Showing posts with label Keith Stone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Keith Stone. Show all posts

Thursday, October 11, 2018

Keith Stone With Red Gravy - Blues With A Taste Of New Orleans

Size: 113,5 MB
Time: 49:11
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2018
Styles: New Orleans Blues, Funky Blues
Art: Front

01. Ain't That The Blues (3:54)
02. Love Done Put Me Down (4:25)
03. You Ain't Got Nothing (6:15)
04. Red Gravy (4:48)
05. Crazy In Love With You (5:04)
06. Don't Count Me Out (3:27)
07. Blue Eyed Angel (3:18)
08. Time To Move On (4:16)
09. Hard To Have The Blues (6:40)
10. Something In The Water (6:58)

Keith Stone, guitar and vocals, was born in uptown New Orleans and began learning to play music on the streets of the French Quarter. His first paying gig was with the “Slu Foot Blues Band” opening for Rufus Thomas. In 1990 he began a five year stint with the eight piece show band “Willie Lockett & The Blues Krewe”. During this time the band opened for Ray Charles, Gladys Knight and Albert Collins. He shared the stage with Irma Thomas, Ernie K. Doe, Dr. John, Wolfman Washington and George Porter Jr. In 1992 he played the New Orleans Jazz Fest with the band and guitarist Wayne Bennett who became his mentor.

In 1994 Stone found a higher calling and left New Orleans to become an ordained pastor in South Carolina. In 2005 after Katrina hit home, he and his wife Cindi, used their money to return to New Orleans to help with the recovery. In 2008 he began gigging again and officiated at Coco Robicheaux’s funeral with a project called “Brother Stone and The Prophets of Blue”. In 2016 he released his debut album “The Prodigal Returns”, a tribute to his hometown, with guest appearances by Dr. John, Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes and Joe Krown; his mission “to play your blues away”.

There is a joke about New Orleans musicians that “there’s only one band but it has five thousand members”. That if you’re going to maintain a busy schedule you better have a good phone list. When Stone had a short tour to the Florida beaches he assembled a band including Tom Worrell, who had played with Solomon Burke, Johnny Adams, Deacon John, and Wolfman Washington, keyboards; Eddie Christmas, who toured with Gerald Levert, The Black Crowes and Jon Cleary, drums and percussion; and Keenan Shaw who played with John Lisi, Jason Ricci and Candye Kane, bass. Something special was happening so the band came up with their name the same way Stone’s Sicilian mama cooked up her beloved sauce, by simmering New Orleans spices and spirit. “Before they could shake the sand out of their shorts, Keith Stone With Red Gravy, had won the New Orleans Blues Society’s local International Blues Challenge” and they were off to Memphis.

All of the eleven songs were written by Stone with the band. The album is produced by Worrell. The band opens with “Ain’t That the Blues” as the rhythm section finds its groove. Brent Johnson is added on slide to make twin guitars. Stone’s vocal really shines.

The funky “Love Done Put Me Down” features Shaw on bass while Christmas adds some extra percussion to his beats. Worrell’s keyboards and Stone’s guitar begin to simmer. The whole band cooks as the gravy boils. This is fabulous.

Jimmy Carpenter saxophone is added on “You Ain’t Got Nothing”; on “Crazy in Love With You”, and on “Time To Move On”. Carpenter’s solos are delightful.

“Red Gravy” features the lyric “Way down in New Orleans, a city that loves to eat, we got a special dish we make with or with out meat, now you may call it sauce but let me tell you somethin’ baby, when you get down here we call it red gravy…I like it in my pasta and in my shrimp stew. Give me red beans on Monday, and a little gumbo Friday afternoon, but on Sunday only red gravy will do. Now my mama she could cook and she learned this here recipe from her mama’s mama in Sicily. Now my daddy he met mama while on leave from the Navy and his ship went down in sea of her red gravy. On your eggplant or meatball po-boy, Chicken parmesan…get some red gravy.” Red gravy is a tradition in New Orleans. The band closes with “Something in the Water”.

While mama’s gravy blends tomatoes and spices, Keith Stone with Red Gravy is a tasty mixture of blues and New Orleans R n’ B. They are one of the best new bands to come out of The Crescent City. ~Richard Ludmerer

Blues With A Taste Of New Orleans MP3
Blues With A Taste Of New Orleans FLAC

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Keith Stone - The Prodigal Returns

Size: 117,9 MB
Time: 50:25
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2016
Styles: Electric Blues, New Orleans Blues
Art: Front

01. Prelude (1:30)
02. Better Things To Do (3:47)
03. First Love (5:24)
04. Cindi Leigh (4:05)
05. Take Me Home (5:26)
06. New Orleans Moonlight (4:29)
07. Time To Move On (4:55)
08. Make Me Feel Alright (2:30)
09. Buster's Place (5:50)
10. The Prodigal Returns (3:51)
11. Just A Closer Walk With Thee (8:33)

Personnel
Dr. John – Piano
Tim Stambaugh – Sousaphone
Kevin Clark – Trumpet
David Phy – Thrombone
Cale Pellick – Alto Saxophone
Keith Stone – Guitar and Vocals
David Hyde – Bass
Nelson Blanchard – Drums, Organ
Lacy Blackledge – Trumpet
Mike Broussard – Saxophone
Andy J. Forest – Frottoir and Cow Bell
Bobby Henderson – Alto Saxophone

There are cities around the globe that have got very strong legacies with music history and New Orleans in USA is, without any doubts, one of those cities.

Born and bred in the Louisiana state's largest city, the guitarist and songwriter Keith Stone has been breathing and living the strong music message of his hometown all his life at 360 degrees. The Prodigal Returns, Stone's solo debut album, it's more than an album. It is a love letter to his roots.

Stone travels, throughout the album, with the grace of an experienced raconteur on playing Louisiana's most recognisable music trademarks. Better Things To Do is a robust R&B track, enriched by a superb Horn Session, whose contribution will play a vital part through the whole album. First Love is a slow and sexy killer blues, in which Stone's artistry emerges in full not just through the beautiful sound of his guitar but also through his deep and meaningful singing voice.

The opening Prelude is the most delicate intro to a record one can think of and, at the same time, to the closing track of the album Just A Closer Walk With Thee. Stone couldn't prepare the listeners any better to the musical journey that he has planned for them. Dr. John's is the special guest on this spine-tingling piano solo opener, which evokes beautifully the atmospheres of the old New Orleans of the '60s and '70s.

Atmospheres that get amplified even further through the album closing gem, the above mentioned Just A Closer Walk With Thee. The tune encapsules splendidly the whole meaning of The Prodigal Returns album, through a sonic feast of jazz, blues and dixieland.

The album has still got so much to offer. Take Me Home is a ballad that has got the soul style typical of the Stax Records period and Stone's voice is such a perfect fit that would have easily made Jim Stewart (Stax's Founder) a very happy man. Time To Move On is a smooth funky tune, in which, together with Stone's great guitar sound, David Hyde on bass (which has also written all the horn parts as well on the album) gifts the song with a nice, slick tempo, creating the perfect sonic ground for Stone's improvisations.

The Prodigal Returns is a very accomplished record and a revered homage to the sounds and history of one of the most important musical cities in the whole world. And full credit to Keith Stone for delivering such a classy record. ~Giovanni "Gio" Pilato

The Prodigal Returns