Animal Band: Kids' Toe Tappin' Tunes

The Middletown Arts Center (MAC) will soon be hopping with funky and bluesy music for children and adults who love music that they can swing to and sing to because the lyrics are understandable as well as cool.

Sherri Ehrlich and her band, also known as Miss Sherri + the Little Animal Band, will perform a benefit concert for the Arts Center and, at the same time, launch their new CD Send Them Up.  The concert will be held on May 21 during two shows: one from 11 a.m. to noon and the other from 1 to 2 p.m.

Send Them Up is a new and original kiddie-rock album that spans the musical globe. It takes children and their families on a journey through infectious pop/rock vocals and brings together cultures and styles as diverse as blues, Motown, Celtic-fusion and traditional Native American rhythms. 

Produced by Miss Sherri's co-writer Brian Breen, a/k/a Rockin' Rudy the guitarist in The Little Animal Band, Send Them Up furthers the artists' quest to hunt and gather the world's greatest musical grooves and to teach and illuminate them for the next generation of little animals.

Formed in 2006, the Little Animal Band and its ringleader, Miss Sherri, have grown a reputation in the family music world. Drummer Reggie, guitarist Rudy, bassist Bobby the Blue Bonobo, vocalists Jazzy and Classy (Giraffettes) and Sherri herself have inspired herds of assorted fans to romp, stomp and bounce in their seats.

Sherri said she put the band together after a writing collaboration with Jeff Levine, who has played with the likes of The Chambers Brothers and Stevie Ray Vaghn. "We wrote a number of Songs like Senior Patron, Jazzy  + Classy, Rockin Woof Woof + Bobby the Blue Bonobo for the award-winning Childrens album Jelly Belly Boogaloo," she said. "They were the songs that launched the animal characters into existence."

She explained that her boyfriend at the time, Eric Salkin, "picked up his dust-collecting saxophone and was dubbed Senor Patron in the Band after I booked a CD release concert date at the Two River Theater. I recruited Rene Wooley as the Doggie Drummer Rockin Reggie and a variety of musician friends to play the launch. The kids and their families went wild and the rest is animal band history."

Miss Sherri was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, where she spent her time soaking up the sounds of her grandmother Gussie, who often sang to her. According to Miss Sherri, her grandmother had a tender and emotional voice that left a lasting imprint.

By the time Sherri was ten years old, she was taking singing, dancing and guitar lessons at summer camp. In addition, she had a babysitter who introduced her to The Beatles, Cat Stevens and Joni Mitchell, all performers who left an impression on Sherri as a little girl.

When that little girl who had soaked up a variety of childhood musical influences grew up, she enrolled in the Lee Strasburg Theater Institute and New York University in New York City.

The student Sherri blossomed into a rock singer bursting with creativity as a front woman for original bands in the 1980s and 90s. She sang with bands like Atomic Passion and Gods and Goddesses and as a back-up singer for Spanish pop star Miguel Bose’s European Tour.

She then moved onto motherhood and said that with the birth of her son, she had a rebirth of her own. “As my grandmother had sung to me, I sang to my son all of the time," Sherri said. She began to realize that music was her gift, especially music for children. So, in 1993, she opened Honey Child Music, in Red Bank, where she teaches aspiring musicians and entertainers.

Miss Sherri, along with the musicians in The Little Animal Band, has since become well known in the children’s entertainment industry. The Little Band is made up of six big people dressed up as various cute animals.

Among those band members is Brian Breen as Rockin’ Rudie, who is usually making music or working with kids and has for some time. Several years ago, Breen was the director of Meadow Kids, a children’s performing group which was an offshoot of the former Meadow Theater in Red Bank.

The theater was founded by the popular, since deceased area actor Drew Hollywood, and is where Brian directed his and others' original musicals for kids. His children’s musical, The King Who Stole Spring was a winner in the Jackie White Memorial Children’s Playwriting Contest.

Eric Salkin, aka Senor Patron the Saxosaur, started paying the saxophone at the age of 8 and formed his first band at 13. He has traveled the world playing everything from Rock to Hip Hop. When he is not playing, he and his brother are at work at their Red Bank jewelry store. He is a graduate of Freehold Township High School and Rutgers University, and "Miss Sherri’s School of extinct animals."

Susan Haugenes has been singing since she was a toddler. She has performed in many of her own shows and school plays and most recently she was the lead singer in her former band Black Eyed Bluesy and is a singer in the A Cool Blues duo. But her favorite singing job is as Jazzy in Miss Sherri’s Little Animal Band.

Barbara Pecirep, a/k/a Classy Claudine, is the other vocalist. She has always loved listening to music, singing, and dancing in twirly skirts while entertaining her family. Now she gets to wear twirly skirts on stage with Miss Sherri and the band. When she’s not on stage, she works in New York City for an indy label called United for Opportunity, where she helps musicians pursue their dreams. She lives in Middletown and her favorite animal really is a giraffe.

Anthony LeProtto, a/k/a Rockin Reggie, plays the drum. He started his music career as a member of a children’s choir at his church. LeProtto began studying drums in the fall of 1998 and hasn’t put his sticks down since then. He has a degree in Music Education from Monmouth University and is currently playing with numerous bands of varied genres throughout NJ and NYC.

Vinnie Puryear, a/k/a Bobby the Blue Bonobo. started out singing in a gospel choir and eventually gravitated toward playing the guitar. A Fair Haven native, he sold newspapers to pay for his guitar lessons.

Miss Sherri believes that music is as nourishing as food and fresh air. Her award-winning CD releases, like "Jelly Belly Boogaloo" and "My Green Shores," have gained notice among young children and their families. She has five award-winning CDs to her credit. This new one may be the sixth. It was co-written with Brian Breen in early 2010.

Miss Sherri has been featured on Fox 5, New York One, and has opened for High School Musical’s Corbin Bleu at the PNC Arts Center. In addition, she has headlined at the Count Basie Theater several times. The Baby Einstein company calls the band "hand-clappin, foot-stompin" and "Delightful, rockin’ music." 

Miss Sherri + the Little Animal Band will host a rockin' show for the whole family as they perform the songs from their new CD at the MAC, located at 36 Church Street, Middletown (next to the train station). Tickets are $12 and may be purchased online at www.MiddletownArts.org or by calling the MAC box office at 732-706-4100. There is free parking on site.