The Raventones: About
The Raventones
The Raventones are a minimalist "power duo" from rainy, rocky, remote Swisshome, Oregon. TR Kelley plays baritone and bass guitars and bits of other things, Randy Hamme handles the drums, percussion and engineering. Kelley also plays a jazz vocalist, mixing melismatic word trance, rap, vocalese, and other noises into the stories.
The Raventones' sparse, thick, twangy low strings & drum sound grooves like a surf-jazz combo from the backwoods of outer space with whiffs of The Ventures, Ray Charles, The Police, Joni Mitchell, and Star Trek.
As of 2011, The Raventones are on long-term hiatus from live performance, instead concentrating on recording and on developing the "RTR Rhythm Section" side of their musical personalities.
RTR - Rhythm Section
When performing as RTR, Randy and TR are on top of the bottom, a bonded and tight rhythm section of joy, precision and groove able to support a variety of artists in many genres with bass, drums and harmony vocals.
RTR is available for backline, studio and one-off gigs as well as participating in longer-term projects. Contact us for more details: randy at raventones. com
TR Kelley - baritone & bass guitars, vocals
TR Kelley's quirky but solid stage presence readily reflects 30+ years of gigging everywhere from roadhouses and jazz clubs to big festival stages. Before the launching of THE RAVENTONES, TR was known primarily as a bassist & vocalist in the mid 90's Oregon fem-folk powerhouse quartet Babes with Axes, and a side person to many other artists in the Eugene area. Before that, TR was a bassist in many different cover bands playing casinos, hotels, fraternal lodges and taverns in the Pacific Northwest.
Randy Hamme - drums & harmony vocals
Drummer Randy Hamme (rhymes with "mom")
relocated to Oregon in 1995 from Pennsylvania. Randy's musical background included a father in the band-instrument business, and the inevitable stints with school-induced piano & clarinet before he "came home" to drums.
Previously a popular venue manager as well as charismatic music store salesman, Randy is also a master of publicity, punctuality & professionalism and gets the band where it needs to be with plenty of time and energy to spare.