Band Biography:
Formed by the husband and wife team of Ken and Mindy Stephens in April of 2001, the Livingroom Legends are a unique Americana/alt. country duo.
Mindy plays bass and sings. Ken plays guitar, sings, and plays harmonica. The drum beats were initially provided by a Yamaha PSR-270 keyboard that Ken operated with a footswitch. However, their music has attracted a host of local musicians who now often play with the band at live shows. Most notably are John Bennett (lead guitar) and Scott Corliss (drums), of local group the Vellotones.
The Livingroom Legends were voted "favorite new band" in 2003, and recently took 1st Place in the Augusta Chronicle's songwriting competition.
Ken and Mindy have two daughters, 6 years and 16 months old. Ken is working as a substitute teacher, and trying to get his Masters in Special Education. Mindy used to work as a machinist, but currently runs the house & the band. The two have been building a local following, while at the same time using the resources on the internet to get their music to people around the world.
Mindy
Mindy Kay Stephens was born in Griffin, Georgia, but soon moved to New York, where her father was from, where she lived until she was ten years old.
Mindy was always surrounded by music: guitar- playing/songwriting father; piano/guitar-playing mother; guitar-playing sisters; and everyone sang, including Mindy. Taking no interest in formal, musical instruction (she tried clarinet for a year during fourth grade), Mindy sang in the Rosemont Heights Baptist church choir in Waynesboro, Georgia, and discovered Carol King at the age of twelve.
Mindy moved to Atlanta in 1995, and later began a three-and-a-half-year hobby of singing at karaoke bars, doing an average of two or three songs a week. She moved back to the Augusta, Georgia area in 1999, and continued to occasionally sing.
In April of 2001, Mindy's husband asked her if she would be interested in playing bass guitar...maybe even forming a band?
Ken
Stephen Kenneth Stephens was born in Gainsville, Georgia, and spent most of his life growing up in the rural town of Blythe, Georgia, located approximately 20 miles outside of Augusta. He got his first guitar, a Catalina that cost about 20 dollars, when he was thirteen.
He joined the U.S. Army after graduating Hephzibah High school and went to Monterey, California to study the Russian language. He later spent time in San Angelo, Texas and Augsburg, Germany working as a Military Intelligence voice interceptor.
When Ken's army stint was up he went to live in Savannah, Georgia and formed his first band since high school. His Boy Elroy livened up the scene for about a year with their "cartoon thrashabilly" sound and style, and gained the ear of a few industry big shots before disbanding.
Ken then came back to Augusta to begin working on his college degree in Creative Writing, but was sidetracked many times along the way with music. In 1993, he formed the arrogantly ambitious Songfarm, a band that would play over 100 shows in four states, self-release a 13-song CD, Talkin' to the Judge, and claim residency in four different Georgia cities during the next two years.
Returning to Augusta in 1996, Ken spent the next few years forming bands, graduating Augusta State University, and becoming a father. In April, 2001, Ken asked his wife Mindy if she would be interested in learning to play bass guitar. She agreed, and the Livingroom Legends was born.
Read more...