The
first set of players in Kelly's Lot were Homero Chavez, Alez Rylance,
David Walsh and Greg Graniere. These players were crucial to the
band's existence. Homero, Greg, David and Alex gave Kelly a chance
to play music and realize her love for songwriting and performing.
This was Kelly's first "real" band and they backed her
up with such solid playing it gave Kelly the confidence to go
for it. J. Peter Robinson, a well known composer and keyboard player, took a liking to Kelly and her music and
produced a demo for Kelly bringing in Leland Sklar and Ralph Humphrey
as the rhythm section. If you know anything about these 3 players, than you know it was amazing for Kelly
to be backed up by such talent and history. This gave her even more confidence.
But the first changes in the
band started before the recording of the fist release "Test Drive".
For personal reasons the band decided to take a break. Kelly
looked to guitar player and producer, Perry Robertson, who had produced a live CD
for the band called "Live at The Troubador" for some
guidance. Together they began organizing a new group of players.
Thomas Richter (lead guitar) and Sebastian Sheehan (drummer) came
on board after Perry and Kelly met them both through their love
of Harley Davidsons. Wes Precino had a short stint as the bass
player but he couldn't commit to the amount of gigs the band was
getting, so it was Chris Robertson, found through an audition
process, that got the job. Together with Bill Johnston on Sax,
these were the players on Test Drive.
But of course there were more
changes in the horizon!
Chris
Robertson, one of the best bass players out there, was happy to
be in Kelly's Lot but soon moved away and couldn't contine as the full time bass guy.
Wes played on bass for a few more gigs but eventually Bruce
Johnson came on board as the bass player. Bill Johnston eventually
played on every song with his variety of saxophones and a lonely
clarinet and became a solid member of Kelly's Lot. "Stop" was the next release, a live CD the band recorded
from Hallenbeck's, a local cafe that the band played at every month for over 5 years. The owner, Rob Zucca,
eventually relaced Richter on guitar and Brian Celano, a co-worker of
Bill and Perry, took Sebastian's place as drummer. Mark Drews joined
to share bass duties with Bruce who was busy making the Ampeg basses for musicians all over the world.
"The next CD, Come to This, " was recorded
with Johnston, Celano, Drews, Robertson, Zucca and Kelly. Before the next CD Jon
Weiner and Jonas Manon both played drums with the band filling in and just playing for fun before Sheehan
returned to play again full time. After recording "The Light" Matt McFadden started filling in for Mark on bass
and Robert Dill was filling in for Sebastian on drums. Soon Dill and McFadden took over
the rhythm section duties full time while Drews and Sheehan began new careers as producers and composers.
Sebastian has since returned and shares drumming duties with Robert. With more gigs in Texas on the horizon the band welcomes
Texan J.P. Evans to play the drums when the band is there. Bill Johnston took a short break but is back in full swing.
Linda Moss plays harmonica when she can and has been playing with "the Lot" steadily for 4 years including the
band's first tour in Europe. Sebastian introduced the group to B3 player Galen Shostac who has become the official keyboard and B3 "LOT" member.
Ed Theriault will always be part of the band and plays spoons with Perry and Kelly sometimes as an acoustic trio..
Sounds like a lot of players but after 14 years everyone in this band is like family and eventually returns for a gig or a jam.
Kelly's Lot is a family.
So here they are today with the full band of great players.
Perry Robertson and Rob Zucca on guitar, bass player Matt McFadden,
Robert Dill or Sebastian Sheehan on drums and percussion, Bill Johnston on Sax,
Linda Moss on Harmonica, Galen Shostac on B3 and keyboards and of course Kelly Z singing her
heart out! From an acoustic duo all the way to an eight piece band you can find them doing
the roadhouse rock and blues they love.
