band bios…

    Kevin Ludwig has been writing and performing with Scott Greeson for more than 12 years and is lead guitarist for Trouble with Monday. He began playing guitar as a teenager, introduced to music through his sister’s record collection. He has played in a number of bands over the years and lists his influences as Eric Clapton, Pat Metheny and Pat Martino.

    Whether Kevin is holding an acoustic guitar or electric, his sound is unique, recognizable and unforgettable.
    In working with Scott, an unbreakable creative bond has developed. As Scott says, “Kevin is one of Indiana’s, if not the Midwest’s, most talented guitarists. What makes him unique to me is his ability to sense when to play his incredibly tasty riffs without ever over-playing. He truly enhances everything he plays.”
    Originally from New York City, Kevin graduated from Purdue University. He taught at Benton Central School Corp. for 18 years before becoming a teacher in Indianapolis Public Schools. He lives in Indianapolis.

    Mark's first gig with Trouble With Monday and Scott Greeson was Feb. 7, 2004 at Abbie's Place in Mulberry, Ind.  He had played in a band with Mr. Bassman, Greg Brassie. Greg told him about a band he was in that was working on a project with Lee Anna Atwell. They were working on several of her original tunes to put a CD project together. 
    Mark had expressed an interest in maybe sitting in on sax sometime.  After he talked with the rest of the band, Greg invited Mark to attend one of their practices. He feels blessed to have been able to play with this great band ever since. 
    Mark became enamored with music when he was 5 years old listening to his oldest brother’s high school rock band and his 60s vinyl collection.  He later developed a love for jazz when following his other brother’s high school jazz band in the 70s and listening to his dad’s Glenn Miller albums.  He would spend countless hours improvising on his brother’s alto sax with records by artists such as Maynard Ferguson, Spyro Gyra, Chicago, Stevie Wonder, Ohio Players and Earth Wind & Fire.  
    He started learning alto saxophone formally in sixth grade and went on to play baritone sax in the high school jazz band in eighth grade and alto sax in high school. In high school, Mark formed a band, Lotus, with his brother and some friends. The highlight of Lotus’ career was playing to a gym full of screaming high school girls at a Sunshine Society convention. While at Purdue University, he played alto sax in one of the Purdue Jazz Bands. Since college, Mark has been involved with several bands and recording projects and plays bass and woodwinds in the worship band for his church. He also plays in his family band, the Groove Catz, who have been together for more than 20 years. Mark enjoys spending time with his family and being involved with music-related community events. He has been actively involved with the entertainment committees for both the Taste of Tippecanoe and the Uptown Jazz & Blues Festival. In addition to saxophone, Mark plays flute, ukulele, electric bass, Akai EWI (electronic wind instrument), and acoustic guitar.

 

   I was playing in a worship team with Stan Wallace and he told me that I was going to be his bass player in a new band. I must have said “OK.”  A year later it became Trouble with Monday, and after another year, we joined with Scott as his band, but kept our name. We have really enjoyed being with Scott.
    I picked up my first bass my senior year at Purdue University. I joined some professors in a jug band and made my first bass out of a #2 washtub and a broomstick with a mic laying on a pillow under the tub. It worked really well! My first professional experience was with the band Coyote, in Boulder, Colo. around 1978. We did the Rocky Mountain club scene for about a year. I picked up a  few guitars, early on, but quickly realized that bass was my true love. To me, the bass is the true “feel” of the music. It holds everything else together, providing the tempo, the bottom and the groove of the music. How could you not love that?
    I currently play two American Fender Jazz basses, four and five string, and two Carvin basses, five and six string. The six string Carvin is a fretless bass and always brings a different tone and feel to the music.
    I have worked at Kirby Risk Electrical for almost 30 years, being an account manager for the last 20. I work with a lot of industries, providing them the sales, service and project support that they need. I’m a real “homebody,” so playing and working around our home in Mulberry is a good time. I have a wonderful wife, Peggy, and we’ve been busy raising two beautiful girls for the last 20 years. They are both accomplished pianists, and the oldest is just finishing her first year at Indiana State, majoring in “music business.” Her sister is in her senior year of high school this fall. If I feel the need, I can go into our music room and jam, or if I “really feel the need” I can jump on my Harley and take a cruise.
    It has been a real blessing working with Scott. He is not only a great musician and songwriter, but just a “truly great guy.” We do a lot of fairs, festivals and concert events, and always have a good time playing together. Scott is the perfect band leader and “front man.” I appreciate that, because I like to be the strong silent type. Our band is a group of “seasoned professionals” so we’ve become very tight over the years. We all share faith in God and that has created a special bond between us. Scott and Lee Anna are always writing new tunes, so we keep things pretty fresh. I hope to continue playing with Scott for many years to come.

