Rb Stone

Born in Huntingburg, Indiana, Roland Bennett Stone Jr.

RB’s family moved to Ohio when he was 1. Both parents who were huge music lovers are whom he credits for his versatile musical upbringing. His father a Blues/ Boogie, Rock n Roller, loved music that made you move like, Little Richard, James Brown and Jerry Lee Lewis.

His mother listened to Tennessee Ernie Ford, Janis Joplin, Herb Alpert, Johnny Cash, Sly and the Family Stone, Elvis and the variety of hits from the 60’s. The highpoint of his week was going to the record store to buy new 45’s with his allowance, and playing them until his mother made him go to bed.

At 12, his mother showed him some chords on the piano and Bill Withers’ hit “Lean On Me” was the first song he learned and the ball started rolling. He started making up Blues/Boogie songs over the next years. 18 and just out of High School, music was still a dream that seemed to belong to others, so he hired on with the Railroad traveling the Midwest with a 90 man rail gang 4 days a week living in 10 man camp cars. After 2 years with the Railroad he accepted an offer as an Assistant Manager at a Plumbing, Electric and Heating store in Ohio, 2 1/2 years later he had a house, 2 cars, 2 trucks, 2 motorcycles and was Managing his own store.

Restless at 23, he sold everything but a truck, some harps and a guitar and headed to
Colorado to be a cowboy and play music. Enroute he met a horse trainer on an Indian
Reservation in Ignacio CO. where he slept in a barn learning horses by day and teaching himself guitar at night. A few months passed, he got good enough at both skills and started getting hired by local outfitters to pack their clients in the Mountains, wrangle the horses and entertain the guests around the campfire at night.

He became skilled enough at both trades that he started getting hired to wrangle the horses and pack people in the Rocky Mountainson hunting and camping trips for various outfitters. At night on these trips R.B. would entertain the guests as they sat around the campfire. He even got to take John Denver up for four days. “I thought I was in heaven,” he recalls, “having horses and the Rockies by day and playing music by night. As life would have it, I got laid off after some hunters cancelled one season, so I set up shop playing in a small mountain bar for tips, meals and a place to sleep, I wound up putting together my first band, “Highway Robbery.”

Needing a name for his music company RB says, “I reflected on a memory from Middle Mountain at Vallecito Lake, Colorado, I was riding a green horse I had been working with. I left the ranch at 9 am and returned at 7 pm. We were doing some Man From Snowy River stunts for real — bucking off and on all day and running full-speed down the mountain at times. We both survived, I’ll never forget that day,” he adds, “and that’s why I named my music company ‘Middle Mountain Music, it has meaning to it for me and has survived 27 years now.’”

Once the music bug hit him he never looked back. “Well, actually,” he confesses, “I didn’t look back but at 29 I did make a run at being a rodeo cowboy riding barebacks and saddle broncs for a little while. After some broken bones I was reminded I wasn’t 18 anymore and figured I’d better focus on the music.”

He got the money for his first album when a guy pulled out in front of him on his motorcycle and he hit the truck. RB was on his way to play and invited him. They wound up being friends.The new friend met his wife at a Highway Robbery show and insisted on paying for the first album.

With his own label “Wild Stallion Records” and his band “Highway Robbery”, he recorded 3 albums, developed a strong following in the Southwest establishing regional airplay and then thru a co-deal with Texas indie label CBT, he released a single and music video titled “Frank and Jesse” the video aired on national television, TNN. He then moved to Nashville and recorded 3 more albums for an independent label that released his music not just in the USA but Europe, Canada and Australia.

Since those early beginnings his life and career have taken many twists, turns, bumps and bruises accompanied by many accomplishments. Independent flying under the radar he has produced 15 albums, toured 32 countries, 5 continents selling over 40,000 albums most of them at his shows. He has a song catalog at EMI with “Gwen Gordy of the Motown Dynasty.”

He’s had principal roles in national commercials, his national music videos, songs recorded by artist like “The Marshall Tucker Band”, has worked with a wide variety of acts from Jazz Greats “Hiroshima” to “The Charlie Daniels Band”, he has a 14 pc Roots Music Production Show featuring his songs, a Billboard Magazine Songwriting award and the list goes on.

