Paducah’s School of Rock

Paducah’s School ofROCK★

by J.T. CRAWFORD

LEFT TO RIGHT: Cody Trimmel Azlyn Goodyke Sam Horton Kylah Hawkins

“THERE'S ALWAYS GONNA BE ROCK ’N ROLL BANDS; THERE’S ALWAYS GONNA BE KIDS THAT LOVE ROCK ’N ROLL RECORDS; AND THERE WILL ALWAYS BE ROCK ’N ROLL.” —Dave Grohl

PADUCAH’S SCHOOL ROCK of

It was an early summer day in downtown Paducah.

The parking lot at Paducah Beer Werks teemed with life as competitors leisurely played cornhole. Tables lined one side of the lot where spectators and those celebrating the magnificence of the day settled into eating, drinking, and being merry. On the periphery of this scene, unnoticed by most, a band finished setting up and stepped up to their mics, getting ready to perform an afternoon set of music. Then, without warning to the crowd, the opening guitar riff of “The Ocean” by Led Zeppelin reverberated boldly through the air. The unmistakable intonation of rock ’n roll acted as the siren call for every middle-aged man present that day, each turning, nearly in slow motion, to find the source of such raw energy.

Expecting to see a few aged rockers reliving the tunes of their youth, the crowd was shocked to find four teens rocking out to music that entered the world more than three decades before these kids did. The crowd asked themselves, “How old are they?” “How do they know these songs?” “What is going on?” There would be time to answer later. Then was the time to rock. Thanks to this band, the afternoon, according to many gathered, was lit.

The four musicians that comprise the band Broken Record are Azlyn Goodyke (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Kylah Hawkins (bass, vocals), Cody Trimmel (lead guitar), and Sam Horton (drums). And all four are sixteen years old. Yet their age does not preclude them from knowing, let alone loving, music that hails from generations before. While at first it seems surprising, great music transcends time, and these four are about chasing what sounds and feels good to them, regardless of its age.

“Like most kids, I listened to what my parents did,” says Sam. “My dad listened to things like Nirvana and some older things. When I started learning, I just played what I knew. Then once you learn those first songs, it begins to branch out from there.” Sam came from a musical family, and as the youngest, picked up the only instrument left to play with the others—the drums. Cody echoes the influence of generations before. “I really got into Jimi Hendrix from my dad,” he says. Cody, like the teens of the late 60s, was blown away by the Hendrix sound. And Cody’s dad is even too young to have been around in Hendrix’s heyday, showing that greatness encountered is timeless. “My brother had a cheap guitar, and I started fooling around with it when I was eight,” adds Cody. “I was like ‘wait, I really like this!’ I loved the idea of performing, and once my parents saw I was serious, they got me into lessons.” Cody has been a part of multiple bands since he began playing. “It’s easy when you have a cool dad,” laughs Kylah. “I love the 70s era, and my parents passed that to me. I love it so much. I have always been attracted to that time in music. It’s very much a soul-touching thing. My cousin is about eight years older than me,” she adds, “and she lives in Nashville and was doing the music

thing and booking some gigs. I looked up to her and liked what she was doing. I started playing the guitar when I was about ten. I started playing with her and also began my own thing. Then I found out about being in a band through Allen Music. That’s when I learned how to play bass.”

“My grandpa is super into music, and he got me a guitar for Christmas,” says Azlyn who started taking music lessons

at an early age. At around ten years old, Azlyn joined her first band. “I was in fourth grade and had a teacher that was teaching me things like Taylor Swift. But then I started to discover bands like The Beatles and discovered how much I loved older music.”

Beyond their shared musical heritage, the band was brought together through their continuing education at Allen Music in Paducah. “When Corey Evitts worked here, he had the idea of putting students together and forming bands,” says Ashley Allen, fourth generation with the store. “And I started off in one of those bands when I was young.” The program was called Groove Academy, and students who were taking lessons at Allen propelled their education to the next level by learning to collaborate with others.

Ashley noticed the talents and interests of Azlyn, Kylah, Cody, and Sam, and brought them together. Broken Record began playing publicly a few years ago, and before long, they were getting requests and landing paid gigs. In addition to learning about being a band, the kids learned the business of booking shows, setting up, and running sound.

“It’s a lot easier with this band now,” laughs Ashley. “Imagine four 12-year-olds with really loud instruments trying to figure this thing out. Early on, I had to do every little thing. But they have always been very passionate about it and want to learn as much as possible. I am so proud of them. I have watched them within about six years grow up and do some cool stuff. I will always be their biggest fan.”

Ashley takes a lot of joy in seeing audiences react. “You just don’t know how good a group of kids that age can be,” she says, “and people seem surprised. And when they play the older genres, you can tell how much the band and the crowd loves it. I saw in each one of the band members, early on, a love for that kind of music.” “I feel so lucky to find the right people who have the right flow,” says Kylah. “When you play with a group and get a flow going, you bounce that energy off of one another. You are sharing the love of music.” “When you play solo, sure you are making music,” adds Azyln. “But when you play with a band, you are making something bigger than what you can do by yourself.” “I agree,” says Cody. “There’s a whole chemistry behind it. Everyone’s energy helps you get lost in the music. You just feel everything. And there are things you can only learn by playing with others.”

“You aren’t just locked into what you are doing,” says Sam. “You go outside of yourself. It is a lot more fun with other people.”

Broken Record isn’t just about covering favorite classic songs. They have been writing original material, classifying it as more alternative. “Our originals came out so beautifully,” says Kylah. “There’s a lot of freedom to it.”

The kids in the band aren’t sure what the future holds. They feel a chemistry amongst themselves and are excited about writing their own material. They are realists about how the shared path of teens often goes in different directions when they go off to college, but they are open to doing what they can to stay together. What they ARE aware of are lessons that will propel each of them into a beautiful, musical future.

Back at Beer Werks, the kids are loving the crowd’s response. “Those are some of the best gigs,” says Azlyn, “where the crowd gets into it and people start dancing. Our energy comes together and interacts with theirs. It’s awesome.” For one beautiful afternoon, people of all ages are bound together with the chords of some multi- generational music.