 

    Lee Anna was born into a musical family. She started playing piano at age 3 and was writing songs by age 6. Her first lyrics were, "Now I've met a boy I know that I like and if you dare to touch him — I'll hit you with a spike." She performed at school functions and played for church throughout high school.
    Her first band was formed in 1984 when she was 14.  She played keyboard and sang back-up. She has always enjoyed adding vocal harmonies to music. Even singing in the car she finds herself belting out a harmony part more often than not!
    She has played with several bands including Legal Tender, Voices Of Eve and Trouble With Monday. She also leads a worship band at Brady Lane Church every Sunday. During the school year, she serves as a choir accompanist at McCutcheon High School. She has also done session work on more CDs than she can remember.
    Wait, there's more!  She has found time to have a husband — Mike Atwell (love of her life for 17 years) and two children Caitlin (16 and a drama queen) and Daniel (9, with a 30-year-old's vocabulary). She loves to foster kittens for the local Humane Society, read books, and make jewelry. In her spare time (spare time?) she likes naps.  
    She has released two CDs of original music and she's working on a movie score for an independent film. 

    Stan Wallace is one of Indiana's most creative and stylistic percussionists. It is a unique audio encounter when you hear a musician of any instrument and recognize who it is by their approach and style. Stan Wallace is one of those players.
    Stan was raised in the Lafayette, Ind. area, attending both McCutcheon and Lafayette Jefferson High Schools. While at Lafayette Jefferson, Stan played in the high school’s award-winning drum line, as well as accompanied several of the school’s nationally-recognized vocal groups.
    However, it was while attending McCutcheon High School that Stan first meet and jammed with Scott Greeson. Greeson says “I recall Stan coming into the band room while waiting for jazz band rehearsals to start, Stan would get behind the kit and we would hit it, me on guitar, Stan on drums and Steve Burris on bass. It was also during
that time at McCutcheon that Stan played in his first rock band, Crimson Shadow. While young, they were well versed in rock and ambitious about great covers and original material alike.
    After high school, Stan served in the United States Marines as a law enforcement officer, a career that Stan chose after his service obligations, and has since retired. Stan and Scott became re-acquainted by a chance encounter at the business office where Stan’s sister Jeannie Davis worked, where Greeson's band rehearsed.
    Stan was visiting, listened to a rehearsal and a musical relationship was rekindled. It was during that rehearsal that Stan met Kevin Ludwig who was deeply impressed with Stan's playing and suggested that they start working together on a side project. That side project ended up being the band Trouble with Monday, that went on to do its own CD and has become the band that now accompanies Scott at many of his shows.
    Stan has taught percussion professionally for years, he has a passion for sharing his instrument with young people. Stan immerses himself with musical influences such as Dave Weckl, Pat Petrillo and Phil Brines. He has accompanied the prestigious Purdue University, Purduettes and numerous other professional organizations.  
    Stan plays regularly for at his church, North View Christian in West Lafayette, Ind. were he is a very dedicated Christian musician. Stan  uses Yamaha Drums, Evans heads, Vic Firth Drum Sticks. He recently experienced Modern Drummers' Magazine’s Fantasy Drum Camp, where he studied under some of the world’s best percussionists. Stan lives in the Lafayette area with his wife Angie and their three daughters. He is available for both live performance, studio work and lessons.