Blues music has always been a part of his life from jamming on his mother’s piano, to writing and recording his first Blues song in 1985 which was “Fairweather Friends”, the song is on his 2011 acclaimed/charting “Lonesome Traveler’s Blues” album.

He’s had a core of Blues Radio DJ’s across the country who have both inspired and supported him playing his songs on their shows, and has been called a Country Bluesman, Americana, a Roots Rocker and he answers yes to them all.

Influences:
The Marshall Tucker Band, Merle Haggard, Willie, The Eagles, Greedence Clearwater Revival, Steve Miller, Waylon, B.B. King, Poco, Bill Monroe, Skynyrd, Montrose, Uriah Heep, Chuck Berry, Seals and Croft, Little Richard, The Allman Bros, Deep Purple, Alice Cooper, Robert Johnson, Aerosmith, Johnny Winter, Elmore James, Eric Clapton, The Byrds, Rick Derringer, Stones, Motown, Charlie Daniels, Gene Watson, Beatles, Tom Petty, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Pure Prairie League, Bob Seger and anything with feel, melody and guts, too many more too mention.

RB Stone’s life in a word is, “Americana”

He started working when he was 11 as a paperboy, on local farms and various other jobs. RB graduated Kenton High School in Kenton, Ohio. Shortly thereafter he hired onto a 90 man Railroad Gang traveling around the Midwest and living on the rails in Camp Cars. He said “Without going into detail, I grew up pretty fast”. After two years he went to work as a manager for the Carter Plumbing, Electric and Heating Company in Kenton, after 3 years there he assessed his life.

Taking another side trip he started training to be pilot between tours “it was another way to feed my gypsy soul,” he explains.”I did this while doing tours entertaining our troops and hanging with the Military Pilots and Airline crews in Japan and other countries. Their camaraderie and lifestyle really had a big impact on me. I flew Lear and Hawker Jets for a while, what a great experience! I’m full time music bizz at present but I still get to do some flying from time to time,. I lived in Las Vegas 4 years and I met some Nascar Pilots and wound up in North Carolina for 3 years. I get calls from time to time and I get to get in the air with those guys.”

His music travels have taken him across the USA to 5 continents and 31 other countries — he’s released 22 singles (most internationally) over the years, and is now back in Nashville working on album number 15 with fellow Buckeye “Ed Adkins” formerly of Texas’ world re-known recording artists, “The Derailers.”

Wearing other hats he was requested to be a show producer in the late 90’s by the US Military. RB put over 100 shows in Japan and Korea in 1996 alone, including movie stars, various songwriters, TV personalities and recording artists. He’s also performed for the “Secret Service” and former President , “Jimmy Carter.” He also earned a Billboard magazine songwriting award to his accomplishments.

He’s performed with many fine artists as diverse as: Southern Rockers “The Marshall Tucker Band” to Tejano music multi Grammy Award winner “Little Joe”, Country Artist “Tricia Yearwood” to Americana Music Pioneers “The Burrito Brothers”, Cowboy Rocker “Chris Ledoux to international Jazz Greats “Hiroshima the band.” His writing is as wide spread as the acts he’s worked with from growing up listening to various styles and experiencing different cultures first hand.

RB’s music has been in movies, recorded by The Marshall Tucker Band, Gary P. Nunn and several international artists. You can currently hear his music via radio, Internet, the airlines and other broadcast sources and CD’s can be purchased at stores, online or songs downloaded most anywhere. He performs 150 plus dates a year as a solo artist, with his band or with his own 14 pc. Production show titled, “RB Stone’s Americana Music Café” he plays: Performing Arts Centers, Casinos, Festivals, Corporate Functions, select Clubs and various other Events.

He says, “I’m gearing up for the second half of my career. I’ve seen a lot of the world but would like to see more, meet new friends and make more music.” RB Stone is Americana — his story is unique to America both for the kinds of things he’s done and the fact that, in this country, he’s been able to do all of it

Website: http://rbstone.com/music/