Hayden Grove
Life changed overnight for Westlake crooner Hayden Grove, who appeared on Season 27 of NBC’s “The Voice,” when he received a shoutout by one of his singing idols during a concert in Pittsburgh on Sept. 1, 2022.
“Hayden Grove is a guy I started following on TikTok and I recognized him in the crowd here … what’s your handle on TikTok … @h_grove … Hayden, let’s blow up your TikTok dude,” said Michael Bublé as he cheered on the crowd to follow Grove on the social media platform. “You’re a beaut; you’re a beaut!”
Thanks to 1.2 million video views and 40,000 new followers virtually overnight, Grove is now grooving with a performance lineup that includes 12 to 15 shows a month at locations around the Cleveland area, including Leo’s Italian Social in Crocker Park.
“Michael Bublé was recognizing my stuff on TikTok, and then he followed me, which was incredible and still is incredible,” says Grove, 32, who has always loved to sing and adored classic performers such as Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis and Dean Martin. “I went to the show, and he saw me in the crowd and gave me the huge shout out, which was still one of the craziest moments of my life. He’s always looking at my stuff and he’ll send me a message every now and then just cheering me on. Growing up, he was a catalyst for my love of the music as well, because he was relevant, and he was carrying the torch so to speak and keeping the music alive.”
Grove, a multimedia sports journalist with cleveland.com, views this unforgettable night as the point where his musical aspiration went from being a hobby to becoming a full-fledged professional endeavor.
“I’ve been singing my whole life and I've loved sports my whole life. I’ve kind of been going back and forth between the two,” says the Crocker Park resident, who attended the University of Miami in Florida on a music scholarship for a year before deciding to pursue a journalism degree from his dream school, The Ohio State University.
He came to Cleveland after graduation and in 2016 joined the team at Cleveland.com covering all the local sports teams and connecting with the loyal fan base here. “I love the games, the energy, the fans. The city of Cleveland is a sports town, and it will always be a sports town.”
Grove, who has performed with Mike Petrone, known by many as the “Cleveland’s Piano Man” who has been playing the keys at Johnny’s Downtown for decades, has three albums including one devoted to Christmas classics. He also writes songs and is working on original music.
“I want to kind of bring a new energy and a new life into this music and find different ways to bring it to a new generation,” says Grove, who also can be found at CycleBar Crocker Park, where he is an instructor teaching cycling classes and getting in his own workouts a couple times a week. “I would love to be able to play with the band every time I perform and to be able to travel. Ultimately to be able to support myself and make a decent living doing this. And we’re pretty close. We’re getting there.”
Kelly McCann
In a quest that spanned seven summer vacations, thousands of minivan miles and countless hours of trip planning, the McCann family of six made their collective way to each of the 50 states.
Inspired after an 11-state trip to the Northeast in 2016, when they visited Acadia National Park in Maine, went up to the crown of the Statue of Liberty in New York City and visited Boston and Philadelphia, the McCanns — seasoned travelers in the car — set their sights on another epic adventure to see the Mississippi River in 2017.
“We decided we would take a road trip and head west and we hit six new states with the Mississippi River trip,” says Kelly McCann, 48, chief trip planner, wife to Steve, 47, head driver, mom to Kaitlyn, 20, Caleb, 18, Kara, 16 and Carter, 14. “After those two trips, we thought it was neat that we had seen so many states, and from there we decided we would try to see all 50. We ended up doing it faster than I think I thought we would be able to.”
It took five summers for the McCanns to do the lower 48, and then they took separate summer vacations for Alaska and Hawaii, two of the most memorable because they were able to spend two weeks or more exploring each diverse and expansive state. “Each island in Hawaii was different and each area we went to in Alaska offered new experiences,” she says. “We also really liked Montana and Glacier National Park, and Maine, which was the biggest part of our first trip, so that holds a special place.”
In order for a state to “count,” they had to do some sort of activity or visit an attraction. North Dakota proved to be one of the most challenging. “We found a small town and we went to a pizzeria and had a meal there,” she says. “We weren’t in Minnesota for long, but we did do a hike close to the Mississippi River.”
For each trip, Kelly used her collection of photos and made a Shutterfly book, and she tucked a photo from each state into a large wall hanging of the United States in the family’s living room. Treasured souvenirs are found on a magnet wall in their kitchen and a travel Christmas tree in their family room.
“I’m really happy and proud that we were able to accomplish this goal and just have something unique to our family, and to have all the memories,” Kelly says. “Each state has a memory that is meaningful to us. And we were very fortunate enough to have the time off from work and financially able to.”
Steve is a financial planner with Hudson Financial Advisors, and Kelly works as a CPA at Parkwood LLC, and has volunteered for the past five years as treasurer of the Westlake Schools Music Boosters.
The McCanns’ passion for travel now requires passports. In 2023, they took a Royal Caribbean cruise to the Caribbean. In 2024, they took a three-week trip to Italy. This year, they plan to go back to Europe and do a Rhine River Cruise, and spend time in Amsterdam, Belgium and Switzerland. Bon Voyage!
