With nightclubs shut down, one of Washington’s most popular blues bands is taking its performances to Facebook in May.
Now that Gov. Jay Inslee’s stay-home order is extended through May 31, Edmonds’ Stacy Jones Band will live-stream shows at 6 p.m. May 7, May 15, May 23 and May 30 on its Facebook page.
Stacy Jones, 38, has been nominated for Washington Blues Society’s Best of the Blues Awards year after year.
Since forming in 2008, her band has won 17 Best of the Blues Awards, including Best Female Vocalist, Best Northwest Recording, Best Blues Songwriter, Best Blues Album and Best Blues Song, Best Harmonica, Best Bass and Best Drummer.
A rare feat, the Stacy Jones Band was the winner of the Best of the Blues Award for Best Band two years in a row, in 2018 and 2019, and is only the second band to do so in the Washington Blues Society’s 31 years.
Frontwoman Jones not only sings, but also plays piano, harmonica and the guitar. She is joined by drummer Rick Bowen, guitarist Jeff Menteer and bassist Tom Jones, who is Stacy’s father. He’s 70.
Before the pandemic, the Stacy Jones Band — which has performed at the Chicago Blues Festival, South by Southwest and the International Blues Challenge in Memphis — had been performing 125 shows per year.
Stacy Jones herself was not available for an interview with The Daily Herald, so drummer Rick Bowen expanded on the band’s latest activities.
“We’re doing only a little over hour, versus playing two- or three- set shows,” Bowen, vice president of the Washington Blues Society, said about the live-streamed shows. “Then you’ve got to take some of the requests on Facebook. That’s the new protocol. You’ve got fans chiming in on the comments, requesting tunes. We may have had a game plan going in, and then somebody goes, ‘Hey, play this song!’”
Stacy Jones’ band has released seven albums, including “Long Time Comin” (2010), “No Need to Spell it Out” (2011), “Live and Untapped” (2012), “Whiskey, Wine, & Water” (2015), and “Love is Everywhere” (2017). The band is now working on its eighth album.
The band is recording the yet-to-be-named album, including the songs “Sunday Morning” and “Love Me Just the Way I am,” at Loud House Studio in Shoreline. Loud House, the band’s own recording studio, is in Tom Jones’ garage.
That album had been put on hold because Stacy Jones gave birth to her first child on Dec. 14. Her son’s name is Jaxon.
After the governor’s shutdown, the band got to work transforming Loud House into a television studio of sorts, so all of the Stacy Jones Band’s live-streamed shows could be performed there, too.
“We’re spread out around the room,” Bowen said, referencing the 6-foot rule. “I’ve got a barricade of a drum set in front of me, Stacy’s got keyboards in front of her, so we keep that distance.”
If you miss any of the Stacy Jones Band’s May shows — including the first one on May 2 — you can watch the recorded performances on the band’s Facebook page or YouTube channel.
Sara Bruestle: 425-339-3046; sbruestle@heraldnet.com; @sarabruestle.
If you stream
Stacy Jones Band will perform shows at 6 p.m. May 7, May 15, May 23 and May 30 in a live stream on the band’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/stacyjonesband. If you’d like to donate to the band, send funds via Paypal to www.paypal.me/thestacyjones or via Venmo at @thestacyjones.
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