photo: Benjamin Pursley

By Josie Harpole

Staff Writer

Two Lewis and Clark Students; 19-year-old Audri Lucasey and 25-year-old Aaron Kellim, are the recent winners of the Maurice’s nationwide band search for “Small Town Sound”. The two are known as “Audri and Aaron.” Being chosen the winners of the contest is a huge accomplishment for the duo and will bring many opportunities for them in the future.

After being named the winners, Audri and Aaron performed a “free to the public” concert on February 12, at Alton Square Mall, in the center court right across from the local Maurice’s store.  They hit the stage with “Sick of Sarah”, another group who entered the contest from Minneapolis. The concert brought a huge crowd of people from surrounding areas interested to hear the local acoustic, folk, and pop sound of the new duo recently named “The Hottest Female Fronted Band” in the country. This was not their first time in spotlight though; Audri and Aaron won the band ticket sale contest at the “Big Gig” at the Alton Riverfront Amphitheater last summer and has also played at the Off Broadway Night Club in St.Louis, Missouri.

Lucasesy and Kellim met in the music department on campus at Lewis and Clark. Lucasey sings and plays the violin and Kellim sings and plays both the guitar and the piano. The two compliment each other well and have created a huge fan base. In addition to writing and performing their songs, they record videos and post them to YouTube. Check out their YouTube channel here.

There were 550 bands that entered the “Small Town Sound” contest. In addition to the concert at Alton Square, Lucasesy and Kellim’s win includes the chance to fly to Los Angeles where they will shoot a music video with a professional recording crew. They will also be performing with The Bangles, on March 17, at South by Southwest 2011 in Austin, Texas. The duo is working on their first compact disk which will be self-titled and is expected to release in March.