Electronic Press Kit
Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Hauntingly poetic, warmly voiced rocker.”
City Pages
“Best Songwriter 2020.”
Noteworthy
2025 Top 10 Americana Songs of All Time - Americana UK
Best Songwriter 2020 – City Pages
Best Albums 2020, 2017, 2015 in Minneapolis Star Tribune
Artist in Residence – Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico –
Sept-Dec 2025 + Jan-April 2017Recipient of multiple Career Development Grants via Arrowhead Regional Arts Council
Solo/duo tour in 40+ states
2015’s Holy Bones on rotation in 100+ college radio stations + critically acclaimed in UK & Europe
Artist in Residence Fellow at Seaside Institute & Big Cypress Nature Preserve (2006)
Top 5 Battle of the Bands Contestant in 2014 for Welcome to 1979 Studio (Nashville)
Top 5 Bridge Sessions Contestant w/ Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra 2015
Board of Directors with Duluth Homegrown Music Festival – 4 years
Alan Sparhawk (LOW)
“Every scene has its bright fleeting highlights, its fickle wave of each generation, and its longtime anchors, but through the scene I’ve known and loved, in Duluth MN, Mary Bue has been the thread that runs so effortlessly through its heart, hands, and soul. She arrived boldly and prolific. I have heard her piano climbing out the window and cascading down the Central Hillside neighborhood in the summer and the howl of her guitar muffled in the basement in winter. Her new recording is a triumph not only as a reflection and victory over adversity, but as architecture for healing and change. I don’t let myself be lifted by just anyone, but I can trust Mary. She means it.”
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Bio
Mary honors the comfy vibes of Aimee Mann with her glossy alt-rock touch that shimmers with a vibrant sense of hope and redemption.” -Glide Magazine
“Mary Bue does a wonderful job of exploring the human condition.” - The Current 89.3
Mary Bue is a songwriter, international retreat guide, yoga teacher + registered yoga school co-founder based in Minneapolis. Named Best Songwriter of 2020 by City Pages, her music touches upon archetypal themes of the human condition: love, loss, survival, dreams, and the natural world.
A longtime student of yoga and psychology, Mary weaves symbols, stories & visions into her songs + teachings. Oft-crass yet joyous, her creations explore consciousness with compassion & concern for this beautiful & challenging world. Mary released her 9th album The Wildness of Living & Dying in February 2025. Mary closed out 2025 as Artist in Residence at The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico in Taos, granted 3 months to write and be inspired by the epic landscape of New Mexico.
The collection of songs in The Wildness contemplate issues of trauma, uncertainty, compassion, and healing with music. They were composed in the years surrounding a traumatic carjacking experience in late 2020 and express strength in vulnerability, resilience of the human spirit, the growth experienced within a cycle of destruction, and, ultimately, transformation.
Prolific, lyrical, and gritty, Mary’s performances are warm and laced with quirky humor and stories of her adventures (and misadventures). As a sexual assault survivor and advocate, Mary has been invited to perform and speak about her healing process surrounding #MeToo of which she shares in her song “Petty Misdemeanor” (The Majesty of Beasts, 2017) and “How to Forgive Your Rapist” from 2020’s #MeTooMPLS compilation garnered the praise of one of the “Top 10 Americana Songs of All Time'“ via Americana UK.
Not one to bow to popular music trends, Bue has stayed true to her own sound, evolving and about to emerge, butterfly-like, with support from her band collaboration feat. Steve Price, Jeremy Ylvisaker, Shannon Frid-Rubin, Julia Floberg, Richard Medek ( and grateful for alternate drummers Lars Larson + Noah Levy).
The Wildness of Living & Dying (2025) and The World is Your Lover (2020)– both produced by the Suburbs’ Steve Price – are syntheses of her releases of the past 20+ years, merging pianos and guitars, spiritual longing, and real-world sorrow. Her previous albums achingly express life in melancholy piano-poems, yet in 2015 Mary risked a genre switch to aggressive electric guitars, concise lyricism, and a nod to 90’s grunge.
In January 2020, Mary traveled to Rishikesh, Uttar Pradesh India at the base of the Himalayas (where the Beatles & Donovan studied with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi) to further her yogic studies (certified instructor since 2009). She attended Nada Yoga School to study Nada Yoga – the Yoga of Sound. Sanskrit mantras, lessons in harmonium, voice, and sitar, yoga asana, pranayama, meditation, and purification techniques were practiced to invite a pure vessel for deeper experiencing & creation of sound.
An accomplished recording artist and touring musician, Mary’s studio albums manage to capture her electrifying stage presence. Mary’s last five albums were partially or completely fan-funded via Kickstarter. She has been awarded multiple Artist Residencies including The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico ~ Taos, NM, “Escape to Create” Artist in Residence at The Seaside Institute in Seaside, FL, and Big Cypress Nature Preserve Artist in Residence in Ochopee, FL. Over many years, 40+ states, hundreds of thousands of miles and countless venues from tiny coffee shops to large outdoor festivals, Mary has shared the stage with many talented musicians, including Shawn Colvin, Low, Cloud Cult, The Suburbs, Charlie Parr, Erin McKeown, Johnette Napolitano (Concrete Blonde), Emm Gryner, Kathleen Edwards, Marissa Nadler, Rose Polenzani, Jess Klein, Sarah Borges, Mason Jennings, HALEY, Jack Johnson, Vetiver, Cory Chisel, Nicole Atkins, Jeremy Messersmith, Anaïs Mitchell, Audra Kubat, Vandaveer, Chris Bathgate, Chris Trapper and more.
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