The Raventones: About
The Raventones
Driven by the often otherworldly intensity of rural Oregon musician/writer TR Kelley, The Raventones deliver an engaging music and spoken-word experience channeled from TR's private planet and facilitated by TR's drummer and life partner, Randy Hamme.
The Raventones' twangy low-tuned guitar & drums sound is difficult to confine to one genre. The sound most often resembles a rockin' little psychedelic surf-jazz combo from the backwoods of outer space; with whiffs of The Ventures, Ray Charles, Joni Mitchell, and Star Trek.
Sultry ballads and soul screamers might appear in the same set with a country waltz or 60' TV theme song-based jazz exploration. Original songs and obscure covers mingle with instrumental and spoken word improv.
Lyrical themes range from outsider camaraderie to quirky humor and transcendent joy. TR's principal instruments are bass and baritone guitars, coaxing complex solo arrangements and chords out of instruments usually limited to "accompaniment" roles in larger bands. And then there are the funny hats.....
TR Kelley is an engaging visitor from a different mindscape, celebrating emerging Autistic - Asperger culture and other dimensions of human variety by sharing her unique art with audiences. Her eccentric orbit is a path made audibly visible by "nearly-neuro-normal" Randy Hamme's cheerful and professional ability to negotiate the recording studio and world offstage.
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TR Kelley - baritone & bass guitars, vocals
Girl guitar geek & principal tweeter tr kelley is a 1962 vintage backwoods bottom-feeder cat-lady who nevertheless has some redeeming value because she regularly plays guitar-shaped things in a Spirit-induced frenzy, radiating joy and gooseflesh to innocent bystanders, who usually dig it.
Her quirky but solid stage presence readily reflects 20+ 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 sideperson to many other players in the Eugene area. Before that, she was primarily unknown as a shy bassist in cover bands playing fraternal lodges and taverns in the rural Northwest.
In 1990, she eased out of the bar-band scene, appearing at coffeehouse open-mikes with a few original songs and a low-tuned 12-string guitar. TR's subsequent "discovery" by ex-NY folkie Tom Intondi led to a slot on a nationally-released "Fast Folk" CD sampler in May of 1993. Her song "Clearcut Disillusion" was described by the Eugene WOW Hall Notes as a unique twist on the 1980's Northwest timber wars delivered in "...a voice that can be chilling, grounded, haunted & soaring, all at the same time." With that small foothold, TR entered the supportive and progressive Eugene music community as an original composer and instrumentalist. In the decade that followed, inaddition to her solo work and appearances with BWA, she appeared as a bassist on many other artists' CDs.
When her lifelong oddnesses were named and diagnosed as Asperger's Syndrome (a.k.a "high-functioning autism") in 2003, TR's music took the final turn back what she feels is the Creator's original intent for her talent: personal art meant to create interpersonal resonance and education.
Randy Hamme - drums & harmony vocals
Drummer Randy Hamme (rhymes with "mom") is the frame and the foundation for The Raventones' retro-millenial musical stew. Hamme's shimmering cymbals and thick vintage groove are the perfect anchor for TR Kelley's radically different sound and gonzo live show philosophy.
A Pennsylvania native, 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. He's also done a cross-country motorcycle trip, sold dream-catchers & tie-dye at Hawaiian military bases and built a revolving cat door from the kind of things that accumulate in kitchen junk drawers. Managing the unique challenges and attributes of The Raventones is a path he finds rewarding on many levels.
Like TR, Randy was another bright, small-town black-sheep who collided with bohemia and other big ideas and heard the soundtrack of a different future..... "Go west young man!" After many travels around the country, he landed in western Oregon and found the social and spiritual climate a good fit for his continuing journey.
And he's gotten used to the rain.........:)