 

    Brad began his formal musical training on piano at age nine and continued with classical lessons for ten years. At age twelve, he began playing drums in the school band program in Madison, Indiana. As college loomed on his horizon, he decided to forgo his original intent of studying computer science at Purdue University and pursue a
Bachelors of Music in Percussion Performance at Indiana University. While in Bloomington, Brad played percussion in many different settings (percussion ensembles, orchestras, concert bands, and jazz bands) culminating in two recitals that featured a variety of percussion compositions in diverse musical styles (not the least of which were a Jeff Beck tune for his junior recital and a Dixie Dregs song for his senior recital performed with his rock band, Graffiti, and an Eric Johnson solo guitar piece transcribed for marimba). The aforementioned rock band also appeared as the Screaming Yaardvarks, performing a ridiculous song entitled "Mr. PotatoHead" on the1988 Live
from Bloomington album, a compilation of original recordings from local musicians which benefitted the Hoosier Hills Food Bank.
    After graduation, Brad began teaching percussion in various public schools and music stores around the Indianapolis area. He started teaching at McGuire Music upon moving to Lafayette, Indiana in 1994. Subsequently he landed the Principal Percussion position with the Lafayette Symphony Orchestra, a chair he held for two years before going back to school to pursue a Masters degree in Educational Technology at Purdue University.
    Brad has participated in many situations throughout his career, playing and recording rock, jazz, country, blues, gospel, Latin, and orchestral music. Most recently he has been playing hand percussion and drum set, splitting his time between Covenant Church in West Lafayette and Scott Greeson. For the past ten years, he has joined
guitarist Jeff Anderson, a fellow McGuire Music teacher and I.U. alum, on stage and in the studio, appearing on his 2008 album Soldiers Home Road.

 

    Vickie Maris Greeson sings harmony vocals for Scott, plays acoustic guitar and piano accordion. She and Scott have been married since 2008 and Vickie performs with Scott and the band Trouble with Monday. Scott and Vickie have been playing music together since 1999 when Vickie asked him to join a contemporary Christian worship band, Brand New Day. Later, she also sang with Scott's band which played fairs, festivals and other venues. Brand New Day recorded a CD in 2001, “For the Days Ahead,” which featured several original tunes they had written.

   Comments from Vickie: Music has been an integral part of my life. When my parents received a record album of the musical “I Do, I Do,” for an anniversary, I memorized all the lyrics and wore the album out as a preschooler.
I have wonderful memories of school choirs, participating in musicals in junior high and high school and being a member of the State 4-H Chorus, and later, Choral Club in Purdue Musical Organizations. I sang in our church choir for years. Some of the most influential people in my life have been my school music teachers, vocal coaches, choir directors and instructors of guitar and accordion.
   I will never forget Mrs. Perry, the music teacher at Burtsfield Elementary, and her enthusiasm for life as well as her ability to expand our horizons beyond the old music standards and on to tunes with African or Latin roots.
Our delightful director, DeDe Mantock, at Purdue Musical Organizations, is the person I credit with turning me into a soloist through her confidence in me when I had very little confidence of my own. Mrs. Sullivan introduced me to the world of guitar playing. Gary Blair, Beverly Fess and Murl Allen Sanders are the accordionists who inspire and encourage me in my quest to become an accordion player. The late Marta Kemble, music director at First Christian Church, was my buddy in the soprano section for more than 20 years. She had perfect pitch, a perfect heart and a voice that no one will ever be able to imitate. I will spend a lifetime, though, trying to emulate Marta’s lovely notes and lovely soul.
   I have worked in various roles in ag business as a marketing communications professional, and more recently in higher education at Purdue University. I went back to school for my master’s degree in educational technology and now run the non-credit programs and courses in Engineering Professional Education in the College of Engineering at Purdue. I so enjoy working with our faculty and helping them connect with learners located all throughout the globe via instructional materials designed for the online environment.
   My spare time is filled with running our farm and playing music. Scott and I have a small hobby farm where we raise llamas to show in halter and performance (obstacle course, PR class, pack class), and also have a few Connemara ponies (the native pony of Ireland) that I train and ride.

 

    Bryan has been with Scott Geeson and Trouble with Monday since early 2009. He has managed sound systems for several bands and venues. Bryan is the County Extension Director for the Purdue Extension Service in Tippecanoe County, Ind. He has worked for Purdue Extension since 1979. In their free time, Bryan and his wife Cindy, enjoy Purdue University football and men’s basketball, traveling, cruises, and scuba diving.