Juke Box Heroes band members:
Jason Kelty - Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar, Keyboards, Tracks
Steve Raz - Lead Guitar, Vocals
Paul Soos - Bass, Vocals
Michael Scott Nelson - Drums, Vocals
Juke Box Heroes is a classic rock dance band. It's also my "track
band". The basic concept is to choose songs people love that other bands
don't do and play them like the original recording using a little
prerecorded help to fill in what's missing. It's not rocket science,
really...and props out to Tim Burris and Disco Explosion for teaching me
the concept.
Being a multi-instrumentalist, this band gives me
an opportunity to use my keyboard and harmony skills to back myself up.
On most of our songs, I could play a keyboard part or a rhythm guitar
part. I feel it's a better show to play the guitar parts live and
prerecord the keys instead of vice versa. Also, in the real world, I can
sing live harmonies along with anyone...except for myself. So, using
tracks, I get to sing along with myself so we can pull off Journey songs
and make it sound like the studio recording (where Steve Perry recorded
most of the harmonies himself). Don't worry...the other guys in JBH
sing, too.
So, with that said, JBH is just a fun opportunity
to dance to some awesome tunes. It's my concept of what a cover band
should accomplish. People want to dance, so you can't play a lot of slow
songs (but we have a few) or progressive art rock stuff and expect the
masses to love it. So, as much as I love Rush, I'd never put 'Tom
Sawyer' in the middle of a JBH dance set. (Although I'd love to see
people try to dance to the keyboard solo when it goes into 7/8 time.
That would be hilarious!)
JBH came around after Eclipse broke up. I first
joined a band called 'Cleveland Rocks' which was short-lived because the
guitarist soon moved to Florida. So the drummer, Rick Strah, and the
bass player, Ken Marklow, both joined me in creating JBH. Rick just
happened to know Scott Psota, my guitarist in E5C4P3,
and mentioned he was interested in playing again (other than the E5C4P3
reunion). I also reconnected with Rob Biglin. He and I worked together
in Breakfast Club until I foolishly left the band right before they got
so popular. So the five of us put together JBH, but Ken, who also plays
with other bands, couldn't continue with JBH. So we just continued on as
a 4 piece band with Rob on bass. (Incidentally, Rob and I also played
together in Sellouts with Rob on guitar and me on bass.) Rob moved back
to Indiana and we eventually found Gary (G Rock) Stulak. Mark Matthews
(from E5C4P3), Dave Warner (who used to run lights for E5C4P3) and even
George McGrew (from Eclipse and 2112)
filled in on bass until Gary came around. Hey! Look at that! All five
bands mentioned within one paragraph. I'm starting to feel like Kevin
Bacon. And then it happened. On January 1st, 2016, mutiny. Now things are even better!
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