Life, Love, Music and Earth Day with Singer/Teacher Sherri Ehrlich

Sherri Ehrlich or Miss Sherri, as she is known, is a Red Bank institution. She is a music maker, teacher and fan. The familiar sky blue storefront that is her Honey Child Music School is as familiar in town as her childlike smile, big top hat and bright colored boots. Honey Child is in its fifteenth year and despite the fact that many school districts around the country and state are cutting back on arts instruction, forcing parents to seek the same outside of the school system, Ehrlich acknowledges that times are lean for her as well.

She believes that the same financial turmoil that is causing belt tightening in our public education system is making it increasingly difficult for area parents to justify sending their kids to additional music instruction. Still Ehrlich, ever the optimist, continues to make music and make children more musical. She is always adding new classes with new instructors and she will, along with her Little Animal Band, be releasing a CD, Send Them Up, in April.  Ehrlich and the band will also be performing on Earth Day, April 16th at Liberty State Park.

Patch Reporter Steve Rogers caught up with Ehrlich at her Honey Child headquarters on Monmouth Street for a Q&A and a preview of the new CD.

Steve Rogers: What’s your story?

Sherri Ehrlich: I was born and raised in Brooklyn, which kinda makes you a little street savvy and rough around the edges, but also somewhat worldly. I always loved singing…even when I was five, singing for the little neighborhood kids…putting on shows in the backyard, selling ten cent tickets.  So even back then I showed signs of being a performer. I loved and love to perform.

My mom was a single mom, so we had it a little tough. We didn't have a lot of money and luxuries. We wore hand-me-downs and learned how to share.

S.R.: What was the musical influence that got you into it so young?

S.E.: My Grandmother sang to me. She’d sit me in her lap and sing to me. I have these really fond memories of that. But then we had this babysitter named Linda Magno and she had all these Beatles albums and I learned all of their songs. We’d go down in her basement and dance. We’d do the Monkey and the Jerk and all of those dances. She would conduct us and we’d come up with all of these little dances and I’d be over there in my little flower dress and my sister would be there in her flower dress and my brother would be there in his little Beatle haircut and we’d do a show.

S.R.: What were your musical influences?

S.E.: Well definetly The Beatles…Cat Stevens was a big one…Joni Mitchell.  And I did get into some hard stuff like Santana. I was exposed to many different kinds of music and music of many different ethnic groups.  And my mother would take me to Broadway. We went to see Man of La Mancha and I was into all those very big ballads.

S.R.: What brought you to Red Bank?

S.E.: I got married. I had band in the city in the (19)80s called Gods and Goddesses. The bass player in the band and I got married and he was from Matawan. So we had a son and we came here. I always thought Red Bank was really cool. It’s kind of like a little city. In many ways it reminds me of Brooklyn.

S.R.: How is Honey Child doing?

S.E.: It’s thriving, but struggling economically. It’s having as rough a time as any small business. Obviously anything with a large overhead is difficult to keep going these days, but we keep forging ahead. 

There was a time when Honey Child was the only early learning music school in the area and now they’re popping up all over. And a lot of people in this area have lost their jobs. Let’s face it, a lot of people are unemployed and unable to stretch a dollar. And then there’s me with this overhead and the landlords don’t lower the rent and the utilities don’t dial down the costs to adjust for how people are living now.

S.R.: Tell me about why music is so important to kids?

S.E.: So many connections are made through music…physical connections, emotional connections, spatial connections. We do everything to music, we dance to it, we snuggle to it, we sleep to it, we speak with it. Some children sing before they even speak.

I think every human being is born with some innate musical ability. Unfortunately society sometimes kills that with false judgments and criticisms that stifle talent instead of inspiring it. People will say that certain people are tone deaf and that they shouldn't sing and there you go, you’ve just snuffed out one side of person’s creative expression that they’re entitled to. No one is actually tone deaf unless they’re actually deaf. It’s just like riding a bike. You have to learn and then practice and that’s what we do here at Honey Child. We teach the basis skills of pitch and rhythm

We’re also about movement because we’re all born to move and I think you learn music from movement. I think schools need to remember that. When I hear that kids are all on medications for this deficit and that deficit it’s just insane. We need to remember that we are physical beings and some people learn more from being physical and that whole group of learners are being told to sit down and to fit in with those who learn from being still and observing more and they just can’t do it. I think it would be great to teach in twenty to thirty minute intervals and then get the kids up to move with some physical activity…something to channel that physical energy.

S.R.: What’s new with your music?

S.E.: My band Miss Sherri and the Little Animal Band is about to release the first CD. It’s the sixth that I’ve done, but the first with the band. And it’s very exciting. The music is very upbeat and eclectic and really accessible to the whole family. The music is for kids, but I like making music that I’d like to hear as well.

S.R.: What’s playing on your iPod these days?

S.E.: My new album. I think it’s important to listen to your own stuff, especially since I have a concert on April 16.  I want to make sure I know all of my own lyrics.

S.R.: What makes you happy?

S.E.: Creating art makes me happy. Spending time with my son makes me happy.  Swimming makes me happy.  Doing outdoor things makes me happy.

S.R.: What inspires you?

Collaboration inspires me. Being on your own you can accomplish so much, but together there is this assortment of talents that can create something even more rich.

S.R.: What’s the future look like?

S.E.: Ooohhh…the future…I don’t know…only my hairdresser knows for sure (laugh). As far as my future, myself…I need to scale down. I need to economize. I need to find a cheaper rent and at the same time I’m trying to bring in more people, more instructors. I have the space and under this roof there is the potential for collaboration that can help all of our needs.

I can and do wear many hats…so in the future I just need to see which hat is going to be the hat that brings in the revenue to keep this going and have a comfortable existence.

You know I didn’t get into this business thinking, ‘oh I’m going to make a lot of money.’ It was never that. I was taking my son to music class and people kept saying, ‘Sherri…you should teach your own music classes and if you do, we’d definitely come to you…” So, opportunity sang to me and I answered. I went from teaching in my basement to going to people’s homes to renting a place and it just kinda grew from there

S.R.: When will you be satisfied?

S.E.: What makes you think I’m not satisfied right now?

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