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COVER STORY: Stoney Larue — Harley Davidson Cool
by Keith Howerton
 Upon arriving at the 36D Management office in New Braunfels, Texas, I noticed the brand new Harley Davidson Softail in the parking lot. I was there to do a photo shoot and an interview with Stoney LaRue and I thought to myself, “I wonder if that is Stoney’s.” Brian Kirkpatrick, the photographer I asked to shoot the session, removed all doubt with his first words as I hopped out of my jeep. “Of course, Stoney came out on his new bike,” Brian commented as he greeted me. I thought, “Cool, this is going to be fun.”
As a Harley rider myself I am drawn to Harleys like women are drawn to diamonds, and the sight of a brand new Softail Deluxe with Vance and Hines pipes on it is enough to make a Harley lover stop like a five pound bass looking at a top water bait. It is also enough to keep two guys talking motorcycles for the next three hours. But I had other things to talk with Stoney about, even if Harleys would have been my first choice. I got the feeling Stoney might have felt the same way. After all, they are beautiful machines and only Harley owners know how that feels.
Although I have seen Stoney perform on many occasions, I had only met him once at a brief encounter at the Reckless Kelly DVD/CD release party. It has been a bit of a priority to get out and talk with him for some time, but the schedules of magazine publishing have kept me from having any time to talk with him. Other writers for Texas Music Times have covered Stoney, but I have, until now, not had the chance. It was a cover story I wanted to do myself and I am glad I did.
The first impression of Stoney LaRue is lasting. He is a regular guy that is cool to the bone. I got the feeling he liked being that way and relaxes while riding and hanging out with friends and writing and playing songs; not for the business of writing songs or music, but just because it is what he does. He is likely one of the next major players and artists to come from Texas and Oklahoma, but he keeps that grounded in where he has come from up to this point. The truly amazing thing about Stoney is his humble ego and affable personality. He is a great, regular guy that is an instant friend in the style of another great Oklahoman named Will Rogers. Even if Stoney met a man he did not like, it is doubtful that man did not like him.
Stoney’s roots as a performer come from the roster of Red Dirt regulars that grew from an old farm house known as “The Farm” in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and migrated to another Stillwater home called the “Yellow House.” Performers like Cody Canada, Jimmy LaFave, Tom Skinner, Mike McClure, Jason Boland and others all made an artist pilgrimage at The Farm and then the Yellow House. Stoney admits that his time at The Farm was limited. He only went out there a couple of times, but he lived at the Yellow House for about five years.
“I spent a year on the couch,” Stoney said. “That is just what you did at the house to get a room, but then when I got my room I hung on to that sucker. Everyone pulled their weight and we shared expenses, but money was tight so it was tough every month to get things paid. Glad it was not my job to collect the money. Boland and I would play acoustic gigs and make money to pay our bills and man, we would have to get that paid before noon the next day or it would be gone,” Stoney remembered. Even though Stoney did not have the task of collecting bill money, he made a contribution to the community known as the Yellow House.
“I worked for a cable company so I got us free cable TV. It was my main contribution, but then the bills got ran up with WWF premium shows.” The memory made him smile. The Yellow House is no more, but Stoney told me he would dance on the concrete where it stood. The memories of the place are that strong to him. He met and spent great amounts of time with his wife and manager Kandace Phillips there. He often can still remember the blended smells of beer, cigarettes, mold, and reefer that gave the Yellow House identity.
Stoney LaRue is at that transition point in an artist’s career. He has recorded four records. His first project was a studio project called Downtown that was mixed in the basement of a trailer on the side of a cliff in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, from private sessions from Cain’s Ballroom. There was also a live recording with Travis Linville from the Red Dirt Café. Both projects are now out of print. His latest projects are the Red Dirt Album and the Live at Billy Bob’s CD and DVD. The crowds at his live shows are growing larger and his future has promise to continue to prosper. He now is a major live draw in Texas, Oklahoma, and surrounding states. When asked if he misses the days of smaller, more personal crowds, Stoney is introspective.
“You know, it is great to have 500 or 1000 or more people at one of our shows, even if the reality is that a good number of them are there just because it is the place to be that night. But I look at it this way, this is a chance for them to hear my music and that is a beautiful thing. I still love small crowds, always will, and will always play somewhere where only a few show up to really see us and be personal with us. It is a good thing,” according to Stoney. The smaller crowds are more personal and he loves that familiar feeling of engagement with an audience via his performances.
“When we travel to Alabama for example, we get Adam Hood’s fans to come out and see us, and that is pretty cool,” said Stoney. Adam has more than a few Stoney fans in Texas as well.
Small crowds are not likely to be the norm for Stoney LaRue in the near future. He is off in the spring on tour with Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers in the mountain and western states, and the rumor is that he will be working with famed producer and music publisher Frank Liddell who is the co-founder of Carnival Music group in Nashville. Things are happening for Stoney and even though he will be moving along that path to greater exposure, it is doubtful that he will ever leave those roots of small shows and loyal fans behind. He is an extraordinary performer who connects to a crowd like no other, and will always find some place to have a cool gig with loyal fans of his “Red Dirt” sound.
If you are near New Braunfels, Texas any time soon, look for a red bandana on a guy riding a great looking blue and white Harley Softail Deluxe. If you see him, give him a wave; I guarantee he will wave back. That is just who Stoney is.
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