Kenny Howes

Emerging from the power pop underground nurtured by the Internet's expansion, Atlanta-based singer/songwriter Kenny Howes issued multiple D.I.Y. pop albums before assembling the band the Yeah and inking a deal with an established label.

Born in 1970 in Mulberry, a Florida suburb, Howes moved through assorted high school and college groups during the late '80s and early '90s. Temporarily settled in Tallahassee, he captured and independently issued two solo cassettes, Nothing Wrong With That in 1993 and In Between in 1994. Though these were largely one-man-band projects aside from drummer Kelly Shane, Howes launched the band the Curious Yellow alongside Shane, guitarist Bob Anthony, and bassist Ben Pringle, who was later succeeded by Chuck Vaughan. The group toured the southeast as Howes sustained his solo studio work. Aided once more by Shane on drums, Howes completed and put out 1995's Nothing Wrong With That, featuring re-recorded material from the cassettes, along with 1996's excellent Kenny Howes' Second Album, which first brought him wider national notice.

Following the release of Kenny Howes' Second Album, Howes disbanded the Curious Yellow and moved with Shane to Atlanta, GA. During sessions for 1998's Back to You Today!, Howes encountered guitarist and keyboardist Jason Nesmith, prompting them to collaborate on the psych-pop side project Orange Hat. With Shane briefly unavailable due to his own commitments, Howes and Nesmith formed Kenny Howes and the Yeah in late 1998, adding Wayne Glass on drums and Kyle Harris on bass. Shane soon replaced Glass, and the band embarked on nationwide tours reminiscent of the Curious Yellow's earlier travels. Howes signed to Atlanta's Second Heaven label, after which the group began tracking its debut album in 2000. In the interim, Second Heaven issued 2000's The Right Idea, a compilation of remixed selections from Howes' three prior albums together with various outtakes and rarities. Kenny Howes and the Yeah! appeared two years afterward, marking the band's first release for Royal Fuzz.