The sounds of Shuffle continue to grow

It started as a night out with friends at Brookies Bar on Main Street in Ripley in 2017. The small group of longtime friends, some of them coworkers, were listening to a band play when the discussion came up about starting their own band.

Tessa Ellis, who works as a corrections officer for the Clermont County Sheriff’s Office, started out singing at a local church in Ripley as a child.

Scott Hundley, who also works in corrections at the Clermont County Sheriff’s Office, has been playing the guitar since he was a teenager.

Jarrod Parker, who works in IT for Kroger and nephew to Hundley, has played the guitar since he was a youngster.

Jamie Ellis, husband to Tessa Ellis and Frito Lay sales representative, told the group he could sing and would later learn to play bass guitar.

Jeff Wallace, a local insurance agent, told the group he plays the drums.

All of them of Brown County, and all possessing the desire to entertain others with their different forms of musical talent.

Fans of various music genres, the group decided to learn songs that fit each of their liking – including rock, country, pop and even some rap. For that reason, they chose to name the band Shuffle, like shuffling through a playlist.

“We play a little bit of everything,” said Tessa Ellis. “And we do some songs from about every era, we do some old stuff and new stuff.”

They originally wanted to name the band Free Beer, because who wouldn’t show up for Free Beer on a Saturday night? But they found that band name was already taken and under copyright restriction.

“Literally, we were just kind of goofing. We set a band meeting and told everybody we were meeting at six o’clock on a Wednesday and they thought we were joking,” Tessa Ellis explained how Shuffle got started. “We met, and two practices later I bought Jamie a bass (guitar) and he learned to play bass. We thought we were just playing around and were going to kind of stay in the basement, but then we had our first little basement gig and we were like, ‘I think we can do this.’”

Shuffle then began booking small, local venues like Brookies, and their local fame began to grow as the band continued to improve.

Since their start in 2017, Shuffle now performs at venues throughout southern Ohio and beyond, and recently headlined on Saturday night of the Ohio Rural Heritage Festival in Ripley, bringing their sounds back to the town where the idea came up to start a band.

Shuffle is scheduled to perform at the Batavia Fun Fair and Fireworks on Sept. 9, and they recently performed at Trillions Sports Bar and Grill in West Chester. Tessa Ellis has been selected to sing the National Anthem at a Cincinnati Reds game this month for Police and Fire Appreciation Night.

For Shuffle, the summers can get very busy between full-time jobs and live performances, and they have hired a manager to help them book shows.

From Sir Mixalot’s Baby Got Back to the the White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army, the cover band Shuffle provides live entertainment that attracts a variety of music fans.

“We all like different types of music. Jamie and I lean more towards country. Jarrod likes a little more pop and some old stuff. Scott likes some old stuff and heavy rock. Jeff likes rock and punk rock. So, we wanted to do a little bit of what everybody likes,” Tessa Ellis explained. “It’s kind of like adding your favorites to your playlist and shuffling it.”

With the growth in popularity has come some dedicated fans who call themselves Shuffleheads, traveling from venue to venue to support the band of talented local musicians.

“Taylor Swift has ‘Swifties’ and we have ‘Shuffleheads,’” said Tessa Ellis.

With their rise as a cover band comes the question, does Shuffle have any original songs in the workings? According to Tessa Ellis, the answer is “no.” The group of close friends are enjoying what they do by performing cover songs from different genres created by different bands and they have relished a great deal of success while having fun doing what they do. So, why change a thing?

For now, they will stick to cover songs that include popular selections from bands and artists such as the Foo Fighters, Prince, Blink 182, Adele, Luke Combs, Carrie Underwood, and more.

However, they do plan to add some new cover songs to their collection for live performances, and they have even been known to unplug the amps for acoustic performances.

No matter how much their popularity grows and how big of venues they start to book, Shuffle still plans to bring their sounds to Brown County, where they’re from and where the band got its start.

“We will always come back to play at Brookies, Jethros, and other local gigs close to home,” said Tessa Ellis.