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UK grad wins a date with The Boss

By Victor Yang Herald-Leader Staff Writer

The band of University of Kentucky alumnus Rudy Vaughn Brannon has won The Hard Rock Café's Ambassadors of Rock Battle of the Bands.

The musician — known on stage as Rudy Vaughn — and his eponymous band were scheduled to be the warm-up act for Bruce Springsteen and the Dave Matthews Band in London's Hyde Park as part of the Hard Rock Calling Festival, which ended Sunday. They were to join Neil Young, The Killers and other prominent musicians in front of a crowd expected to number more than 60,000.

A judging panel selected the Atlanta-based Rudy Vaughn band, one of five national finalists from a preliminary field of 150. The band then won the popular vote on the Hard Rock Café's Web site.

The win comes with no monetary award other than an expense-paid trip to London, but this opportunity — followed by shows in the U.S. and a six-week Europe tour — will provide valuable exposure.

"Playing in front of 30,000 screaming fans with Bruce, that's worth more than money," Vaughn told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Vaughn came to the University of Kentucky's School of Music in 1999, recruited by Miles Osland, professor of saxophone and director of jazz studies. He earned a bachelor's degree four years later in music performance, with an emphasis in jazz saxophone.

"In my 20 years at UK, he's one of the finest students I've graduated, no doubt," Osland said. "I saw a major talent ... and persistence."

At one point in his college career, Vaughn was playing the lead alto sax part in two saxophone quartets directed by Osland and his wife, also a UK professor. Both the groups won Downbeat Magazine's Student Music Awards in their respective categories that year (jazz and classical), an accomplishment that Osland said is unprecedented.

Vaughn also played with the Lexington-based Voodoo Symphony band during his four years at UK. He now plans to devote himself full-time to the band.

"Doing what you love for a job isn't always the easiest thing to do; sometimes it's the hardest thing in the world," Vaughn said in a press release. "But no matter what, I can know that when this life is over, I can say that I followed my heart and chased my dreams until I found them."

Aside from Vaughn — who is the lead vocalist — the band consists of Emerson St. Pierre on keyboards, Nathan Cooley on drums, Shane Hulsey on electric guitar and Dan Bauman on bass.