Stone Stanley is the musical creation of singer/songwriter Jason Robert. In Stone Stanley, Jason Robert explores rock, country, Americana and folk and how they are all based upon a bedrock of the blues. Calling this style Mudstomp Blues, Stone Stanley is bringing the roots of the blues to the Hot Summer Nights in Adelanto this Saturday, August 11. Stone Stanley will follow up with an appearance at the New Blues Festival in Long Beach on September 2 and the popular Woodystock Festival in Apple Valley on October 6. Hot Summer Nights’ Country Night at the Adelanto Stadium will feature Stone Stanley as headliner, along with a car show, art show, kid’s zone and comedians. Highlighted will be songs from the recent Stone Stanley album, Mudstomp Tapes, a foray into traditional blues through Jason Robert’s vision.
Jason Robert is the driving force behind Stone Stanley. The High Desert resident from Hesperia loves the authenticity of the music he plays and he loves performing live in his town. A true performer, when asked about playing back in an area with so many family, neighbors and friends, he told the Los Angeles Beat, “It’s always a pleasure to give back the joy of music to those who helped you from the beginning. When a small town artist experiences success, the town folk feel a vested interest in that success. It becomes their success as well. It forms a symbiotic relationship between the artist and those who supported from the beginning. I very much look forward to sharing in that experience”.
Stone Stanley’s music delves into the heart of the blues. Sitting center stage like the old Delta Blues performers, Jason Robert plays a mix of acoustic lap, bottleneck slide and rock guitars. Backing him, the Stone Stanley Band provides a strong backbeat that gives a contemporary but authentic melange of the elements that the blues has influenced. Often stomping out the beat on a Pearl Bass Drum and snare with his feet. Calling this Mudstomp Music, Jason said that “Mudstomp Music is rooted in the early delta blues of the southern United States. It’s an amplified version of one man playing blues slide guitar while singing and kicking some foot drums. It’s a backbeat rhythm. The sound is muddy due to the reverb on the drum and the gritty tone of the guitars. The vocal is that of a preachers voice…big, strong and soulful, projecting far and wide. The Mudstomp sound is designed to convey the feeling of a live musical ‘dust up’ on a hot desert night”.
Much as the early days of the Delta bluesmen, this music was intended to be heard live. To that extent, Stone Stanley’s Mudstomp Tapes album was recorded live. Thus, it is a true reflection of how Stone Stanley’s upcoming performances at the Hot Summer Nights show and the other upcoming performances will be. Jason Robert said, “The Mudstomp Tapes were recorded live and left in their raw format for the self titled album. The songs were intentionally left with warts and all in order to convey the stripped down pure sound of our live performance. We did not want this record to sound over produced. I think we hit our mark. It’s as pure and honest a record I’ve heard, almost to a fault. We really enjoy performing these songs live. The audience has come to expect this raw honesty from our live shows and we aim to deliver that energy everytime”.
The upcoming Stone Stanley concerts will certainly give audiences a taste of Jason Robert’s reverence for the blues. With the Mudstomp Tapes songs like Bitter End, not only does the music move you, but the words are like poetry, looking into a man’s range of emotions and perseverance as you see into his life. A song like Be With Me brings relationships into focus, with just a touch of the jaded view of one who’s been there. Country blues is brought to the forefront in Beast Inside, as song that Stone Stanley says is “The dark truth about our own self destructive tendencies and nature that lurks in all those among the living”.
Hot Summer Nights’ Country Night at the Adelanto Stadium will give many a chance to see Stone Stanley in the High Desert area that influenced so much of Jason Robert’s life. On Labor Day weekend, many blues fans will get a chance to see Stone Stanley at the New Blues Festival in Long Beach’s El Dorado Park. Following that, the ever-popular Woodystock Festival in Apple Valley will present Stone Stanley along with a wide variety of other performances at one of the most fun 3-day festivals where there is music, camping and so much more.
Stone Stanley
Hot Summer Nights Country Night
Saturday, August 11 8pm (Gates open 3pm, free event)
Adelanto Stadium
12000 Stadium Way
Adelanto, CA 92301
Info: (760) 246-6287 or visit facebook.com/Hot-Summer-Nights.
New Blues Festival
Sunday, September 2 (Labor Day weekend, gate hours 7am-8pm)
El Dorado Park
7550 E. Spring Street
Long Beach CA, 90815
5thAnnual New Blues Festival website
Woodystock Blues and Rock Fest
Saturday, October 6
woodardville Ranch
Apple Valley, CA 92307
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