34 August 2009 • Teddy Bear Review

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Musicthan

Panda poses with some of the guys from TeddyBear Band (from left to right: Ron Gustafson,Donny Paulson and Richard Erickson).

www.teddybearreview.com 35

guy played the banjo and yet anotherplayed the clarinet and somepiano.Thoughitwas designed to be only a one-time event,the dads had such a blast theydecided to keep it going.“Our name comes from the

belief that teddy bears arepowerful symbols of a healthyearly childhood experience,”Erickson explains of how eas-ily the name of the band cameto be. “In the mid-’80s, theCabbage Patch doll was big,but for some kids it became alesson in the ‘have andhavenots.’ Ron Gustafsonwent so far as to ban thedolls from his earlychildhood classes andencourage parents tosend teddy bears iftheir child wanted a‘playmate’ during theday. When the bandwas formed, it was onlynatural that it would becalled the Teddy Bear Band.”That first show took place in 1985.

Now, 24 years later, the Teddy Bear Bandperforms throughout the year, mostly inMinnesota, but also in the five sur-rounding regional states, though they’vegone as far west as Anaheim, Calif., andas far east as Greenwich, Conn.

Entertain and EngageBefore the Teddy Bear Band, Ericksonmade a living playing bass in a jazz bandfor upscale dinner and dance clubs on the494 Strip in Bloomington, Minn. He usedthese very contacts to get their firstTeddy Bear Band gigs.“We started with traditional children’s

music, adding our own flare to the songs,”he says. “The idea was to engage the chil-dren, encouraging them to participatethrough the use of their teddy bears andother stuffed animals.“Ron wanted to implement objects of

interaction so that all children, from thegregarious to incredibly shy, could find away to participate,” Erickson continues.

“Sometimes the child didn’tneed the use of theirteddy bear to interact,but many of themwould start withtheir teddy bears(clapping the bear’shands together, tap-

ping the bear’s feet onthe ground) to interacting

themselves.”For the first few years, it was usually

just Erickson and Gustafson performingalong with the banjo player. The morethey performed, the more gigs they got.At first they stuck with traditional songsin a more traditional style, but then theysaw an opportunity to do somethingmorecontemporarywith themusic. “We playedwith the tunes andmade them dancy andfun for the kids. After that, we startedwriting our own music,” Erickson says ofthe music they play and sing today.Some of their early performances took

place in city parks. “Back in the ’80s, the‘arts in the park’ programs were popular,”Erickson says. “It was the perfect venuefor getting kids up and moving.”The focus for the band back then—and

today—is to create energywithmusic, ap-pealing to children in themusic and lyrics.Their popularity grew and they started toget national and international attention.“Some music attorneys had come up

with a couple of clients interested in

The Teddy Bear Band encourages childparticipation through the use of teddy bears

and music. • By Demrie Margo Alonzo

When Richard Erickson’sdaughter was 2½ yearsold, his wife found an arti-cle in a local communityeducation magazine about

a workshop on early childhood family ed-ucation in their area. It sounded interest-ing, so the Erickson family signed upalong with another friend and family.That’s where they met Ron Gustafson,the instructor. He combined fun learningwith music, which was right up Erick-son’s alley, since he himself is a musician.Erickson and his musician friend would

often bring their own instruments and addto the fun for the next few years. Then,after his daughter had grown out of theprogram, Erickson received a phone callfromGustafson asking if he’d be interestedin helping out with a fundraiser. The pro-gram’s funding was being cut so theywanted to raise money to keep it going.A couple of other dads, who also hap-

pened to be musicians, got together andcalled themselves the “Teddy Bear Band”for that first show. Erickson played bass,Gustafsonwas on acoustic guitar, another

Teddy Bear Band has justfinished their first DVD,The Teddy Bear BandShow. Here is a shottaken from the filmingof the DVD at LakesidePark in Forest Lake, Minn.

