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Guitarist and vocalist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney first met when they were eight or nine years old while living in the same neighborhood of Akron, Ohio a couple houses down from each other. While attending Firestone High School, they became friends, though they were part of different crowds—Auerbach was captain of the high school soccer team, while Carney was a social outcast. After graduating, both briefly attended the University of Akron before dropping out. They formed The Black Keys in 2001.

The group’s commercial breakthrough came in 2010 with Brothers, which along with its popular single “Tighten Up“, won three Grammy Awards. The music video for “Tighten Up”, directed by Chris Marrs Piliero, won the 2010 MTV Video Music Award for Breakthrough Video. Rolling Stone placed Brothers at number two on its list of the best albums of 2010 and “Everlasting Light” at number 11 on the list of the year’s best songs. On January 8, 2011, the band appeared as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live.

Their 2011 follow-up El Camino received strong reviews and peaked at number two on the Billboard 200 chart, leading to the first arena concert tour of the band’s career, the El Camino Tour. The album and its hit single “Lonely Boy” won three Grammy Awards.

Colson Baker was born on April 22, 1990, in Houston, Texas. He lived in Egypt for the first four years of his life and learned to speak Arabic before he learned English. He later lived in Kenya and Germany, as well as throughout the United States in Texas, Los Angeles, California, and Chicago, Illinois. Baker’s mother left home when he was nine years old and he and his father moved to Denver, Colorado to live with Baker’s aunt. While he lived in Cleveland, Baker attended Shaker Heights High School.

He released his second mixtape in November 2010 titled Lace Up which featured the hometown anthem “Cleveland”, which was then played at Cleveland Cavaliers home games and went on rotation on Z107.9 in Cleveland.

His debut studio album, Lace Up (2012) peaked at number four on the US Billboard 200 and was led by the single “Wild Boy” (featuring Waka Flocka Flame), which marked his first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 and received triple platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). His second and third albums, General Admission (2015) and Bloom (2017) were both met with critical praise and similar commercial success; Bloom was supported by the single “Bad Things” (with Camila Cabello), which peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100. His fourth album, Hotel Diablo(2019) further experimented with rap rock.

In August 2020, Baker opened his own coffee house called 27 Club Coffee in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. (1215 W Tenth St, Cleveland, OH).

Strongsville native and professional musician Paul Sidoti, is best known as the lead guitarist and vocalist for Taylor Swift since 2007. He was born in May of 1971 in Parma, Ohio  and grew up in Strongsville, Ohio. He graduated from Strongsville High School in 1989.

Parade article Sidoti Eras Tour 

In August of 2024 Taylor Swift‘s European leg of the Eras Tour concluded, and one of her band members is looking back on the unforgettable experience. 

After playing the final European show in London, Paul Sidoti, longtime lead guitarist for the “Bejeweled” songstress, took to Instagram to reflect on the “incredible, fun-filled, memorable summer in Europe” spent alongside Swift and the rest of the Eras Tour performers.

Also in August 2024 he took part in a tribute recording to the Raspberries frontman, hitmaker and Cleveland legend Eric Carmen. The recording of Carmen’s “Boats Against the Current,” also features vocalist Jennifer Lee (Michael Stanley and the Resonators), pianist John Savannah, bassist Will Lee, drummer Tommy Allen, guitarist Billy Sullivan (once of Beau Coup), and vocalist Rich Spina formerly of Love Affair.

The Vindys are a pop rock band based in Youngstown, Ohio, founded in 2014. The current members are vocalist Jackie Popovec, guitarists John Anthony and Rick Deak, keyboardist Nathan Anthony, bassist Brendan Burke, drummer Owen Davis, saxophonist Garret Kuchmaner, trumpeter Kyle O’Donnell, and trombonist Brian Mayle, the last three known as the Youngstown Horns.

The band’s name derives from the Youngstown daily newspaper The Vindicator as a tribute to the group’s hometown roots.

In 2023, while still described as a local band, their song “Are You Ready” became a sports anthem on ESPN’s ACC Network, heard in promotional spots, telecasts and montages for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Pittsburgh Penguins and in ESPN’s NCAA Softball Championship coverage. Another highlight of 2023 was a pops show with the Canton Symphony Orchestra in March.

The title track of Bugs is featured on the soundtrack of the 2024 horror film Last Night at Terrace Lanes, and the video, directed by Peter-John Campbell, was selected as a featured short at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival.

The Vindys toured with RRHOF Inductees Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo during the summer of 2024.