Rob Stone Discography (2000-2010)

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Rob Stone Discography (2000-2010)

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Rob Stone & the C-Notes play enthusiastic jump music and jazz-oriented blues. Stone is an excellent harmonica player and singer. His vocals are easy to understand and quite personable, the lyrics are intelligent, and his harmonica playing is powerful. Stone also wisely features his sidemen generously, so there are many guitar, piano, and tenor solos throughout this set, and not just on the instrumentals. This is a rare blues project in that it succeeds as both party music and for close listening.

by Scott Yanow

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Rob Stone Discography (2000-2010)

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Rob Stone Biography

Deeply rooted in traditional blues yet delivering high-energy houserocking performances that kick with a thoroughly contemporary impact, harp-playing vocalist Rob Stone is one of the busiest young bandleaders on the Windy City blues scene. His skin-tight band, the C-Notes, is comprised of blues veterans of the highest caliber that seamlessly support Stone’s blasting harmonica and cool, streetwise vocals. These musicians have performed with and learned from many of the greats––and it shows from the first note.

Back Around Here, Rob’s most recent album on Earwig Records, brought him worldwide acclaim. It was ranked as one of 2010’s Top 50 Blues Albums by Living Blues magazine, where it spent three months on the publication’s international charts. The album was listed on the Roots Music Report Radio Airplay Charts for more than 75 weeks in all, peaking at a lofty #2. Endorsed by Hohner Harmonicas, Stone has done their instruments proud while tirelessly leading his crew across the U.S. and around the world. Rob frequently tours Japan, where he’s built quite a devoted following, and he’s also barnstormed Europe.

Rob and the C-Notes have opened for headliners as varied as B.B. King, Sheryl Crow, Robert Cray, and the late Etta James. He’s shared bandstands and recording studios with a dazzling array of blues giants: Robert Jr. Lockwood, Jimmy Rogers, Jody Williams, David Myers, Willie Kent, Pinetop Perkins, Hubert Sumlin, Henry Gray, David Maxwell, Aaron Moore, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, Eddie Shaw, and Koko Taylor, to name only a few. Stone has made three well-received albums as a leader (Back Around Here was preceded by 1998’s No Worries and 2003’s Just My Luck which was nominated for a Chicago Music Award in the Best Blues Album category). Stone was also featured prominently in the Martin Scorsese-produced “Godfathers and Sons” episode of The Blues series that aired on PBS stations nationwide in 2003.

Stone got started on his harmonica-blowing odyssey at age 18, when he slipped into a blues joint in his native Boston to check out harp great Charlie Musselwhite and was instantly transfixed. He bought his first harp the next day. Before long, Rob was learning the finer points of the instrument from ex-Muddy Waters mouth organ maestro Jerry Portnoy and playing regularly with Rockabilly legend Sleepy LaBeef. Relocating to Colorado in 1990, he got his feet wet playing with biker bands on the smoky bandstands around Colorado Springs. Then in ‘93, legendary drummer Sam Lay invited the young harpist to sit in with his combo, leading to a job offer and a move to Chicago the next year. Touring internationally with Sam Lay for four years introduced Stone to blues fans worldwide.

“I've worked with many harmonica players, and he turned out to be the best,” says Sam (quite an endorsement, considering Lay was a member of Paul Butterfield’s vaunted mid-‘60s band and also kept impeccable time for Howlin’ Wolf). “That cat is a good musician!”

Along with guitarist Chris James and bassist Patrick Rynn, Stone formed the first incarnation of the C-Notes in 1998. The three forged an unshakable bond. “We had a lot of shared experience that made us connect like brothers,” says Rob, whose harmonica heroes include Little Walter, Big Walter Horton, Junior Wells, James Cotton, and the two Sonny Boys. But no matter who’s sharing the stage with Stone, he and the C-Notes always display the same dedication to hard-hitting, honest, highly danceable blues sure to delight everyone from aficionados to neophytes.

Though he remains strongly committed to blues tradition, Rob is clearly his own man, a vibrant singer and instrumentalist boasting his own very distinctive sound, and his repertoire is loaded with terrific original songs. He’s not afraid to take a few chances onstage, either.

“We never just perform songs note for note off the record,” he says. “That’s not our style.”

Rob Stone and the C-Notes play blues with love and respect for the tradition at the heart of the music. The result is a genuine, blues show unsurpassed in energy, feeling, and authenticity that pulls in the audience from the very first note.