36 August 2009 • Teddy Bear Review

doing some international, big multi-media stuff with us; when it came downto it, these people just wanted to takewhat we did and make it their own,” Er-ickson says. “They just didn’t get theidea behind what we do.”What they do is entertain and engage

children. Erickson writes most of theiroriginal songs, with Gustafson and leadguitarist Donny Paulson writing some aswell. Even Scott Bolin, the Teddy BearBand’s keyboard player, has written a few.Panda, the dancing panda bear, was orig-

inally created by Gustafson’s wife. “Shesewed the first Panda,” Erickson says of thepopular mascot. Panda is part of their alacart menu, as they offer different configu-rations of the band. “We can do two-manperformances on up to seven and Panda.”Panda also has a cousin from Chicago

named Itchy. “It’s this really ratty cos-tume wearing a nice fedora,” Ericksonlaughs. “One of our saxophone-playingfriends will wear the Itchy costumewhileplaying,” he says. “The kids just love it.”“Our shows are designed for preschool

through third grade, thoughwe’ve playedfor all kinds of groups and all ages,” Er-ickson says of their performance sched-ules. “We often play for school groups upto grade six, so we work to make it age-appropriate.”As the group’s current manager, Erick-

son admits at first they were just havingfun and didn’t expect it to last long.“When it really started taking off, wewere just along for the ride,” he admits.“Up until 1987, we didn’t really antici-pate it going on for that long.”In 1988, the band was approached by a

local promoter: “How would you guyslike to go in a studio and do a professionalrecording?” They went into Prince’s Pais-ley Park Studio in Minneapolis andrecorded their first album.“It was a great experience,” Erickson

says. “But he thought he had enoughcontacts to get some things going. Hisreal intent was to get it going and sell usto a large record label.”

More than MusicIt’s not just about the music for theTeddy Bear Band. “We’ve presented at theNational Association for the Education ofYoung Children’s huge annual conven-tion. That event attracts about 30,000people nationally and internationally,”Erickson explains.

“We often go in and do presentations toadults followed by a performance for thekids,” he points out. “We talk about doingage appropriate activities and creating de-velopmentally appropriate participation.”The Teddy Bear Band has played for

groups as big as 10,000 and as small astwo kids and a mom. “We were on a li-brary tour andwewere booked at a libraryon a day it was normally closed,” Erick-son shares. “We had a mom and two kidsshow up, but we had a great time, and sodid those kids and that mom. That’swhat matters.”The band has even done the Min-

nesota State Fair. “Back when Barneyfirst got popular, we were the supple-mental entertainment,” Erickson says.“We performed outside the Grand Standto keep people interested before and afterthe Barney show.”One of their biggest performances took

place at the Best Buy Rotunda at theMall of America. Thousands upon thou-sands of people passed through that day.TheTeddyBearBandhasalsowonawards

and honors. In 2005, the state ofMinnesotanamed Sept. 10, 2005, “Teddy Bear BandDay.” The group has also been presentedwith the “FamilyFavoriteAward” fromMin-nesotaParentmagazine every year since 1988,and they won the Minnesota Music awardfor “Best Children’sMusic Artist.”This past February, Teddy Bear Band

came out with their first DVD called The

Teddy Bear Band Show. Before the DVD,they had five cassette recordings and oneCD. “We are so excited about the DVD,”Erickson says. “It’s just another positivestep for the band.”

Booking a ShowThe cost to have the band perform de-pends on the number of musicians re-quested (with or without Panda) andwhere the band is going. The band offersfunding, collaboration and sponsorshipopportunities.“We encourage sponsorship and collab-

oration between agencies, organizationsand businesses,” Erickson shares. “We canhelp to develop a cost-effective Teddy BearBand tour for presenters out of our areaand offer ideas to lower travel costs.“There’s funding available through

local government and foundation grants,”he adds. “We have lots of information onmaking it possible—with any budget orno budget—to bring the Teddy Bear Bandto your town and your kids.”In addition to information about the

band, the website teddybearband.com in-cludes ideas for the types of perform-ances the band can provide, dependingon the needs of an organization or a com-munity group. “It’s about the kids...andtheir teddy bears,” Erickson says.

Teddy Bear Band, teddybearband.com, (612)861-3570

Teddy Bear Band performs all over the country, putting on shows for all group sizes and ages. This photo isfrom a show at Coons Rapids Dam in Coon Rapids, Minn.