About

 

Lunch Money brings the indie-rock experience to family audiences with an energetic salute to the stuff of childhood: roller coasters, giant cookies and getting dizzy. This trio "artfully treads the line between alt-kids and just plain alternative" [Nick Jr. Family Magazine] and this year their song "It Only Takes One Night to Make a Balloon Your Friend" topped the charts on XM/Sirius children's radio. The band delivers a high-energy show that aims to get children and their parents dancing, thinking and laughing.
Lunch Money began in 2003 when singer/guitarist Molly Ledford (The Verna Cannon - Cargo/Headhunter) decided to try her hand at bringing the live music experience to young audiences. She enlisted fellow Verna Cannon bandmate Jay Barry (drums) and multi-instrumentalist J.P. Stephens (bass, mandolin, harmonica) to form Lunch Money, the name chosen to honor that first taste of childhood independence and power. Focusing her writing, which had been described as "full of memories left in a shoebox in the dusty corners of your brain" (Spin.com), on the stuff of childhood, Molly soon accumulated a new catalog of songs about such things as wishing for a pet dog, getting up the nerve to ride a roller coaster, and twirling around in rain and sun beneath an umbrella.

The band has traveled beyond their Columbia, SC home base to perform at such venues as World Cafe Live in Philadelphia, the New York Public Library in Manhattan, the Summer on Southport Festival in Chicago and the XM/Sirius Performance Studio in Washington, DC.

Molly

Molly Ledford plays guitar and sings in Lunch Money. She likes writing songs about so-called kid things like getting dizzy and bargaining for treats. When she was little, Molly would watch a live band forever, no matter the style of music, and she really wanted to be the tambourine girl in Eddie and the Cruisers. Molly enjoys a cold Coke and nifty bandaids (she's awfully clumsy, thus a connoisseur).

 

J.P.

J.P. Stephens sings and plays bass, harmonica and mandolin and performs all of the whistling you will ever hear on our records. He can also get away with some mime, so you know he must be charming. J.P. is a photographer and is responsible for these dynamite pictures of us with our new pal, the giant cookie. He is also excellent at chatting with you while you're driving a van at 2 a.m.

 

Jay 

Jay Barry plays the drums in Lunch Money and also chimes in with some backup vocals. He is a multi-purpose kind of guy. He designed this website and our first album cover, and he engineered and mixed all of our recordings. He occasionally grows a silly mustache but always agrees to shave it off before the next Lunch Money show.