An eclectic, female-fronted, inspirational blend of blues, jazz, folk and tribal.

10 MP3 Songs
POP: Piano, ROCK: Jam-band



Details:
From the time she graduated from Slippery Rock University in the mid 1990s, singer and songwriter Kelly Leggens has been performing gigs in and around her hometown in rural Pennsylvania. Most of these performances were simply jobs to help supplement her income as a vocal and piano teacher, and focused on entertaining dinner crowds eager to hear JEWEL, BEATLES, BILL JOEL, and FLEETWOOD MAC covers. While Kelly worked with a variety of musicians during this time, she never found the right combination of performers and personalities to comprise a full band. This was somewhat discouraging, as she longed to focus on her original songs which she had been writing over a period of several years.

Winter 2003 found Scott Herbst at a crossroads. Having invested a great deal of creative energy, cash, and nearly a decade of his life into a fairly successful independent band (MIND'S I), he was now discovering that he needed to move on. After delivering his resignation to the band in early December, Scott was contemplating ways to remain active musically. While working with some people from his parents' church on arrangements for contemporary worship services, he decided to give his old friend Kelly a call to see if she'd be interested in lending her talents to the endeavor.

Herbst and Leggens had been friends from their early childhood when their fathers taught in the same school. The two had worked together musically throughout their high school years, but drifted apart somewhat after Scott left for Penn State in 1989. Scott's call to Kelly in late December 2003 rekindled an old friendship and initiated a musical reunion that would catalyze the genesis of CLOCKWISE SCARLETT.

The process of rediscovering an old friend is always fun - but when the friend is a musician, that process is all the more rewarding. Kelly was eager to show Scott the material she's been writing over the years, and Scott was eager to contribute his creativity and talents to a new project. It was a case of perfect timing, but the reunion of Kelly and Scott was only the beginning.

During Kelly's undergraduate tenure at SRU, she had befriended a gregarious tuba player named Tim Danehy. Tim and Kelly had remained close friends after college, and oddly enough had ended up being neighbors by the beginning of the new millennium. In addition to his tuba prowess, Tim had also played drums for a band called MASSED GADGETS around the same time Scott had been playing with MIND'S I. As fate would have it, Tim became interested in the music Kelly and Scott were arranging, and decided that it was time to dust off his sticks and provide some rhythmic foundation for Kelly's compositions.

In the months that followed, the trio, (originally named BONZAI TOMATO) continued to refine their songs, work with a variety of musicians, and play a handful of shows. As the band's confidence grew, so did their desire to share their increasingly polished repertoire. Finally in August 2004 tracking on the band's first CD began at 77 Studios in Butler, PA. The result of these tracking sessions is GIVE IT UP, the eclectic debut album from CLOCKWISE SCARLETT. Infused with jazz, blues, rockabilly, country, and pop, the music of CLOCKWISE SCARLETT is hard to classify, but the positive, feel-good message is clear and simple.