Letters to Cleo Biography

The alternative rock band Letters to Cleo was established in Massachusetts in 1990 by founding members Kay Hanley and Greg McKenna. The two musicians had met in their hometown of Boston, where they began writing and performing music together at various local venues. For a number of their early years, Letters to Cleo relied on help from session musicians and guest artists, until in 1994 the group rounded out its lineup with Michael Eisenstein, Scott Riebling, Stacy Jones, McKenna, and Hanley.

Letters to Cleo self-released their album Aurora Glory Alice in 1993, but the album didn’t chart at that time. Later that year, though, after a critically acclaimed performance at South by Southwest, the band found themselves in the middle of a bidding war for their first record deal. Letters to Cleo signed with Giant Records (of Warner Bros.) and the label re-released Aurora Glory Alice to greater success. Climbing into the top five on the Heatseekers charts, the album spawned the single “Here & Now” and set the stage for two more albums: Wholesale Meats and Fish (1995) and Go! (1997.)

Letters to Cleo disbanded in 2000, but seven years later, the group reunited to perform at a benefit concert. The success of the performance resulted in a series of other “reunion” shows around the country, and a performance on an episode of Parks and Recreation. By 2016, Letters to Cleo had reunited for good, entering the studio to record and release their latest EP, Back to Nebraska.

Today, Letters to Cleo continues to perform and record with the lineup of Hanley, McKenna, Eisenstein, Jones, and Joe Klompus, who performed with their group on their reunion tour and then joined them permanently in 2016. Letters to Cleo recently completed an extensive nationwide tour which ran from 2016 through 2017. They most recently performed at the Geek Bowl XII in Boston in early 2018.