Ledyard Teens Featured on Family Band Reality Show

Although the name may not be on the marquees of Madison Square Garden yet, Madison Red, a band comprised of Ledyard teenagers, will be appearing on the Cozi TV’s show The Next Great Family Band this Sunday.

Two sets of siblings and a couple friends came together and formed the 7-member band, ranging in age from 12 to 19 years old.  The group started off in 2008 as a cover band named Silver Hammer and have been playing original music as Madison Red for the past year.

Tom Bora and Nolan Smyth are guitarists, Duncan Maxwell is the bassist, Aiden Maxwell is the drummer, Ian Maxwell is on the keyboard while Braiden Sunshine is on the keyboard, percussion and backup vocals and his sister, Sierra Sunshine is the lead vocalist.

The group came highly recommended to the network when word got out that it was “searching for the next great family band.” The Ledyard teens sent the network some of songs and they made the final cut, along with 14 other bands to perform for judges in the first round, according to mom Liz Sunshine. If selected, they will be mentored by one of the experts on the show and perform another round or two until the grand finale performance as one of the three finalists.

On Sunday, you will be seeing a video for Brand New Day, which is off their first album, Madison Red, which was released in October.

The group is pretty excited about their upcoming network premier and they all have aspirations to take their music careers further. Everyone laughed when Sierra joked that she’d like to have enough roadies to not have to carry equipment but they all agreed with Duncan’s idea.

“I’d just like to be good musicians,” he said of his hopes for the future.

Be sure to tune into Cozi TV (Channel 153 on Thames Valley Communication) or watch it stream live on Sunday at 8 p.m. You can help Madison Red advance to the next level if you tweet how much you love @MadisonRedBand to @Family BandTV and if you like the band’s Facebook page.

Watch their music videos for “Cold Comfort” “Step It Up” and “Shadow of Her Wing” on YouTube.