Today we’d like to introduce you to Mary Bue
Hi Mary, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
“Every Day is a Winding Road,” I agree with Sheryl Crow! My days find me releasing my 9th album of original music, co-facilitating a yoga teacher training, hosting retreats in India, Bali, and New Mexico, and creative mentoring with a few wonderful clients.
Growing up in rural Minnesota on a dead-end dirt road offered a lot of time for my imagination to run wild amongst the tall pines. I was and still am a super sensitive being ~ loved drawing, writing letters and stories, a voracious reader, and music. Began piano lessons in 4th grade and got a guitar in 8th grade, and starting writing songs in high school.
When I was 16, had the opportunity to be a German exchange student in Tübingen Germany which blew my mind way open to how big and wild the world is. It inspired a deep desire to travel and connect with the greater world.
I moved to Duluth, MN the following year to attend University of Minnesota ~ Duluth and the winding road unfolded to completing a BAS in Psychology. I was very drawn to Transpersonal Psychology and yoga and meditation studies were an integral part of the curriculum thanks to the progressive head of the Psych depart at the time, Dr. Bud McClure. During my time as a college student, I wrote, recorded, and released three solo albums from 2000-2003.
After college I moved to Providence, RI, expanding my horizons both performing my music around the NE, working in the service industry, as well as HIV Prevention outreach and a brief foray as a clinical research assistant at the women’s minimum security prison in Cranston, RI studying substance abuse and HIV risk. Wildly formative times. I also booked my first musical tour in 2004, pre-google maps, pre-smart phone, and toured in about 15 cities over a month from West Virginia to Austin, Texas with the help an atlas, map quest, and my dear friend Crystal as co-pilot, singing harmonies.
After a few years, moved back to Minnesota with a drive to pursue music with a passion. Applied and received two artist residency awards in Florida. Unfortunately was sexually assaulted during this time which put a traumatic damper on my confidence, independence, and self-worth. With therapy and much help from my friends, I persevered, recording another album, and eventually deciding that the spiritual pursuit of yoga would be of much benefit to both my self-healing and the hope to teach supportive tools to others to navigate this wild life. I found a training program in Seattle, WA with yoga therapist Tracy Weber at Whole Life Yoga. In 2008, moved to Seattle and immersed deeply in the studies of yoga. Because certified at the 200 hour level in 2009, and became Tracy’s teaching assistant the following year. Music came along with the flexibility of a bartending/serving job, I was able to perform around the Pacific Northwest and feel in love with the sea and the wild nature there.
Missing the music community of Minnesota once again, moved back to Duluth and began teaching yoga there and recorded 3 more albums from 2011-2016. Happened upon an opportunity to take over a small yoga studio in Minneapolis and in 2016 moved to the Twin Cities to open Imbue Yoga Studio. I ran Imbue for 3 years, completed my 300 hour yoga teacher training at Yoga Center Retreat (2017), performed often around the metro, got a music manager, and began recording with a new band. In 2019 I closed the studio as it is simply tough to make a profit on a small yoga studio, especially with my wanderlusting nature! I dipped my toe into creating yoga & creativity retreats and booked two to begin – one in Grand Marais at the end of 2019 and on in Bali Indonesia for March 2020, where I had just visited a year before and fell in love with.
March 2020 for my first international retreat might sound wild, and it was. In January 2020 I moved to Rishikesh India to study the Yoga of Sound at Nada Yoga School, and traveled to Bali afterwards to create an e-course on sound yoga, and prepare for my retreat. The whisperings of the pandemic started coming in February and by the time my retreat in March approached, there were alarms sounding. Travel hadn’t been restricted yet, though, and half of my group attended and all flew home safely without illness. I stayed on but had to leave early due to level four travel advisories, and then, shut down.
My 8th album “The World is Your Lover” was set to come out in May 2020, then postponed to August. We released it in the midst of the pando, with virual album release parties streaming rather than a live audience. It was such a sad time to put out a record. HOWEVER, in the very last edition of the City Pages Minneapolis awarded me “Best Songwriter” – a huge and unexpected honor.
Life took another traumatic turn for me in Nov 2020 when I stopped to help two teenage girls outside of my home who were in distress, they turned on my and attempted to carjack me. It turned into a violent struggle where we crashed through my neighbor’s fence and into his garage. This trauma spiraled me into a dark place. The next few years are a bit of a blur, however with the help of beloved family and friends, I rebuilt and planned for much beauty in the future. I started planning more retreats with some incredible co-hosts, fine artist and professor Sarah Brokke, and master yoga teacher Tara Cindy Sherman.
