About Teddy B and the Bum Shufflers
It All Started With a Six-Year-Old and an Idea for a Song
Teddy B and the Bum Shufflers is a family music project created by Mark Rose, Jessalyn Rose, and their six-year-old son, Hunter.
And like a lot of good things, it wasn’t really planned.
After hearing his parents sing and perform, Hunter decided he wanted to write some songs of his own.
Hunter has always had a big imagination, and before long he was coming up with funny ideas, characters, stories, phrases, and things that would make great songs. Instead of simply smiling and moving on, Mark and Jessalyn thought, Why not actually make them?
So they did.
That’s how Teddy B and the Bum Shufflers came to life.
Songs That Start With Hunter
Every Teddy B song starts in the imagination of six-year-old Hunter.
Sometimes it’s a funny idea. Sometimes it’s a character. Sometimes it’s something that happened, something he noticed, or just something that makes perfect sense when you’re six years old.
From there, the whole family gets involved.
Hunter, Mark, and Jessalyn work together to turn those ideas into actual songs—figuring out the story, lyrics, rhymes, jokes, melodies, and all the little details that make each Teddy B song what it is.
The goal is simple: make genuinely good music for kids—and make it good enough that their parents won’t mind hearing it for the 47th time.
Kids’ Music Doesn’t Have to Sound Like “Kids’ Music”
Even before Teddy B and the Bum Shufflers began, Mark had a bit of a problem with children’s music.
A lot of it just wasn’t very good.
As a lifelong musician and songwriter—and, more importantly, as a dad—Mark couldn’t understand why so much music made for kids seemed to overlook the things that make any song worth listening to. Good songwriting, musicianship, thoughtful arrangements, and quality production often seemed like afterthoughts—or were skipped altogether. Just because the audience is young doesn’t mean the music shouldn’t be made with the same care and attention as music for adults.
Why shouldn’t a children’s song have a great melody, a catchy chorus, clever lyrics, real energy, and professional-quality production?
There’s no reason music has to be annoying just because a six-year-old likes it.
That became an important part of the idea behind Teddy B and the Bum Shufflers: make songs that are genuinely fun for kids, but make them real songs.
The kids should want to sing along, laugh, dance, and play them over and over.
And the grown-ups should be able to appreciate the songwriting, humor, melodies—and maybe even catch themselves singing along when the kids aren’t around.
A Lot of Music Came Before Teddy B
For Mark and Jessalyn, Teddy B and the Bum Shufflers is the newest chapter in a long history of making music.
Mark has been a performing musician and songwriter since 1990, spending more than three decades writing, recording, producing, and performing original music.
During the 1990s, one of Mark’s original bands wrote and recorded more than 70 original songs, released two full-length albums —all during an era before the internet and social media made it possible for an independent artist to instantly reach listeners around the world. The band’s music and accomplishments earned recognition from Billboard Magazine, ASCAP, DiscMakers, and others in the music industry. In 1996, Musician Magazine selected the group as a semi-finalist for Best Unsigned Band.
Mark’s later musical career brought even more opportunities.
Over the years, he has performed alongside more than 50 national recording acts, including Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Nickelback, Lifehouse, Gin Blossoms, and Eddie Money.
Music written and recorded by Mark’s bands has also reached audiences far beyond the stage, appearing on national television networks including CBS, ABC, MTV, FOX Sports, Showtime, and TLC, as well as being used in connection with major brands and organizations including Adobe, Dockers, Major League Baseball, NASCAR, and the NHL.
And music has always been something Mark and Jessalyn have shared. Before Teddy B and the Bum Shufflers, Mark and Jessalyn performed together in the country band Double Down & Hardways.
After all those years of bands, recording studios, stages, songs, and shows, Mark has now found himself with a new songwriting partner.
He’s six.
And he has a lot of ideas.
A Family Project With a Little Help From Modern Technology
Once a Teddy B song has been written, the family uses modern music-production technology to help turn the idea into a finished recording.
Today’s creative tools make it possible to experiment with instruments, arrangements, voices, sounds, and production ideas in ways that would have been unimaginable when Mark first started making music more than three decades ago.
But the technology isn’t where Teddy B songs begin.
They begin with Hunter.
The ideas, characters, stories, and sense of humor come first. Hunter, Mark, and Jessalyn develop those ideas into songs, and then technology becomes another creative tool they can use to bring those songs to life with the kind of production they believe children’s music deserves.
For Mark and Jessalyn, it’s a chance to encourage Hunter’s creativity while making something together as a family.
For Hunter, it’s a chance to hear the crazy things he dreams up become actual songs that other kids can listen to.
And that’s really what Teddy B and the Bum Shufflers is all about.
Come Along for the Ride
Teddy B and the Bum Shufflers are just getting started.
There are plenty more ideas floating around inside Hunter’s six-year-old imagination, which means there are plenty more songs, characters, stories, and surprises still to come.
If you enjoy what we’re doing, please follow Teddy B and the Bum Shufflers on Facebook to keep up with new songs and everything else we’re working on.
And when you find Teddy B and the Bum Shufflers on your favorite streaming service, give the songs a listen and add your favorites to your playlists. Every follow, stream, share, and playlist add helps more families discover the music.
Most importantly…
Stay tuned. There’s a lot more Teddy B coming in the very near future.
