Jeff Stone is a Blues and Gospel Harmonica player…pure and simple. His love and gift for the music is aptly attributed to the Lord and he will be the first to tell you that his music ‘is simply a channeling of God’s voice through his musical instrument.
Whether playing with his church brothers and sisters (Victory World Outreach, Denton, TX,) doing Gospel Shows with the Rev. K.M. Williams close to his North Texas home, touring with the great bluesman Zac Harmon (2002-2008,) playing with Chicago’s blues mainstay Charlie Love or any of his countless friends throughout the country, Jeff Stone will reach you with his music.
With Zac Harmon, their band accomplished an impressive run since their formation back in 2003: 2004 Winner, International Blues Challenge, Best Unsigned Band 2005 XM Radio Best New Blues Artist (Zac Harmon) 2006 Winner, Blues Music Awards (W.C. Handy Awards) Best New Artist Debut
In 2003, Stone , Harmon and Larry Davis founded BlueStone Records, a label devoted to the blues. The 2005 release, ‘The Blues According to Zacariah," won the prestigious BMA (formerly W.C. Handy Award) for Best New Artist Debut Album.
Winning the 2004 International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN as part of Zac Harmon & the Mid South Blues Revue, was a gratifying, humbling and proud achievement. "The true blues authenticity of what we have built as the sound of Zac Harmon's blues, is what we strive to achieve. As Little Walter was to Muddy Waters, and as Junior Wells was to Buddy Guy...this is how I approach the sound that is Jeff Stone to Zac Harmon,' Stone describes the Mid South Blues Revue's nature. 'This achievement (the IBC award) allowed for a sharing of what their music was all about with a much wider audience than where they came from.
Stone’s association with Harmon is earmarked as a turning point in his career. "Playing with Zac gave me the opportunity to expand on my traditional base as well as reaching out to as many listeners as possible. Zac is a tremendous talent, who plays with the same spirit and heart as I do."
'Cutting teeth,' as it is said, by playing with mentor Charlie Love (and the Silky Smooth Band,) in Chicago, as well as the years at Babe's and Ricky's Inn, in Los Angeles, under the watchful eye of 'Mama' Laura Mae Gross, Stone developed a style that Lowell Fulson once called, 'unique...all his own,' and the legendary Sam Meyers described as ‘one BAAD harmonica player!’
True to his Chicago roots, Stone is a bluesman in a traditional way and a Gospel musician in a spiritual sense. Though playing jazz, soul, R&B, funk and gospel had broadened his range, and allowed him to truly express what he hears and feels, it is through the blues that Stone expresses most truly. It is through Gospel that allows him to reach people with his music with an awakening effect.
Born and raised on Chicago's South-Side, Stone grew up listening to the fathers of 'America's music.' Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, B.B. King, Little Walter Jacobs, Otis Rush, Luther Allison, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Magic Sam, were the majority of the blues education that Stone subscribed to. Rounding that out with a heavy jazz influence of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Oscar Peterson, Kenny Burrell and others, giving Stone the improvisational background that permeates throughout his playing. The 1970's and 80's found Stone discovering Gospel, Soul, Funk and R&B, all genres that have stayed with him throughout his playing career.
It is the recent rediscovery of Gospel and Delta roots music that has allowed Stone to continue the evolution of what is to come through his deeply spiritual belief that God will direct what is to be musically achieved. ‘The Lord will show me what it is that he wants me to do…how it is to be done…and when it is to happen….my mission, is to be ready!’
Now living just north of Dallas, TX, with his wife Kelley, gives Stone the base to grow on, as a Christian, husband, father and brother. Working a day job in the graphics and printing industry for over 25 years to help raise a family of three children, has helped Stone focus on his art form and perfect his craft. It is not uncommon to find Jeff Stone playing in church or involved with recording sessions or Gospel-based projects and/or sitting in with some of the great musicians throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Chicago, and many other areas, playing the music he loves most.
Stone's recording credentials are:
w/Jeff Dale •Blues From the South Side of My Soul (2008)
w/Zac Harmon •Boogie Down, Live in Paris (2007) •The Blues According to Zacariah (2005) 2006 Blues Music Award (W.C.Handy Award) for Best New Artist Debut •Live at Babe's & Ricky's Inn (2002)
w/Paul Byrd •Without Further Adieu... (2003)
w/J.J. "Bad Boy'" Jones •Signatures of Legends (2000)