~ robstone.com

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Rob Stone Discography (2000-2010)

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Team up three talented young musicians who love the Blues with one of the all-time great Blues drummers and you have the makings for a dynamite recording. In this case, harp player & vocalist Rob Stone, Chris James on guitar, and Patrick Ryan on bass join Sam Lay to produce a set of pure straight ahead Chicago Blues. Five of the 12 selections on the recording are originals written by Rob Stone along with selections written by Jimmy Witherspoon, Lowell Fulson, and two selections written by Little Walter, including an area favorite, “I Just Keep Loving Her”. Rob Stone appeared with Sam Lay at the 1995 Billtown Blues Festival and those who saw Sam Lay at the Big Twins Club in Woolrich had the opportunity to see & hear Chris James & Patrick Ryan. With “No Worries” Rob Stone is out front doing the vocals and harp work. The result is a strong release from fine musicians who obviously love what they are doing.

by Charlie Lockard

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Rob Stone Discography (2000-2010)

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Here's some solid postwar Chicago-style blues from youthful veteran Rob Stone and his talented C-Notes–- guitarist Chris James and upright bassman Patrick Rynn. The former cites Freddy King and T-Bone Walker as influences but also owes a debt to slide master Elmore James (most evident on covers of Elmore's incandescent instrumental "Pickin' the Blues" and the rocking "Stranger Blues") while Rynn's bass playing has that proper amount of rockabilly fervor to it.

The majority of the songs were trio-composed and constantly evoke the genius of Willie Dixon at his most energetic. From the atmospheric "Your Move" and the Percy Mayfield-mournful "Empty Room" to a down 'n' dirty Delta blazer ("Too Late Honey") and the confessional "My Side of the Story," Stone and his cohorts (with added piano and tenor sax on some tunes) succeed in capturing the flavor of that influential, urban Windy City blues sound –- while admirably advancing it as well with their stellar playing and Stone's warm-toned, no-nonsense vocals and echo-heavy harp work.

Two Chicago blues survivors are also on hand. In fact, guitarist Dave Myers' final recordings are here, highlighted by the romping instrumental "Cut the Heat On," that sounds, for all the world, like some long lost Little Walter and his Jukes out-take.

Drummer Sam Lay (Howlin' Wolf and Paul Butterfield) also plays on the majority of the selections. My favorites are cuts such as "I Had A Dream Last Night" and a vibrant cover of "Rocket 88," that reveals the symbiotic interplay between his drums and Stone's pitch-perfect, ebullient Hohner playing.

Recorded, mixed and mastered at local Acme Recording Studio and produced by the C-Notes. It doesn't get much better than this.

by Gary von Tersch

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Rob Stone Discography (2000-2010)

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It’s been seven years since Rob Stone recorded an album, but he hasn’t exactly been sitting on his hands during that time. He’s been playing assorted venues in Chicago and even has a regular gig at the House of Blues in the Windy City. He’s also appeared in support of his former C-Notes bandmates, Chris James and Patrick Rynn, on their two CDs for Earwig. James and Rynn return the favor on Stone’s latest release for Earwig, Back Around Here, a superlative set of modern Chicago blues that sounds it sprang from the vintage days of Chess Records.

Stone wrote eight of the twelve tracks on Back Around Here, and they include the rousing opener, “You’re No Good For Me,” and the swinging title track. “I Need To Plant A Money Tree” is a tough Jimmy Reed-type shuffle, and “Can’t Turn Back The Clock” is a swing track that spotlights piano man Dave Maxwell and drummer Sam Lay. There’s also a decidedly upbeat instrumental, “Dragon Killers,” that shows why Stone is considered one of the best harmonica players in the Windy City. Speaking of the Windy City, “Chicago All Night” is a celebration of the never-ending music scene.

The cover all well-chosen and the highlight is Magic Sam’s rarely-heard “Give Me Time,” which is closer to R&B. John Lee Williamson’s “Love You For Myself” is a more traditional blues with Aaron Moore on piano. “Sloppy Drunk Blues” harkens back more to the Leroy Carr original version than the more familiar Jimmy Rogers version, and the “5” Royales’ “It’s Hard But It’s Fair” gets transformed from doo-wop to horn-driven R&B.

Also contributing to Back Around Here are drummers Willie “Big Eyes” Smith and Willie Hayes, guitarists Michael Weisman and Jeff Stone, and sax men Rodney Brown (tenor) and John Bowes (baritone). If you’re a fan of Chicago blues, you will be pleased with Rob Stone’s latest. Hopefully, it won’t be another seven years before he returns to the studio.

by Graham Clarke