RHODY LIFE

The Stone Road Band gets in with the local scene

By ROB DUGUAY
Posted 3/11/21

By ROB DUGUAY Coming initially from various parts of eastern New England, The Stone Road Band has made their mark in Rhode Island over the past couple of years. Notably becoming a presence in Providence's jam band scene, their groovy brand of rock has

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RHODY LIFE

The Stone Road Band gets in with the local scene

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Coming initially from various parts of eastern New England, The Stone Road Band has made their mark in Rhode Island over the past couple of years.

Notably becoming a presence in Providence’s jam band scene, their groovy brand of rock has garnered a growing local fan base. The act has also improvised in a time where it’s hard to maintain a physical presence due to COVID-19 by putting on virtual events and releasing new music.

It’s good to see artists continuing to create when a lot of things have slowed down. Slowing down is something vocalist and guitarist Kevin Horan and the rest of the quartet won’t be doing anytime soon.

Horan and I recently had a talk about connecting with the scene in the Ocean State, Craigslist’s role in the band’s formation, writing a song about his significant other, and plans for the coming months.

ROB DUGUAY: Being based in Manchester, New Hampshire, what initially drew you to getting involved with the music scene in Rhode Island?

KEVIN HORAN:  I actually lived in Rhode Island for almost three years. I had been living in Cleveland with my wife while she was in grad school, and then my job transferred me to the Providence area. We were there for about three years, and when we moved there I didn’t know anybody in the city. Our families live up in New Hampshire, but I didn’t know anybody, so I just kind of went out there to meet a few folks, and then I found an ad on Craigslist and it kind of started from there. Brian Lowe, who’s our drummer, made the ad originally for a ’90s alternative cover band, and that’s how the band began.

RD:  Speaking of Brian, he’s from Warwick, while Phil Smith from Lincoln plays bass and your cousin Mike Horan from Billerica, Massachusetts, plays lead guitar. This gives The Stone Road Band connections all over the New England area, so how did guys come together from different parts of the region? Did you and Brian initially start the band as a duo or were the four of you all together ready to go?

KH: After Brian and I met, we initially had two other guys in the band, but it didn’t really work out. At the time we still had another show booked, so we jokingly figured that we’d do it as the two of us. But it turned out that Brian had a brother who could fill in on bass and I had my cousin Mike who could jump in on lead. We asked both of them to play and his brother was gracious enough to do the one show, but Mikey wanted to stay involved so we kept him and tried out another bass player. That guy didn’t work out, so we threw up an ad on Craigslist. Phil came in and we were ready to go with the four of us.

RD: You guys put out a new single called “Helen” on March 5 and it’s really good, I liked it a lot. There’s a great sound to it and there’s a lot of rhythm going on all in a tight pocket, which I really enjoy. Is there any particular story behind the song? Is Helen a real person or is she a fictional character that you made up for the track? Is she a representation of people you’ve known throughout your life?

KH: I was going through a rough time and I was trying to look for all of the good things in life that keep me going, and my wife kept on popping up. At the time I had actually moved from Providence to New Hampshire, but she had to stay down there for work, so we were apart for a little while and I missed her a lot. It’s really just about my wife, but the idea for it came from me obviously thinking that my wife is the most beautiful person in the world and one of the main characters of “The Odyssey” is Helen of Troy, who was supposedly one of the most beautiful women that ever graced the Earth. I figured there wasn’t a better way to honor my wife than with this song.

RD: The night before the single’s release, The Stone Road Band took part in a virtual show at Dusk in Providence as part of the venue’s Live Sessions series. Vinnie Bellows, who is also from Warwick, has been running the streams over there through his company 476 Productions. How was the experience of doing the show, and what’s Vinnie like to work with?

KH: I loved doing the live stream with Vinnie. He has a great setup and it was really fun. He initially came to us. We played a show a couple years ago at Dusk, which has kind of become our home away from home. He recorded the first show that we played there while he was running sound that night, and he messaged me the next day to tell me that he had done that. He sent me a link to it and we were so blown away by the rough mix of what he had done, so our collaboration kind of started there. Then we booked another show at Dusk, he also recorded that one, and we combined the recordings together to put out our first live album “Alive At Dusk.”

I worked with him on that project with him mixing and mastering it. He really understood what we were going for and what I was going for. He’s always willing to collaborate and he’s always open to trying new things, whether it’s something with video, photography or recording. He’s the kind of guy you can call up to do something on a whim on a few weeks’ notice.

RD: With this single out, what are The Stone Road Band’s plans for the coming months? I saw a post on the band’s Facebook page about how you’re planning on releasing a single on a monthly basis for the imminent future, so do you plan on focusing on that for the time being? Are you gearing up for any outdoor socially distanced shows for when the weather gets warmer?

KH: Next month we’re going to be releasing another single called “PVD,” and then I’d like to do another couple of live streams. We’re also looking to do a handful of socially distanced shows if we can this summer, for sure, and I guess we’ll see what the fall brings.

Stone Road Band, music

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