By Suzanne Thompson
Sue Menhart always knew she had a song in her – make that an album full of bluesy rock. In May, the Uncasville resident and her band produced and issued its first CD. “Torn” is Menhart’s debut collection of blues-rock songs, written and produced in the past seven months.
Blues fans may recognize the singer as the gutsy vocalist they’ve heard around Misquammicut Beach and Westerly. She has played with many cover bands in Connecticut and Rhode Island, most recently in Witness Protection. Her husband, Kevin Clark, has been on the drums.
“I’ve been doing voice forever, since I was 16,” said Menhart, who gives her age as “not 20,” and leaves it at that. Her day job is as a computer systems analyst in the corporate world – safe, but not exactly rocker. Music is her passion.
Menhart said she’d had her fill of being in cover bands that broke up. A big fan of Bruce Springsteen, she saw him in concert for the first time about seven months ago. It was an epiphany.
“I said to myself, if he’s 58 and running around the stage like that and writing songs, then I can,” she said. “So I did it. I decided I was going to write my own songs, and whoever’s with me in the band, you’re with me.”
She started writing songs every day before going to work, put together the Sue Menhart Band, and launched a website. They recorded the songs at the Inphaze Audio studio in Griswold, Connecticut. It is described on the band’s website as essentially a farmhouse on 20 acres in the middle of nowhere.
Menhart calls the band’s sound blues rock, high energy with power-house vocals.
“I’m not Celine Dion, that’s one way to put it,” she laughed. She has been compared more to Bonnie Raitt and Janis Joplin.
“The CD is a concept album about coming to a crossroads in your life where you start to question everything - your station in life, your relationships, where you want to be,” she said. “The song ‘Child of the Blues’ is indeed my life story in 4 minutes.
“When you try to express your life story in 4 minutes or less, you really do just get right down to the heart of what you are all about, and it becomes crystal clear. For me, I figured out that I need to get out of the life I'm in, and onto something else. Hence, this little music project.”
She said the song Torn expresses her doubts about the decision to put it out there with her own band.
“I work for a living, but I really just want to be a rock star. Even if it's in my own mind,” she said.
In addition to Menhart on vocals and Clark on drums, the band members are John Jeff on guitar, Steve Pranulus on keyboard and Dave Foret on bass. The group holds practice sessions every weekend at the Clark household when it’s not performing.
“This is the best band as far as energy,” Clark said. “The musicianship is incredible.”
Clark called Pranulis, who also was a member of Witness Protection, a phenomenal player.
“Steve’s a ball of fire. You get him going and Jerry Lee Lewis comes out of that boy,” he said. “J.J. (John Jeff), from England, is absolutely the funniest guy you’ll ever meet. He’s high energy, always bouncing around.”
Foret, who got back into performing about a year ago, lives four houses up the street in Uncasville. He grew up in Alabama and Louisiana, and started out in high school playing for a pick-up band named “Kamakaze.” Then he joined the Navy, got married and had a family.
“It’s kind of like a lot of things, you wonder why it took you so long to get around to doing it,” he said. “I’m having a lot of fun. Sue and Kevin are great band mates and friends. We’re just going to see what happens.”
Foret’s day job is in training and development. He and his wife, Sharon, have three children. Their son Raiselin, 19, graduated from Montville High last year and daughters Adrienne, 11, and Avalon, 9, attend Montville public schools.
“Dave’s my bud,” said Clark. “He’s a good guy, down to earth, never gets upset about anything. We laugh all of the time.”
Three of the band members are in computers. Clark owns his own construction company, S&L Home Improvement.
Menhart was born in St. Louis, Mo., and moved to Mystic as a young girl when her father, Bob, came to work at Electric Boat. She and Clark met when he auditioned to be a drummer in a 50s-60s style band she was in.
“I had two weeks to learn the music to play a show,” he said. “We’ve been together ever since.”
The couple has been married 15 years. Their 13-year-old daughter, Lauren, just graduated from Tyl Middle School and will start Montville High next year.
“She thinks I’m a grown-up version of Hannah Montana,” Menhart laughed.
You Might Even Be a Rock Star?
It’s been a busy seven months for everyone involved. The big push is to get the self-produced CD out there, listened to, talked about, and reviewed.
The band held a CD release party on May 25 at the Double Down in Lisbon, and members have been on satellite and local radio shows.
Menhart was on EStreet Radio, Channel 10 on Sirius Satellite Radio in early June. In May, it was an early morning chat with Lee Elci on 104.7 WXLM News/Talk.. Just last week, Dot, an evening DJ on WCNI, 90.9 FM, also said some nice things about the band, she said.
In May, the band played at the Brown Derby in Montville to benefit the Norwich Peachtree Apartment Fire Victims. In June, they performed at the Celebrate Youth Music Festival 2008 Benefit for Montville Youth Center.
For now, everyone is pro bono, from writing, performing, recording and managing the website.
Sheila Dudek, a friend, has volunteered to be the band’s agent. She is as high energy as the band’s music sounds, and also works at the Dime Bank branch in Montville.
“She’s very organized, loves to talk to people and hand out business cards,” Menhart said. “Sheila just calls me up and tells me where I need to go.”
So far, so good. Bookings are coming in. Locally, the CD can be bought at Borders Books in Waterford and at band performances. It is available online through CDBaby, Amazon MP3, eMusic, Rhapsody and iTunes music store. Someone in Australia even bought a CD online.
“We’re doing everything that we’re supposed to do when you do a CD,” said Menhart, who has learned by networking with friends and contacts. She recently attended a songwriting conference in New York.
“You learn it from the Internet, how to market your band,” she said. “We’ll just do what they say and see what happens.”
The band also got its first media review, a favorable one. On June 24, Eric Danton, a rock critic with The Hartford Courant, blogged that Menhart’s big-throated blues-rock songs and the band had shades of the Fabulous Thunderbirds.
Last Saturday, the band performed at Toad's Place in New Haven, supporting the Van Halen tribute band Bottoms Up. They will be playing at the Bulkley House in New London and at the Wolf Den at Mohegan Sun in August. Menhart and John Jeff, or J.J., the guitar player, will be at Borders in Waterford on July 11 from 7 to 9 p.m., performing and signing CDs in the cafe.
See www.suemenhart.com for schedule and to hear Sue and the band.
Journalist Suzanne Thompson is at suzanne.s.thompson@sbcglobal.net