Friday, May 9, 2014

Kendra Barry ...Music fusion at its finest

"So what do you do?" .....When I ask this question here in Las Vegas, I never know what the answer will be, but whatever it is is usually interesting! In fact, this is one of the reasons I started my blog. The other day while working on a music video for Elton John and Ray Cooper, I met Barry Allen, a performer and creative artist who is the other half of the music duo Kendra Barry.

Some musical groups are formed by managers or agents matching up musicians, through ads on Craigs List, or mutual friends, but not Kendra Daniels and Barry Allen's. Their meeting was as organic as it comes and changed the course of both of their lives from that day on.

"I met Kendra at an entertainment event in 2012, when she had just moved to Las Vegas. We found out we have music in common. Soon after she called me to perform for a booking with her. That night we knew right away we had a great performance energy and sound together, and Kendra Barry was born!" - Barry Allen

Kendra Barry...a fun, energetic, passionate 
duo who perform Pop, Rock, & New Country.

Since that fateful meeting they have performed in Las Vegas Has Talent, and on The Morning Blend. They were the opening night band for the first performance of  the hugely successful show, Raiding the Rock Vault, and have performed several times at the Rush Lounge at the Golden Nugget, charitable concerts, benefits, and more....with many more coming up, including tentative tour dates for appearances in China later this year.

Kendra Barry with Shawn & Dao, The Morning Blend...Photo bingimages.com
Kendra Barry will appear again on the show on Monday, May 12 at 9am PT

Shortly after pairing up musically Kendra and Barry wrote their first song, Make Me Fall, which debuted at #6 on ReverbNation.com charts when first released earlier this spring! Make Me Fall is the kind of song you like right away when you first hear it. I personally think it would be great in a film.

You know my doubts, my tears and my fears
You make me fall again and again
You remind me that you're all I need
-Make Me Fall

"Our first single Make Me Fall, was great. Barry wrote the piano intro over 20 years ago in the middle of the night." - Kendra Daniels.......

"I remember we were deciding on a song for our first release, I played the intro for Kendra and she immediately started humming lyrics, right then we both knew that song would be our first!"....- Barry Allen

So, who are Kendra and Barry?....Let's find out!


Kendra Daniels
Kendra: Growing up my musical inspirations were my parents singing in their legendary band "Hush" of North Shore Boston, Massachusetts. "Hush" was very prominent for the time and they led me in the footsteps of where I am today. Now I strongly look up to New Country Pop artists like Carrie Underwood and Pop Artist Christina Aguilera whose vocals brings me to the top of my range. Her vocal riffs are legendary even today and keeps me working to perfect my craft. I am constantly growing as a musician.

Barry: For me, I listened to 80's rock and Classic Rock, bands like Van Halen, Journey and Boston. I feel my sound is different in that I have a guitaristic approach to my keyboard style. I used to sit in my room and listen to Van Halen solos and learn them note for note on my board. I always wanted to bring a more masculine feel to the keys, it felt more natural since that was what I loved hearing and where my heart was. I loved Journey because sometimes I just wanted to slow down and play a ballad that will touch your heart, Jonathan Cain was great at hitting those sweet notes on piano with a little bit of a Rock and Roll edge. I was very shy and besides loving the music at that age I liked the idea of having groupies! Later on in the 90's I heard Dream Theater's Derek Sherinian, I was excited to hear someone shred on the keys like Derek does because that was the edge I always pushed for, especially when I soloed. Over the years I have incorporated some pop influences to stay current and recently Kendra introduced me to New Country which has a Rock edge. I love that Honky Tonk bluesy piano style, it's fun to play. I play guitar on some of our tracks, those styles come through on my guitar playing as well. Now I pretty much listen to everything that is current, every time I add something new it gives our music a little different flavor. I will say that we will always sound like Kendra Barry, we just use different spices when we cook our soup....you'll always taste that basic flavor. HA!

Kendra Barry Performing before the Raiding the Rock Vault and meeting those guys, what a treat that was!  As far as we know we are the ONLY band to ever perform before the Raiding the Rock Vault show and one of the few bands in history to ever perform on that stage.....the very stage Elvis used to perform on at LVH.  Kendra: Another highlight for me has been performing in many charity local events all over Massachusetts including winning the "Talent of Miss Massachusetts" for multiple consecutive years. This opened doors to opportunities where I worked with the best of the best in Nashville. Also getting the chance to work with one of Christina Aguilera's producers in Los Angeles was amazing and so is my work with Kendra Barry!

Barry Allen
Barry: I played keys for Carnival Cruise Lines for a few shows, went to college for Piano Performance, minored in guitar. I had an amazing opportunity in my teens years to play with a high school show choir which ended up turning into a rock band with 8 singers. We played all the current rock/pop songs of the day, did small tours and benefit concerts. I believe after those 3 years I had close to 300 shows under my belt by the time I was 18, not including my work with other bands. We even won a talent show against 7 other states for best instrumentalist. We played "Frankenstein" by the Edgar Winter band, here we were these young teenagers walking out on stage rocking out and shredding rock solos on our instruments in front of a few thousand people, they didn't know what hit 'em! Of course we'd had the opportunity to be in Rock Band Class every single day in school during our high school years. We logged a lot of hours of practice and rehearsal, I am so grateful for that!

Kendra: Besides signing, I am also involved in modeling, acting, dancing, and horseback riding. I'm also a Black Belt in Tang Soo Do.

Barry: In addition to music I love acting, collecting foreign currency (only paper, no coins), fitness, reading and business/online retail.

Kendra Barry: If we could play anywhere in the world it would be Madison Square Garden!

Kendra Barry: Most of all we both have fun when we perform, and have great musical chemistry. When we go up on stage something happens, we light up and our souls come out in our music. We've been told we are fun to watch, and believe its because we love what we do and want to share this with our audiences. In every hit song there is a "moment," during rehearsals and we are finding those moments in our songs. We rearrange them so they also become moments for our listeners too. Connecting with our audience creates a positive experience we all take home with us after the show!

Kendra Barry

Like many bands and musicians before them who originated in Las Vegas, (Panic! At the Disco, Slaughter, Ne-Yo, The Killers and Imagine Dragons to name a few), Kendra Barry has the talent, style and passion to go far, while connecting artistically with audiences all along the way.

Where can you see Kendra Barry perform?

May 10 at Super May Days, Neonopolis, Downtown Las Vegas...(5pm)

May 12 The Morning Blend....(9am)

May 17 Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation Charity Event...(12pm)

June 4, Tipsy Crow, San Diego, CA...(10pm)

June 22, Universal Studios Hollywood - Saddleback Ranch, Universal City, CA...(5pm)

Go to kendrabarry.com for more performance info


"Make Me Fall"...Listen here  Artistecard.com/kendrabarry#!/videos/35690


Get Social with Kendra and Barry....

Facebook.com/kendrabarryband

twitter.com/KendraBarryBand

Youtube.com/watch?v=Tj-pHyrvfPM

Instagram.com/KendraBarryBand/#





Download Make Me Fall in iTunes...itunes.apple.com/Kendra Barry/ Make-Me-Fall-single

Latest News from Kendra Barry...
"We just released our second single, this time we decided on a cover of Run DMC's It's Tricky. We think it's a great song and the lends itself well to a male/female trading verses. Kendra came up with some very catchy amazing vocal riffs for the breakdowns. That song is really fun and sounds great live....the energy is tremendous and really gets the audience going!" - Barry Allen


 Barry, Thanks for reminding us of an awesome song...Youtube.com..Frankenstein, Edgar Winters Band

-Anna Wendt

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