Kevin Merritt (Piano/Vocals) Originally from Berkeley, CA, Kevin considers himself a true jack-of-all trades. Having played everything from guitar, banjo, trumpet, percussion, harmonica, and anything else he can acquire, he now finds himself playing piano/keyboards with ESB.

A talented songwriter in his own right, Kevin has spent the last 3 years fronting his own band and producing albums for other songwriters. He also continues to write music for short films and documentaries. He lists Billy Joel, Jim Croce, Steely Dan, Van Morrison, and John Lennon as some of his musicial influences.

Although classically trained in music composition and film scoring at UC Berkeley and UCLA, he has since jumped back into the pop/rock world as an artist, arranger and producer.
Kevin states: "It took me four years of writing classical music to realize that it didn't speak to my heart as much as a four chord Jim Croce tune."
In addition, to his music, Kevin performs as a voice over and on-camera actor in regional and national commercials. And, like any good keyboard player, Kevin is also true computer nerd!

Although he is a self-effacing musician (someone in this band has to be!) what Kevin brings to the band is a great mix of song-supportive parts and colors. His classical training gives us a good foundation to tap into to help make good rock songs great ones. We look forward to the new directions the addition of a talent such as Kevin will bring to the band.

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