Masonic Cleveland

Elle King puts a gritty, bluesy spin on her blend of pop- and country-tinged retro-rock. After debuting with 2012’s The Elle King EP, she hit number one on the Billboard alternative chart with “Ex’s & Oh’s” from her Top 30 debut album, 2015’s Love Stuff. By the early 2020s, she had released collaborations with artists spanning Ronnie Spector , Dierks Bentley , Wanda Jackson , and Andy Grammer ; she landed just outside the Top 40 with 2021’s “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home),” a duet with Miranda Lambert . 2022 brought solo recordings including The Bad Guys soundtrack contribution “Feelin’ Alright.”

Elle King was born Tanner Elle Schneider in 1989 in Los Angeles, the daughter of London King and Rob Schneider (actor, comedian, and former cast member of Saturday Night Live). She grew up in Ohio, and after hearing the all-girl pop-punk band the Donnas when she was nine years old, she decided she wanted to be a singer and musician. By 13 she was playing guitar, later adding banjo to her skill set. King began street busking and gigging around New York at the age of 16, moving to Philadelphia to attend the University of Arts, where she majored in painting and film. During that time, she acted in films including 2009’s Wild Cherry. After college, she spent time in Copenhagen and Los Angeles before returning to New York to settle in Brooklyn.

BORN AND BRED IN THE RED DIRT CLAY OF SOUTH ALABAMA.

With a sound as classic as the crackling of a Sun Records vinyl still spinning somewhere in Memphis, yet as fresh as the musical stylings of the 21st century, The Red Clay Strays are busy making waves with their spellbinding and genre-bending brand of tunes. Reminiscent of the vibrant heyday of southern music, the band finds their origins in the styles of classic country, rockabilly, and gospel-fed soul all the while ushering in a new era of rock-and-roll that is as distinctive as the men who form it. Born and bred in the red dirt clay of south Alabama, Brandon Coleman (lead vocals/guitar), Drew Nix (vocals/electric guitar/harmonica), Zach Rishel (electric guitar), Andrew Bishop (bass) and John Hall (drums), blended their unique individualities and influences together to create a band with a rare sincerity that is not often seen in today’s industry. They have spent the past five years cutting their teeth in the Gulf Coast music scene while simultaneously running the roads discovering who they are and where they belong in the world as they plant roots in towns big and small across the country by burning down every stage they step on—proverbially, of course. Their high-energy, emotive stage presence is as lively as their melodies, though they possess an uncanny knack for tuning into their softer side when the song warrants it. Whether the song has listeners tapping their toes and shaking their hips as in previous singles such as “Good Godly Woman” and “Doin’ Time,” or tugging on the heartstrings in ballads like “Wondering Why” and “Heavy Heart” off their upcoming debut album, the band displays their penchant for storytelling in any song they sing. For The Red Clay Strays, music is simply a way of life—they eat, sleep, live, and breathe it—which is emphasized by their passionate artistic integrity as there is evidently nowhere else they would rather be. At best, they are well on their way to being America’s next big thing, but at the heart of the matter they’re just five guys from Mobile, Alabama who want to play their music and fellowship with people while they do it.