Arts & Entertainment

LocaLize It: Trio Takes Acoustic Approach to Arrangements

One lady and two guys team up for a smooth sound, mixing old favorites with enthusiastically received originals.

You've probably heard a local band playing in your neighborhood. Sometimes against your will.

But you'll probably want to listen if the band called LocaL comes to your neighborhood.

That's right. The second "L" is capitalized, too, because that's the first letter of the first name of two of the original band members.

You follow? Well, they're down to only one name starting with "L," but they're still LocaL.

And they're local, crossing through Upper St. Clair to meet up with one another: Vocalist Leigh-Anne Yost, the remaining "L," lives in Bridgeville; guitarist Kyle Ingram and percussionist-guitarist Zack DeFelice are Peters Township High School graduates.

Got it? Good.

OK, let's hear from Leigh-Anne, who's a heck of a writer along with being one heck of a singer:

"LocaL plays a wide variety of music, from Top 40 to country to classic rock to oldies, and everywhere in between. We create our own arrangements of the songs, known as LocaLizing" – usually for acoustic guitar and hand drum – "whatever song it is that we're tackling."

And now for the band's background:

"The story of how we all met is pretty funny, actually. I met Zack at a bar, through a mutual friend. I asked if his name was spelled with an 'h' or a 'k.' We were pretty much best friends at first sight. He and I played music together occasionally, but just for fun.

"I started working at Jay's Sports Bar (Cecil Township) last March, during a hiatus from my 'big girl job.' A red-headed kid bops into the kitchen and says, 'Hey, Cutie, what's your name?' When I told him Leigh-Anne, he said, 'That's my mom's name!' Kyle sent me a friend request on Facebook and saw pictures of me with my guitar and singing, and asked if I wanted to jam. So we did, but just for fun.

"A friend of mine from high school (Lisa Weiss) contacted me about putting together a band that May. I told her I had just the two guys to help us out. A year ago, we were wondering how in the heck we'd ever be able to come up with four hours of music. Now, we have trouble deciding which songs NOT to play.

"We played our first real show in November of last year and started playing out regularly in January. We play at least five shows a month, all around the South Hills. Everywhere we've played has invited us to come back.

"Lisa had to leave the band, but the guys and I pressed forward, with Kyle and Zack picking up more singing duties and with me playing more guitar to round out the sound. We have a CD of our first seven original songs that we recorded available for purchase. We are currently working on our second CD of original music. Each member of the band has contributed original music, and the originals, like 'Ain't Worth the Fight' and 'Silly', have turned into crowd favorites.

"Kyle started playing guitar when he was 12 and has since played in a ton of shows, most with men three times his age. He gives guitar lessons at URock Music Center (Peters Township), where owner Vincent Nemeth, recorded our first CD for us.

"This is Zack's first band, but learned the ropes from his father, who was in a long-running band in the '70s that has recently reunited for several shows. Zack also is an accomplished artist, whose work is available at our shows."

As for Leigh-Anne, she's performing professionally since graduating from Bethany College in 2002. You may have seen her in Jude Pohl's productions of "The Perry Como Christmas Show," "Feelin' Groovy" and "Movie Madness" in Canonsburg. She honed her singing skills at Canon-McMillan High School under the tutelage of Anthony Pesci.

And she's a heck of a writer.

Musicians, we're lookin' for ya: hfunk1213@gmail.com

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