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Sue Menhart is a singer-songwriter from Uncasville,
Connecticut, born in St. Louis, Missouri. She started
playing guitar and singing in church at age 8. She joined
her first band, "Majestic" at age 15. She performed in
Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts clubs
before she was old enough to get in.
At age 18, she gave up a full academic scholarship to the
University of Hartford to join friends out in Hollywood,
California attending the Guitar Institute of Technology.
She quickly decided that the bright lights weren't for her,
so she came back home to Mystic, Connecticut. She
worked day jobs, went to college at night, and sang and
played guitar in numerous cover bands.
In 2007, Sue's dissatisfaction with her job as a computer
analyst, coupled with the breakup of yet another cover
band, prompted her to finally write her own songs. The
album, “Torn”, independently released, has received
airplay on 90.9 WCNI New London, 99.1 WPLR, New
Haven, and 95.9 WATD-FM in Weymouth, MA. Her
singing style is brute-force female emotion, while her
songwriting touches on global themes and human issues
the world can relate to. The EP "Gypsy Soul" was
released in March 2009 and has garnered international
press from Skope Magazine and Indie-Music.com, and
received local airplay and press. The band appeared on
the live music performance television show
"Poughkeepsie Live" on Time Warner Cable 6 New York
in July, 2009. Indie-Music.com awarded the band a "Top
25 of 2010" distinction in January, 2010 for excellence
and achievement in independent music.
Sue has drawn comparisons to Bonnie Raitt, Susan
Tedeschi, Janis Joplin, Lucinda Williams and Diana Krall.
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Kevin Clark's drumming style is dynamic and
powerful while he draws on experiences from marching
band drumlines, and country, pop, disco, rock, jazz and
blues bands. He used to tape together his mother's
Tupperware bowls and use her wooden spoons for
sticks playing along with Stairway to Heaven. He played
the Tupperware in his basement until he could convince
his parents to buy his first drum set, a 1968 Slingerland.
Early bands included "No Land" and "Roger Hart and The
Country Misfits." He learned chops by listening to
Chicago and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and honed his
rudiments as the head of marching band drumlines. His
#1 influence is Mighty Max Weinberg. He is
affectionately known as "The Octopus."
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Dave Foret started playing bass with a pick-up
band named “Kamakaze” back in high school. Originally
hoping to play guitar, the band needed a bassist and, as
the least experienced, Dave was volunteered. Together
with his band-mates, he played at several school and
social functions, mainly concentrating on covers by the
likes of The Romantics, Billy Idol, and other popular
groups of the early 80’s. After a 20+ year hiatus from
music while serving in the Navy, Dave picked up the bass
again in mid 2006 when Sue and Kevin first started
talking about getting a cover band together again. As
luck would have it, Dave got the call about a year later
to be part of “Sue’s Project”. The rest, as they say, will
soon be history. Dave takes a traditional feel-over-flash
approach to bass, having once been taught that “you
can paint and furnish your musical house with guitars
and keyboards, but without the foundation of the bass
and the drums, it’s all just a pretty pile of crap that no-
one wants to listen to”. Keep it simple and keep it
moving … we can’t all be Geddy Lee. ..
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John Jeff (he responds to 'JJ') is a self-taught
guitarist, plays a 30-year old Yamaha SG2000, has no
previous experience with playing in a band, and has
much passion for playing original compositions, less for
covers. Has a passion for composing rock/prog
instrumentals, also very much enjoys the gadgetry
associated with digital recording. His first introduction to
a guitar was at the age of six when playing hide and
seek at a neighbor's house - he hid in a cupboard that
stored an acoustic guitar taller than him. Whilst he
listens to a broad range of music, the emotional guitar
playing and attack of Jimi Hendrix and Carlos Santana
were the first to catch his attention many years ago.
John McLaughlin fascinates, and the underlying
structures extraordinary. Lee Ritenour for his amazing
session work and who plays on everybody-who-is-
importants' albums. Out front for influence is the
improvisational inventiveness and technique of Jeff Beck
(awesome Ronnie Scott gig!), and the amazing phrasing
and scope of Pat Metheny. But there’s also Frampton
(see Detroit), Van Halen, Satriani, ....
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Bill Quinn is a multi-talented musician with a full
array of ideas, aspiring to arranging and writing. He has
played keyboards and guitar since age 12. He used to
play piano in New York pubs with a tip jar, at the age of
12. Try that today! He played the bass in his first band
"Hard Rain." He played bass and keys in the band "Zax"
and performed with Bill Dumas in "Blond Furniture." He
went on to record his own originals and has never left
the original music scene. He has performed many live
gigs and recording sessions with great artists from coast
to coast. He is currently having a great time with The
Sue Menhart Band.
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