-
Turning Over A New Stone
[+ Show ]
It was time to move on for Casey Stone. The veteran local singer-songwriter had been fronting Eva Go...It was time to move on for Casey Stone. The veteran local singer-songwriter had been fronting Eva Gold for the past five years, but like long-term lovers making a clean break, Stone has started fresh with a new band, a new focus and a new attitude.
"The demise of (Eva Gold) wasn't acrimonious or anything," she says. "It was not like a harsh parting of ways. I think we all felt a little stale. I needed a break - I got a day job and moved into the city - and in the meantime, the guys got other gigs and got on with their lives. And I guess during that time I realized that I spent a lot of time and energy just working to keep the band together for five years."
"I dunno, it was time to just sort of leap into some new ideas and some fresh thinking. It's exciting and not all that familiar yet. I guess it's kind of like breaking away from a longtime relationship and starting to date again. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad."
One of the city's foremost vocalists, Stone began enjoying music in church and on her parents' record player listening to country acts such as Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard and Tanya Tucker. By the time she first heard John Fogerty belting out one for CCR, the pint-sized would-be singer was hooked.
Stone's influences have always been varied and plentiful, but the bluesy, soulful, slightly smoky and slightly raspy vocals she's developed over nearly two decades of being a singer are all her own. For anyone who has seen her perform on multiple occasions, clearly Stone is a singer who is always improving.
"I think (constant improvement) is a natural expectation for me," she says. "I mean, I'm a pretty driven person and I come from a long line of workaholics. To me, the more you sing, the better you should get. If I really think of all the hours I have spent just singing...my God, I should be somewhat good at it by now!"
The commitment to her latest project is still at the same level as it always has been, and even the focus won't be too far off of the bluesy, ballsy rock and roll that she favoured with Eva Gold.
"I don't always fit in," she cautions. "But I just know that there's still some people out there who don't want to hear Britney Spears. Those are the people I'm trying to get through to. (My sound) has still got a rock and blues influence, but I was also a country singer for years so there's always a roots element in there as well. It always has to have...for lack of a better word, some 'edge' to it."
In the past, Stone has had a reputation of being a deeply personal songwriter, but also someone who doesn't give away too much. She currently is prepping some demos which should see the light of day on a Casey Stone solo album that will be ready for a spring 2002 release.
"There's always a greater truth in every song I write," she admits. "But you also want to universalize it and have everyone be able to draw parallels with their own lives. I've always felt that people need to be able to relate and feel a song as well as hear it."
With only a handful of shows under her belt with the new band (which includes local guitar guru Dan Silljer), Stone says that playing the new songs, some older stuff and her always carefully hand-picked selection of covers live on stage has been incredibly refreshing.
"We've had some really good gigs already," she beams. "It's nice to feel like you're making progress with each show. The overall vibe is a good on, y'know? The show is pretty much what I've been all along: high-octane, high-energy, in-your-face, don't-mess-with-me, let's-have-some-fun rock and roll! That's still what it's about."
-
Stone Has Golden Gift
[+ Show ]
It must have felt like Casey Stone's lucky day. Speeding slightly to get back to Regina in preparati...It must have felt like Casey Stone's lucky day. Speeding slightly to get back to Regina in preparation for a couple of weekend shows that would take place in Swift Current, she encountered one police cruiser after another in her '82 Ford...but no one seemed to notice.
Not getting noticed is sometimes the heartbreak of being an independent musician in a place like Saskatchewan, but the affable 34-year-old local singer-songwriter isn't asking for much.
"I'm not looking to be a star or anything," she says. "But I do know what I want to do with my life for the next 10 or 15 years."
"And I would rather make not very much money and do this, than to make a lot of money doing something I hate."
The tough, yet tender woman of the prairie music scene may get to have her cake and eat it too if her band's sophomore album, 'Traction', is anything to go by. A gifted songwriter from a very early age, Stone seems to have truly found her niche with the diverse mix of straight-up house shakers, roots-flavoured pop and wistful balladry that is showcased on the new album.
That kind of diversity gives the album a special flair that seems obvious when you consider tunes such as 'Dust,' 'Pain, Fade Away,' 'Make You Mine,' 'Drive Away' and 'Misery'.
