Louisville Band Kicks off National Tour in Columbus

Louisville duo the Sirens, voted National Women’s Music Festival Best New Artists 2009, is debuting their national tour Chasing the Sun! in Columbus, January 16 at 8:00 pm at the Summit on 16th – 82 East 16th Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43201

Together as the Sirens since 2007, singer songwriter Hettie Mays and poet Kri Martin create great music with a unique sound blending folk, hip hop, soul, and spoken word with gorgeous vocals and deep lyrics. Brilliant and talented, the Sirens are known to make you laugh until you cry, and then turn around and just plain make you cry with the beauty of their voices and the honesty of their words. They are fun and poignant and funny and just generally inspiring.

In the tradition of many of today’s artists Hettie began playing piano and singing in her church in Ashland, Kentucky. At age 8, her mother, the pianist for their church sat Hettie beside her on the piano bench. Over time, listening, as the choir rehearsed rich harmonies she was able to follow along and eventually to direct the vocals. Today Hettie continues this tradition working with young musicians as a vocal coach helping young bands tighten their harmonies and vocal staging.

Kri, a native to Louisville and a closet journal writer, has been a wordsmith and poet since her earliest memories but has only been speaking her poetry “out loud” since 2006. She’ll tell you she’s been “getting into trouble for as long as she can remember for speaking and acting the way she’s now being praised for”. Hettie says “she’s a walking piece of art”.

The duo first met when Hettie moved to Louisville to attend school, performing in various bands in Louisville’s rich live performance atmosphere. The pair developed “The Soapbox Sirens” in 2007, an open mic forum for local artists. Kri represented the poets; Hettie the musicians. There would be a theme for all artists for the evening and the pair would get together to create an original number for the show. They felt a wonderful commonality, and from that the Sirens were born.

More info can be found online at SirensInTheWoods.com.