Since 2019 I have now hosted 20+ retreats around the world, both solo as well as partnering with Sarah and Tara ~ Bali, Italy, Malta, Mexico, Orcas Island, WA, New Mexico in Taos and Ghost Ranch, Wild Rice Retreat in Bayfield, and coming up here in February to India and Tara and I have since created a year long 230 hour Yoga Teacher Training program in St. Paul (next cohort begins Sept. 2025)!
This month I am releasing my 9th album, The Wildness of Living and Dying, my life’s work to date, which I am deeply proud of with this incredible band, produced by Steve Price (The Suburbs, Rex Daisy).
My work weaves creativity, psychology, dreamwork, yoga philosophy, poetry, and nature into everything ~ music, teaching, and travel experiences. I am in love with life, deeply sensitive to it, and ever-transforming.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
This winding road has been bumpy and have encountered many obstacles. I often think of the back roads of New Mexico which in the spring thaw has the red clay turning to thick muck, almost like the substance of peanut butter! Very rutted and easy to get stuck in and then when it dries, oooof, hard to get out of that! Some eras of my life have been like this.
As mentioned previously, have experienced a few major traumas (sexual assault and carjacking are the big ones). I am so grateful for a beloved foundation of friends and supportive family, as well as my music and yoga practices. Ten years after my sexual assault, I finally was able to go public with it and shared it in a song called “Petty Misdemeanor.” This was recorded just as the #MeToo movement was blowing up. People reached out saying this song helped them break the silence, and i raised money to support Program for Aid to Victims of Sexual Assault (PAVSA) in Duluth. For my speaking out, PAVSA awarded me Community Ally of the Year (2017) which was a wild honor, and dare I say I would rather not have been assaulted than receiving that award, however life has its twists.
I am not shy to speak about hard things. It does have backlash and makes some people uncomfortable. Relationships have been challenging as I come in with some baggage, am a public person, and go deep and want to work through my stuff and it’s not always rainbows and unicorns.
Closing the yoga studio felt somewhat like a failure (financial loss) and somewhat like freedom (no longer beholden to brick and mortar). Music is not a consistent or reliable mode of work and sometimes shows aren’t as full as we like and Goddess knows I had hoped to be signed to a record label for years! However, have embraced the path of the indie artist. As for retreats, I’ve canceled many due to low enrollment and have lost money in running a few of them – learning how to “not compete with myself” and grow from these follies can be a wild ride!
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My biggest passion is being a singer-songwriter and as of February 2025 will have released my 9th album. I’ve been songwriting since I was 14 or 15 years old, had my first performance of original music when I was 17, and put out my first album at 19 (2000). Perseverance and commitment to this artist’s way as it is now 25 years later!
My main instrument is piano, and also weave in guitars both acoustic and electric, ukulele, and instruments I brought home from India including harmonium and sitar – an unexpected obsession, haven taken lessons in Rishikesh with sitar master Bhuwan Chandra in January 2020.
The songs have grown from ethereal, stream-of-consciousness poetry, to anthems calling for animal rights and justice, to survivors, to cathartic songs for self-healing + calling in compassion, to pop-punk break up bangers.
I have performed in 40+ states, enjoy collaborating with an incredible band (Steve Price, Jeremy Ylvisaker, Richard Medek, Shannon Frid-Rubin, and Julia Floberg), and look forward to the album release shows February 16th 2025 at the Parkway Theater in Minneapolis with Mae Simpson Duo, and March 28th at Sacred Heart Music Center with Gaelynn Lea in Duluth.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Growing up I was quite shy and very creative. As a young child I would hide behind the couch if an unexpected visitor came, and turn beet red if called on in school. I spent a lot of time drawing, writing, reading, and biking to the forest. I prefered My Little Ponies to baby dolls and Barbies. I tried to hang out with the cool jock kids, but got pushed out into what was meant to be – the artsy and eclectic creatives in high school. I played alto saxophone in band, piano lessons with a neighbor, and forced myself to participate in speech time. All of this helped gain some confidence to speak and perform in public! You could find me in the art room painting with my headphones on or sitting at a coffee shop in teen years journaling and reading stacks of books about psychology and mysticism.
Pricing:
- Vinyl albums $30
- 230 Yojita Yoga Teacher Training (Sept 2025) $3000-35000
- July 2025 Retreat to Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, NM – $2000-2500
- March 2026 Retreat to Bali Indonesia $2500-3000
- Album Release Parties 2/16 + 3/28 $25-30
Contact Info:
- Website: http://marybue.com
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/marybuemusic
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/marybuemusic
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marybue
- Youtube: http://youtube.com/marybue
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/mary-bue
- Other: https://www.patreon.com/marybue