Even for someone who always puts in a great deal of time and attention into her song and lyric writing, Stone says that 'Misery' is particularly close to her musical heart.
"Sometimes you feel like you're giving too much of yourself away," she says. " 'Misery' is kind of like that, but I've shrouded it enough so that I don't feel completely naked," she adds with a laugh.
"I put that song together one day when I was driving in for rehearsal and it just kind of popped into my head. But when I looked at it a couple of days later...I was just kind of like, 'What the hell am I saying here' and 'Do I really want to say that?' Some songs take a little while longer to grow on people and I think that will be one of them."
Other songs jump out at a listener more instantaneously. With some early adds at radio in Prince Albert, Swift Current and Saskatoon with 'Drive Away' and especially 'Make You Mine,' Stone says she's hoping radio here in her hometown will get on board as well.
"As far as 'Make You Mine,' I don't know if we could come up with a more radio friendly song," she says. "It doesn't stand out like a sore thumb and it's a pretty easy song to get into."
"It's probably the safest way to go as far as radio singles, but hey, we're trying to get our foot in the door."
You might want to put your foot through the door this weekend when Stone and the rest of her band - Brent Taylor (guitars), Brett Schinbein (bass) and new drummer Rob Green - take to the stage for a two night CD release party.
Stone says she's a real crowd watcher when she's up there fronting the band.
"Sometimes I feel like I'm invisible when I'm on stage singing," she ways. "But I always walk out into the crowd and look at the stage and think 'Oh, boy. If people look up there, they can see everything!' It makes me think, I had better start really working!"
"I consider the people who come and see the band at bars to usually be music fans and people who appreciate music. I've noticed over the years that our crowd is more of a listening crowd."
"We play some high energy stuff, but we wouldn't be a very good cabaret band because I think what happens is they'll listen to half a song, and by the time they realize that, 'Hey, this would be a cool song to dance to,' it's over and we're on to the next one!"
-
Stone Rocks: Singer Casey Stone moves from country to rock 'n' roll with her band eva gold
[+ Show ]
September 4, 1997
Stone rocks:
Singer Casey Stone moves from country to rock 'n' roll with her ...September 4, 1997
Stone rocks:
Singer Casey Stone moves from country to rock 'n' roll with her band Eva Gold
by Nick Miliokas for The Leader-Post
preview
Eva Gold
All Indie Weekend
9:45 pm Friday, Hanbidge Hall
It might not amount to anything.
Then again, it could be a sign of progress that a TV series has acquired the rights to four songs by Saskatchewan rock band Eva Gold.
"We're very excited about this opportunity, of course," says songwriter and lead vocalist Casey Stone. "We're hoping they use it as many times as they desire - dozens and dozens of times."
"It gives the band a little bit of credibility and some exposure."
"If definitely raises the band's profile and - who knows? - it might open some doors."
Columbia Tristar Television, which produces the popular series 'Party of Five', has acquired the music rights to 'Extraction' - the band's four-song CD - for possible inclusion in the series' upcoming fourth season.
Produced by Michelle Garuik at Grind Recording in Pense, 'Extraction' has three original songs and a cover version of Rough Trade's 'High School Confidential,' currently getting some local airplay.
The material is representative of a band Stone hopes will come to be known for its "energy and intensity," a band that is trying to build an identity by covering the work of other artists while gradually expanding its own collection of songs.
"You have to get an audience in your pocket, first off, before you start leading them into new musical territories," Stone says.
"That's our thinking, anyway."
Rock itself is new musical territory for Stone, who came home to Saskatchewan from Calgary two years ago and subsequently made a decision that has taken her career in a different direction.
"What originally started as a country project turned into a rock project and away we went," she says.
"The bottom line with the band is that people came back to Saskatchewan to be part of this project and normally you do it the other way around."
"People relocate to Vancouver or Toronto. We did the opposite. We came back to Saskatchewan, and our goal right now is to establish ourselves in our home province. Hopefully, we can branch out from there. We're trying to build in a small area, for starters, and expand it as we go."
