THE OUTSIDERS: Tres & Kitsy, aka The Children of Sunshine

By Jeff Cubbison

RateYourMusic defines “outsider music” as “songs and compositions by musicians who are not part of the commercial music industry who write songs that ignore standard musical or lyrical conventions, either because they have no formal training or because they disagree with formal rules.”

99% of the time, this music is bizarre, unwieldy, and extremely niche. And yet, there’s something about it that feels more pure than anything else out there. Outsider music is not beholden to the mainstream industry machine, and more often than not, is a stark emotional reflection of the artist who conjured it. On one hand, there isn’t much artistic compromise in outsider music because typically the artist is independent and retains total individual control over the product. On the other hand, the vast majority of it is borderline unlistenable - often lacking in production quality, songwriting structure, or any actual musical theory. But if you’re morbidly curious about a type of artistic expression that is strange and challenging and ultimately enthralling - in spite of its amateurish quality - then this new column The Outsiders might be just for you.

In this column, you’ll mainly read about artists who operate on the outskirts of the music industry and, more often than not, society as well. As RateYourMusic puts it, outsider musicians tend to demonstrate an “inability or unwillingness to cooperate” with traditional record label or producer standards. In a lot of cases, mental instability is a huge factor. Here, you will learn about many outsider musicians who struggled with their mental health, who lived on society’s fringes, and who often died young and tragically. And yet, for the first edition of The Outsiders, I’m gonna go in a different direction and highlight a more cheery group who ticks off NONE of those boxes. Ladies and gentlemen, Tres & Kitsy, aka The Children of Sunshine.

In the fall of 1970, a pair of St. Louis-area 10-year-olds - Thérèse Williams (aka Tres) and Kitsy Christner - formed a band together, calling themselves The Children of Sunshine. Tres, the daughter of a lifelong professional musician, met Kitsy in a sixth grade guitar class at school and the pair quickly became best friends. They bonded over a growing love of guitar and singing and within months, they wrote and recorded an album called Dandelions (with Tres’ dad Jim supervising) in a church in Webster Groves, Missouri. Ultimately, 300 vinyl copies were sold and distributed amongst family and friends. In any normal universe, that would seem to be the end of their story. As childhoods go, Tres and Kitsy grew apart as friends in the following months and years, and neither girl pursued any musical endeavors after that. But nearly 40 years later, something funny and serendipitous happened, and we very much have the internet vinyl heads to thank for it.

Sometime in the mid-to-late ‘00s, a small stash of Dandelions copies from that limited 1971 release were discovered and spread amongst a handful of obsessive vinyl collectors. Soon, the record was ripped and uploaded to the interwebs, and eventually consumed by what continues to be a growing cult fanbase of outsider music fans. Since then, Tres and Kitsy - at this point in their late 40s - were approached by several record labels looking to reissue the album. Famous musicians such as Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus publicly praised the duo. It’s exactly the sort of crate-digging success story that fans of niche and obscure music (and music journalists with a narrative to spin) foam at the mouths for. Obviously, it’s a cute story. But what about the music itself?

Despite their very young ages and limited musical training up to that point, Tres & Kitsy’s Dandelions is a surprisingly beautiful album of off-kilter folk and sunshine pop that doesn’t feel out of place in the post-Summer Of Love era. As the album’s WEBSITE states, “our music was a reflection of our world in 1970; the Vietnam War, the things that made us happy and our belief in Love.” Opening title track “Dandelions” is a pure thesis statement. Their chirpy adolescent voices float over jangly acoustic notes and softly pulsating drums: “Comin around, comin around / All the dandelions are coming around” is the sort of chorus you can sing and hum to yourself over and over and over again while gardening. “The College School” is a wholesome and simple recounting of the duo’s friendship and musical journey, utilizing the same sonic palette: jangly folk guitars, minimal percussion, dueling twee vocals. “Tuffy” is a song about Kitsy’s dog, full of actual “ARF ARF BARK BARK” sounds. The way they harmonize on “It’s A Long Way To Heaven” really does feel like two childhood best friends testing the musical waters and figuring things out as they go - but it’s that raw in-the-moment quality that makes everything feel so catchy and relatable. Across 12 tracks, Dandelions is delightful, unabashed childhood innocence through and through.

It might not be the most polished or sophisticated album - at least not from a sound quality standpoint. As is the formula with outsider music, this stuff is crackly, loose, and rough-around-the-edges, although songwriting-wise, it is at times very structurally on-point and lyrically surprising. At its core, there’s a youthful purity and playfulness to it that only a small fraction of music out there manages to capture. It’s amateurish in its technique and execution, but so undeniably honest and direct in the way it conjures its themes of childhood love and friendship. There’s a real carpe diem quality to it. From start-to-finish, you can really FEEL Tres & Kitsy’s close bond as best friends. As a listener, it’s impossible not to be transported to a simpler time in your life when the world felt like a giant playground, and everything felt new and like it needed to be explored with a friend by your side. I believe that’s why The Children Of Sunshine managed to have their random cult-internet moment, even though the album toiled away in people’s storage in the decades prior.

It’s a wonderful story, of course - but so is the music. Dandelions stands on its own merits, regardless of its “outsider music” label. While Tres & Kitsy fit some of the genre’s markers — they were inexperienced, lacked formal training, recorded entirely DIY, and operated far outside the music industry — they defy many of its clichés. They retired from music at age 10, grew into healthy, grounded adults, and are still alive and thriving today. That’s a rare outcome in a field often marked by tragedy or obscurity, and a reminder that outsider music has no single mold. It comes in countless shapes, colors, and sizes; its sound varies wildly from artist to artist. What unites these musicians is an unfiltered, independent, uncompromising vision (and sometimes, one or two screws loose). That’s what makes exploring them so endlessly fascinating: each has a unique story, a singular approach, and a sound only they could make. Welcome to The Outsiders. Stay tuned for more. I hope you’re as excited to dive in as I am.