For the Trenton Sesquicentennial, the Entertainment Committee of Buddy and Karla Hannaford and Marlene Ralston sought entertainers who grew up in Trenton and who have gained notoriety through their entertainment skills. They also pride themselves in providing a myriad of musical genres for audiences of all ages.
This website brought to you in part by the following sponsor:
On Sunday, July 1 at 1:30 p.m., Trenton citizens will enjoy a hometown boy as he comes back to star in a concert with his soul calypso, reggae, rasta rock band called Soca Jukebox. Clay John-ston, son of Ed and Pam Johnston, spends much of his time with one of his life-long passions – playing music.
Soca Jukebox has established itself as one of the Midwest’s most sought-after groups with a Caribbean steel drum infusion into one fun, rockin’ band. Each member of Soca Jukebox is a multi-instrumentalist with percussion, vocal and string backgrounds. Johnston (lead vocal, double seconds), Jay Albright (lead pan), Ben Leimkuhler (bass), Mark Elting (drum set) and Jason Riley (guitar) make up this one-of-a-kind quintet.
Taking their name from a popular Caribbean music style (soca is slang for “Soul Calypso”), the group performs traditional island music as well as more familiar contemporary hits. They give every song a unique Latin or Reggae twist, the very element that endears them to audiences.
Soca Jukebox is the perfect group to create that “Island Atmosphere.” Their presentation is high-energy and truly entertaining. Kick-back, feel the rhythm and say “Yah, Mon” to this extraordinary ensemble.
The concert will be in the Ketcham Community Center. Admission is $5 for persons ages 12-and-over, $3 for those ages 2 to 11 and free for those 0 to 1 year of age.
Johnston has been playing percussion since he was old enough to shake a stick. Taking to steel drums in college was natural for him, as it appealed to his “look at me!” personality.
His vocal depth helps put the So(ul) in Soca. Classically trained at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, he pretty much throws out all his proper technique as soon as the microphone is in front of him. On the rare occasions he’s able to step away from his drums, he enjoys sharing a “American Idol Moment” with the crowd.
An unassuming media executive by day, he’s the hardest rocking MBA at the office. Clay lives in Kansas City, with his wife, Amanda, and three children.
Albright has been around music his entire life. A drummer from the beginning, he had a chance to start performing at the age of 13.
A graduate of MWSU, Albright has performed with a variety of groups and recorded professionally with three of them. His most recent recordings with country/rockabilly group ‘Pig Farmer,’ which has released four albums, is receiving airplay all over the world.
Albright has been a music teacher for the Cameron School District in Cameron for 10 years and recently accepted a position as assistant principal of Cameron Middle School, beginning next fall. He resides outside of Cameron with his wife, Hope, and son, Nikolas, who is 11 years old. Besides the joy of performing with ‘Soca Jukebox’, he enjoys being outside and working around the farm.
Leimkuhler is a 31-year-old native Missourian and a founding member of the MWSU Steel Drum Ensemble, the first-known Caribbean steel drum group in the state of Missouri. With a nearly encyclopedic knowledge of classic rock, he is one of the most sought-after session musicians for performing and recording groups in the Kansas City and St. Joseph areas.
Leimkuhler began his musical career at age seven with the inevitable curse of many budding musicians: piano lessons. At age 10, his older brother’s basement band sparked his interest in the bass guitar. He has since played the bass in numerous school ensembles, amateur garage bands, and professional groups of every musical genre. He performed as a bass guitarist and percussionist in marching, jazz, wind, and percussion ensembles at Missouri Western State University, where he graduated with a degree in accounting and a minor in music.
He lives in St. Joseph, where he works as an accountant.
A a versatile guitarist, Riley’s professional experience includes recording, composing, teaching and performing in multiple styles. His formal degree in classical guitar and commercial music included extended study in American styles, especially the Jazz idiom and improvisation.
As a recording artist, Riley has produced and released three solo CDs. An equally successful and dedicated sideman, his playing has been featured extensively on many albums by other artists. He has won competitions and reader’s polls in both the rock and country genres and has opened for and performed with national and international artists. He has also made numerous radio and television appearances.
When not on tour, Riley serves as adjunct professor of guitar at Benedictine College in Atchison, KS and MWSU in St. Joseph. He has also served as co-director at the Festival Chartres – an international guitar festival in Chartres, France.
He lives with his wife, Jolie, daughter, Georgia, and son, Ben in St. Joseph.
Elting is an adjunct professor in music and recording arts at MWSU and a private percussion teacher for the Western Institute of MWSC. Formerly of Indepen-dence, but a resident of Estes Park and Grand Junction, CO for 15 years, he received a bachelor of arts degree in music with an emphasis in commercial music and recording arts from MWSC as well as hold an associate of applied science degree in music and video business from the Colorado Institute of Art in Denver.
Currently, Elting is working towards a master’s degree in science education in instructional technology at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville. As a private percussion instructor/clinician, he’s taught extensively for over 20 years throughout Colorado and Missouri, including duties as an adjunct instructor at Mesa State College in Grand Junction, CO.
As a professional freelance musician, he performs with three different groups based in St. Joseph. In addition to Soca Juke, he mans the congas and busts a backup vocal with Jason Riley and provides knockout beats and croons for The Voodoo Babies, all of whom perform regularly in the region.