Besides Stone, the band includes guitarist and vocalist Brent Taylor, bass player Brett Schinbein, and drummer Hal Schrenk. It is managed by Irv Fines and Jason Gervais of the Regina-based Finegold Entertainment Group - and it was Fines, in fact, who suggested the switch from country to rock.
Say Stone: "From the first gig we did, I knew he was right."
Stone has been in the music business for 20 years. She joined her first band - "professional, not garage" - when she was 12. Growing up in Herbert, she came by country music naturally.
She was known as Darlene Wiebe at the time, but the disc jockeys had trouble pronouncing that, so she abandoned her real name and adopted a stage name when she was 16.
She chose Casey because it had been her nickname, bestowed by a bass player who thought she bore a striking resemblance to the puppet character on the children's television show Mr. Dressup.
As for "Stone," well, it seemed to fit with "Casey."
"When I'm in a club and somebody calls me by my real name," she says with a smile, "I know they either knew me from school, or we're related."
Stone's experience with choosing names came in handy when it was time to christen her current band.
Shortly after she had moved back to Herbert, and bought a house in 1911, she was thumbing through a book on the town's history and came across a photograph of a little girl named Eva Gold.
It sounded right, somehow, for a rock band.
"I'm waiting for the day when someone comes up to me and tells me their grandmother was Eva Gold," she says.
People have told Stone that she was on the verge of a breakthrough in country music, possibly "on the brink of national stardom," when she switched to rock.
She has no regrets.
"Looking back on it now," Stone says, "I realize how vulnerable I was and how innocent I was. At that age, you don't really have an idea about what you want to do."
"I appreciate country music, and I have a lot of respect for what a lot of the artists are doing out there."
"But I find the Eva Gold project closer to my heart. I'm more comfortable with it."
-
Darlene Wiebe Shares Top Music Spot
[+ Show ]
WINNIPEG (CP) - Singer Ronnie Prophet says country music "is the music of the 80s," and Cindy Thomps...WINNIPEG (CP) - Singer Ronnie Prophet says country music "is the music of the 80s," and Cindy Thompson and Darlene Wiebe are hoping to cash in on it.
Both young performers took steps in the right direction Wednesday when they shared first place at National Talent Night, part of the Country Music Week festivities.
Darlene, a 15-year-old singer from Herbert, who was representing Regina, and Thompson, a 19-year-old fiddler from Ottawa, edged out four other contestants chosen in competitions by radio stations across Canada.
Darlene said: "I still don't really believe it. I'm just glad I'll be getting the chance to record now instead of 10 years from now."
"How else do you feel when you win something like this?" Thompson said. "I feel fantastic."
The two winners each get a free recording session with a 45 rpm single to be distributed nationally by Sunshine Records of Winnipeg.
Prophet said he and the two other judges couldn't decide between Thompson and Darlene.
"We ran into a situation where the three of us all had two winners," Prophet said. "We couldn't make a decision on one person, so we had to give them both first prize."
Darlene started singing with her mother at the age of four, and has developed a strong voice that drew praise from Prophet.
"She was absolutely great," Prophet said. "She has good stage presence, she sings in key, she looks good, has a lot of action, and she put me in mind of Tanya Tucker. She has the ability...you can feel it, you can sense it."
A Grade 10 high-school student in Herbert, about 190 kilometres west of Regina, Darlene is excited about cutting a record but she's also a little wary.
"It's nice all right," she said. "But I just hope I become established enough so that I'm not just a name that sticks around for two months adn then everyone forget me. I want to stick around."
Thompson's foot-stomping fiddle music had the crowd jumping.
"I teach step-dancing, and I took up the fiddle a long time ago," Thompson said. "My grandfather was a fiddler, and we used to keep the neighbors up all night, because they'd hear us playing all the way across the river."
The six contestants drew loud cheers from the crowd of about 500 country music delegates at the downtown hotel that is headquarters for this year's Country Music Week.
Nancy MacDonald of Welland, Ont., was runner-up, winning over Winnipeg's Speed Walker, Joyce Sturn of Camrose, Alta., and Bev Ritthaler of Calgary.
supersonic
