Stoney LaRue Albums (2)
'Live at Billy Bob's Texas'
Release Date 8/22/2006
Tracks 15
Label Smith Music Group
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What The Critics Say
There's a difference between being a band that plays in a lot of bars and being a bar band, but the distinctions blur a bit on this live set from Oklahoma country-rocker Stoney LaRue. LaRue won some positive press for his debut studio set, 2005's The Red Dirt Album, and he has a strong, emotive voice and some real talent as a songwriter. This live disc was recorded in front of a seemingly well-oiled audience on a Friday night, and he plays for the crowd in a manner that suggests he wanted to make sure the last guy in the back of the room didn't miss anything. LaRue and his band fill their set list with stuff like "Solid Gone" and "One Chord Song," along with a batch of covers that anyone who hangs out in a country or blues club is likely to know by heart. LaRue's bandmembers have solid chops as they stomp through their arrangements, and LaRue swaggers through the show like he's playing in an arena rather than a club. On Live at Billy Bob's Texas, LaRue's blend of blues figures and country-rock arrangements would probably sound best in a crowded bar after you've had four or five beers. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
'The Red Dirt Album'
Release Date 8/23/2005
Tracks 11
Label Smith Music Group
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Stoney LaRue is a singer/songwriter based in Stillwater, OK, one of the leaders of a local outlaw country scene collectively dubbed Red Dirt, after the dominant topographical feature of central Oklahoma. LaRue's debut, The Red Dirt Album, is both a personal coming-out of a fairly gifted singer/songwriter and the mission statement of an entire collective of bands, including Cross Canadian Ragweed (led by singer/songwriter Cody Canada) and Jason Boland & the Stragglers, key figures from which appear here in vocal, instrumental, and songwriting roles. It's as if the Elephant 6 bands had been heavily influenced by Jerry Jeff Walker's Viva Terlingua and the rest of the Luckenbach, TX, scene of the '70s. However, LaRue's whiskey-smooth growl of a voice and his smart, traditionalist songwriting are the focal points throughout The Red Dirt Album, a twangy, rock-influenced collection of solid two-steps, ballads, and rockers. LaRue wrote or co-wrote all but two of the songs, the ringers being a sensitive reading of "Bluebird Wine," a Rodney Crowell tune popularized by Emmylou Harris, and a triumphant, sweet version of Bob Dylan's "Forever Young" that closes the album. Both sound like they could be originals, testament both to LaRue's vocal skills and strength as a songwriter. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide
