The Band
Tina Kenny Jones
Lead Vocals, Bass Guitar, Keyboards, Fearless Leader
Our frontwoman and leader, Tina brings a tremendous amount of musical experience to the table. She began playing music at 3 years old, began performing professionally during high school, and earned a Bachelor of Music from the prestigious Berklee College of Music in only 3 years. Tina's arsenal of instruments includes bass guitar, piano, guitar, trumpet, ukulele, French horn, flute, and harmonica, among many others.
In addition to leading Tina and The Balance, Tina also plays bass and sings with "kindie rock" sensations Danny Weinkauf and his Red Pants Band (featuring Danny Weinkauf of They Might Be Giants and Steve Plesnarski of Tina Kenny and The Balance), does frequent session work as a singer and instrumentalist, composes classical music for chamber ensembles, is a music educator, and scores music for films and television.
Tina holds a black belt in Samadhi and was born in Brooklyn (back when it was closer to "Escape from New York" than "Portlandia"), so needless to say nobody messes with TK&B if they know what's good for them!
Tina Kenny Jones proudly plays Daisy Rock Guitars!
Daisy Rock makes some pretty awesome instruments designed with female players in mind. From short-scale student models with cool shapes like butterflies and stars perfect for capturing the imagination of the youngest rockstars-in-training, to full-scale instruments with thinner necks (and really cool sparkly finishes!) for ladies with smaller hands (like me!), Daisy Rock Guitars are unabashed "Girl Guitars" -- in the very best possible way!
Check them out at www.daisyrock.com to see what they're all about.
Russ Jones
Guitar, Bass Guitar, Vocals, Sound Engineer
Russ began performing professionally on his 16th birthday, and hasn't stopped since! Mostly self-taught, he has since studied with Carlos Alomar (David Bowie) and Chris Kuffner (Ingrid Michaelson, A Great Big World, Regina Spektor). He's also an accomplished live sound engineer, technician, and multi-instrumentalist with a number of other bands.
In between soloing with his guitar behind his head, Russ also serves as our live sound engineer.
Chris Trokovich
Keyboards, Guitar, Vocals, Butt-Kicking
Chris is the band's resident Man's-Man, as well as its tallest member. While his primary role in the band is to be in mid-blink when photos are being taken (a task he takes very seriously), he is also an incredibly talented instrumentalist and singer. He has played every single instrument in TK&B in at least one performance; Chris is like the really-awesome-utility-infielder-with-a-.595-batting-average of music!
Prior to joining Tina and The Balance, Chris fronted a Billy Joel tribute band that also featured Tina, Russ, and Steve in supporting roles. And no, they didn't just do 80's Joel.
Chris is secure enough in his masculinity to drive a Toyota Prius, which only makes him even more manly! He also enjoys mocking Boston-area sports teams, as well as running; those two activities may or may not be related.
Steve Plesnarksi
Drums, Vocals, Hot Dogs
Steve's primary role in Tina and The Balance is to serve as a backup-Man's-Man in the event that anything happens to Chris. Since he was hanging around anyway, he decided to also play drums with the band.
Steve graduated from Berklee with Tina, and has been working as a professional drummer ever since. His impressive resume includes perfroming with Grammy Award winner Danny Weinkauf [They Might Be Giants] and his Red Pants Band, high-profile wedding/event bands, and a stint playing the same set of country music, multiple times per day, EVERY day, for WEEKS ON END, IN COSTUME, AT A THEME PARK (the fact that he is still totally sane after that experience is ample proof of exactly how manly he is). Steve is also a music educator, and enjoys teaching budding musicians how to be as cool and talented as humanly possible.
Steve is also the band's foremost authority on hot dogs and wildlife, a two skills that come in handy more often than one would expect, and which we all pray never intersect...
Steve Plesnarski plays Paiste cymbols... and so should you! Check them out at www.paiste.com so you can be more like Steve!
Mickey King
Guitar, Gear-o-philia (that's ancient Greek for "Really Really Likes Guitars and Amps and Effects and Stuff Like That")
The newest member of the band, Mickey is a seasoned veteran of the New York City music scene, and also plays guitar in NYC-based cover band Love Tap. He and Russ have been playing together since dinosaurs last roamed the Earth, and his awesome feel and phenomenal chops have quickly embedded Mickey into the fabric of the band more deeply than a velociraptor skeleton in the badlands of Montana!
Mickey is also a music educator, and holds a degree in music from Hofstra University; if you're interested in learning how to shred, look him up at www.facebook.com/MickeyKingMusic.
