraries in Denver and Boulder counties and at local festivals and birthday parties. They also have a following in Wisconsin.

Although Rogers and Minor grew up about a hour and a half from each other in Wisconsin, they didn't meet until 10 years ago at Bear Creek's playground, where they both had children in school. As their friendship developed, so did their interest in performing children's music together.

Minor has been writing songs since she was a teenager. She is part of the local adult duo Cari Minor and Ray Smith and was a Lyons Fold Festival's Songwriter's Showcase finalist in 1999 and 2002.

Rogers grew up playing piano and began taking guitar lessons about 10 years ago. Her guitar teacher kept encouraging her to write songs, she says, and when she resisted, he told her to open her refrigerator and write about what was inside.

Her first song, "Refrigerator Blues," is on the group's soon-to-be-released CD. She now uses everyday life and the time she spends at the school--she's a paraeducator at Bear Creek--to watch kids and write songs about what they're doing and their interests.

"They don't have to learn anything," she says of her music. "If I can teach them something, that's great. There has to be some silliness and some fun with it."

Some of the songs do try to teach kids in a painless sort of way, says Minor, who also is a circulation clerk at Boulder Public Library. For instance one of her song's--a true story about when her young son painted his "masterpiece" on the walls--mentions famous artists that kids may not know.

Another motivation of the group is to write songs interesting enough to keep parents engaged.

The two feel a bit like local celebrities. Often when they are shopping in Target or the grocery store, kids will come up to them and say, "I know you!"

But the best part, they say is watching the kids.

"I just love being with the kids and seeing them smile and participate in the music," Rogers says.

The Boulder County Family Connection
by Anna Stewart, July 2001
One of the benefits of child-centered parenting is that some adults get to use their talents to make quality art for kids. Good theater companies, musicians, dancers, magicians, and artists cultivate a child's mind as they bring in adult sensibilities, organization and proficiency. The results are often performances and recordings that are as satisfying for parents as for their kids.

Boulder supports many such people. And hot off the block is a CD by Mary Sue Rogers and Cari Minor simply titled "Mary Sue & Cari, Music with Kids". With two guitars and a few shakers, these two moms belt out original tunes that keep young ones dancing, older kids laughing and parents humming along.

The eleven tracks start with upbeat songs such as "Let's Play" and "Hello Everybody". Once theyve got everyone's attention, they move into the sillier songs such as "Big Green Bug", "Bathtime Boogie", "Spiders & Snakes", "Tick Tock" and "My Body's an Instrument" (and I didn't even know". With five boys between them, they make lots of references to bugs, baseball, and pizza. There are plenty of sweet rainbow and pony songs out there; it's refreshing to hear one that talks about bugs crawling up your arm.

Mary Sue wrote most of the silly songs, drawing from her own experiences with a houseful of kids. "Wild Things" is about all the wild animals that have visited her house and "Let's Play" is the classic childhood refrain of "let's play at my house."

Cari contributes the softer tunes such as the lovely "Two By Two" which she wrote for a friend who traveled to Mount Ararat searching for Noah's Ark. Simple and beautiful, this song and "Sensible Shoes" reveals Minor's folk background. Her previous CD, "Returning" is a collection of real-life folk songs.

Together, they bring clear harmonies, charming lyrics and use their guitars to support the songs. "Music for Kids" is just that-original, fresh and professional. Mary Sue and Cari invite everyone to sing along.

Colorado Parent
by Guen Sublette, October 2001
If you're looking for that ubiquitous purple dinosaur, you won't find it in Mary Sue and Cari's Music with Kids show. The two Boulder moms do, however, take their show on the road in several antique-looking suitcases packed full of plush creatures, whimsical squash shakers, guitars, a mountain dulcimer and kazoos.

Recently, the talented duo earned a full house of applause and plenty of clapping, snapping, popping and singing from an audience of little tykes and their parents on the plush pink-carpeted steps of the theater at the Children's Museum of Denver. The pair have been playing their earth-toned, serenely silly music around the Denver and Boulder areas at libraries, community centers, schools and farmers' markets since they noticed a need for it about four years ago.

"We felt there was a lack of real interactive music that attracted not just kids, but adults, too, rather than leaving them in the back talking," says Mary Sue Rogers, 43. One song, "Bathtime Boogie", for example, tells about putting your child to bed and offers a kid's--as well as parent's--perspective.

"We wanted to write music that was educational, but also fun--not something you'd get sick of after hearing it one time in your car," says Cari Minor, 42...

Their CD...features many of the pair's original songs, as well as some that have a distinctly Colorado flavor. "Wild Things", for example, tells of deer in your back yard; other soongs tell about living with beetles, ants, spiders and snakes.

"It's so fun seeing the kids' faces light up and hearing them sing along--especially now that they know our songs from the CD," says Mary Sue.

Cari, a more seasoned musician with an "adult" CD of her own, provided much of the inspiration for Mary Sue, who was at first mostly self-taught. ... As a librarian at a local branch of the public library, Cari saw a need for fun kids' music at the library, while Mary Sue honed her skills by volunteering at church, Scouts and school.

"This was a good way for me to get started becuse it allowed me to get a lot of feedback from kids," says Mary Sue.

Mary Sue and Cari performed at about a dozen venues this past summer: during the rest of the year they do several concerts each month.

"It's still more a hobby that a hardcore business," says Mary Sue, a stay-at-home volunteer mom.

Says Cari: "As our kids get older, we'd like to travel a bit more, I don't think we have any limitations."