Feb. 15, 1980 Gusto music feature: Stone Country Band

 

Knock, knock, knockin’ on Nashville’s door with the Stone Country Band.

Feb. 15, 1980 

Capturing the attention of the club crowds

         “Right now, we’re just tryin’ to keep busy till something big happens,” says Dwane Hall. As a result, this particular evening finds the Stone Country Band working for the new regime at Johnny’s Old Timer on Delaware Avenue in Kenmore.

         The folks who own Plant Six over on Niagara Street have taken over the venerable Gay ‘90s location, sweeping out the singalongs and the peanut shells. To attract a new constituency to fill the tables, they’re experimenting with what they put on that big stage in the far corner of the room. One night a week, it’s a rock band, the Road. Then the place does a turnabout and goes rustic.

         Since Stone Country Band is one of the leading country-rock outfits locally, their followers fill up almost all the tables. There’s even Ed and Jean, a couple who come from the band’s parents’ generation and who are counted among their most devoted fans.

         The band doesn’t say too much. They just play like crazy. Extensive gigging – some 1,200 to 1,300 dates over the past five years – has given them a spirited, seamless approach that’s guaranteed to get heads bobbing and feet tapping. “It’s time to party,” they announce as they start.

         Within minutes of picking up their instruments, the cowboy-hatted aggregation is ripping through righteous rendition of the Charlie Daniels Band’s “The South’s Gonna Do It Again.” Fiddler Buffalo Zew adds a wild, tongue-wagging solo. It’s great stuff.

         They approach country-rock from both sides of the fence. On the Nashville side, they have a penchant for boozing songs like “One More Bottle of Wine” or “Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down.” Their rock selections draw upon Southern sources like Marshall Tucker Band and from country-rock standard-bearers like the New Riders of the Purple Sage.

         A set commonly ranges from something like Commander Cody’s “Seeds and Stems” to an old Johnny Paycheck chestnut like “An Empty Bottle, a Broken Heart and You’re Still on My Mind.” And then, every once in a while, they’ll up and do a number that’s totally off the wall, like the old swing standard, “Louise.”

         Tenor vocalist Carl Eddy gives the songs a heart-clutching quaver. Drummer Randy Bolam keeps the country rhythms uncommonly sharp and funky. Rick Kilmer strikes a classic pose with his drooping cigarette over the pedal steel guitar.

         Since Hall, Bolam and bassist Bud Webber founded the group in January 1975, it’s known few idle moments. “We agreed to give it five years, full time, win, lose or draw,” says Hall. Starting as a quartet, they dropped Hall’s brother as a vocalist when he declined to go on the road with them.

         That road trip in 1975 with singer Doug LaValley introduced them to the Northeast, the Midwest and, most of all, Nashville. They made numerous contacts which still serve them well today. When they came home, they started their own country music newspaper, the North Country Review.

         “We learned a lot from it,” says Hall. “We sold our own advertising, did our own layout and did our own interviewing. We used to put it all together on the kitchen table. Fortunately, we always broke even and it was good promotion for us.”

         As they prospered, they expanded the band. First came Kilmer and his pedal steel. Then came Eddy to sing. Finally, they rounded up Buffalo Zew, youngest and most antic member of the troupe, to give them fiddle and harmonica. Jimmy Beishline sits in on piano, but the group can’t quite afford a full-timer on the 88s yet. Eddy and Buffalo Zew gave the band an extra dimension – songwriting. The highly creditable album they released on their own last summer is graced with 10 originals.

         If Stone Country Band looks and sounds like a group that’s ready for bigger things, well, they are. Their album has given them added stature in the clubs. Currently, they’ve enlisted Amherst Records’ Lenny Silver to their cause as they angle for a deal with a major label. This week finds them in Select Sound Studio mixing tracks for a demonstration record, which could be their ticket to a recording contract.

         Until that happens, they’ll be keeping busy in the clubs. They’re at Smith’s Tavern in Swormville Saturday night and again Feb. 29 and March 1. They play the Bonnet in Tonawanda every Wednesday. They do the Belle Starr Lodge in Colden Feb. 28. Nashville North on Niagara Falls Boulevard sees them March 7, 8, 14 and 15.

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IN THE PHOTO: Stone Country Band in a promotional photo from 1977.

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FOOTNOTE: Stone Country Band ruled for years and years as Buffalo's foremost country band. They were the last group to play the Belle Starr before the place burned down. They had minor hits in the early '80s with "Rodeo Song" and the "Curly Shuffle" album. Hopes for greater things were still alive when they gambled everything on a fateful trip to Nashville in February 1994 for a big showcase night. It got scuttled by a monumental ice storm.

Stone Country was inducted into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame in 1997 and became a mainstay at guitarist Dwane Hall's nightclub, the Sportsmen's Tavern, which he bought in 1985. These days Dwane can be heard playing there regularly with the Twang Gang.

Drummer Randy Bolam, make that Randall D. Bolam, has become a producer too, and is now based in Virginia. Fiddler Buffalo Zew, a/k/a Rob Palaszewski, formed his own ensemble, the Buffalo Zew Revue, and is still active musically with the group Dark Horse Run. He's also a minister. 

Carl Eddy worked for many years with the Buffalo office of the American Red Cross and has kept on singing, songwriting and playing guitar. He gives an annual tribute to Hank Williams on WXRL.

Steel guitarist Rich Kilmer eludes my searching around for him on Google. Bassist Bud Webber, who went on to warehouse work and tending bar, died in 2019.