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about cloverstreet

CloverStreet (est 2002) was the long-gestating end result of musicians and friends Ben Kitchens (guitar/vocals), Charlie Haggard (bass/no vocals), and Willie Tichenor (drums/vocals). Quickly realizing they needed MORE guitars, Ben invited James Gardner, childhood friend and one-third of the visionary songwriting team behind The Karrows, to join in on the fun. Ben and Willie knew James and were aware of his musical stylings, but Charlie was entirely unfamiliar with James and wanted to make sure he could play something akin to the lead guitar part in "One More Sad Song" by The All-American Rejects.  To this, Ben rolled his eyes and said, "duh". That was it, the man was hired.

The group performed as a four-piece around the Dallas area for several months until Willie's unfortunate diagnosis with osteosarcoma in the spring of 2003. With treatment inhibiting his ability to play the drums coupled with his latent (who are we kidding, overt) desire for rock star greatness as a frontman, Willie became the group's singer. They set out to find a new drummer. For what felt like years, Charlie’s father had encouraged Charlie to set up a jam with Matt Trimble, the son of his own bandmate. Charlie and Matt had never met, but after lots of “sure thing”-ing and “okay dad”-ing, the timing finally felt right.  As the story goes, while away at Christian Science camp, Charlie called Ben from a laundromat payphone in Lebanon, MO, gave Ben the phone number for Matt, and told Ben to call Matt and gauge his interest in joining the group. A week later, Charlie called Ben back from the same laundromat payphone to see if they made contact, and Ben screamed "HE'S THE BEST F***NG DRUMMER I'VE EVER HEARD, THIS IS GONNA RUUUUUULE".  

The first day of practice as a five-piece, the existing members decided to creep Matt out by poking their heads around the front door in unison a la The Monkees to greet him, to which Matt chuckled nervously as he entered the Tichenors’ house on Mockingbird Lane. After a brief miscommunication on tempos and some questioning side-eyes between the fellas, they locked in as CloverStreet. This was the band they were meant to be.  

Over the next two years, they wrote, recorded, and gigged as much as their high school schedules and Willie's treatment plan allowed. Aside from girls and burritos, the band was their life. They headlined the now defunct hotspot, The Door, on a near monthly basis, secured a showcase at Austin's SXSW Music Festival, and opened for national touring acts Senses Fail, Northstar, and Audio Karate.  

With post high school life looming and Willie's treatment becoming increasingly complicated, the band decided to go out on their own terms, playing the final show on June 3, 2005. Though there was some additional writing and jamming afterwards, this was strictly for personal fulfillment and an effort to stay close to one another, especially in light of Willie's rapidly deteriorating health. On March 15th, 2006 Willie passed away, and CloverStreet as we knew it was no more. The remaining four members continued to play, but with a drastic stylistic shift from the emo prog pop of CloverStreet into something darker, more fuzzed out and playfully intense.  This new iteration of the band honored Willie by calling the band Evans, Willie’s middle name. Evans recorded a demo along with one performance, but nothing further ever materialized.   

Years later, Ben, James and Matt formed a 90s cover band, The Clinton Years, which continues to have a solid and consistent following in the DFW area. They are kind enough to let Charlie, now living in California, sit in on bass (for one song and one song only) whenever he's in town.