Jeff Stone: Media Reviews

"Who's Knockin' is an excellent blues with the haunting harmonica of Jeff Stone that cuts its incisive sentences with a completely hypnotic orchestration.

Jean-Paul Claveau
BCR
March/April, 2006

Zac Harmon - The Blues According to Zacariah

..."Who's Knockin'" is rockin' and accentuated with simple stops and starts and the freight-train imagery of (Jeff Stone's) harp. Harmon shows strong country music roots again as the meat of the music on this song is very similar to Leann Rimes' "My Baby" on her Blue album. "Who's Knockin'" is well-done and served over-easy...

The slow "It Hurts Me Too", with Jeff Stone's
beautiful harp-intro, introduces guest-vocalist Mickey Champion. In
addition to Harmon's strong vocals, also the good guitar-work and
harmonica-playing must get special mention...

Dietmar Hoscher
Blues-News
(vol 44/Jan-March '06)

While the musical approach taken on 'The Blues According to Zacariah' is the traditional Mississippi, Mississippi-Chicago electric blues of guitar, harp and organ...the musicians listed are the Sonny Boy (John Lee) Williamson-style harmonica player Jeff Stone...

George Fish
Indiana Blues Monthly
12/2005

Having twice seen ZAC HARMON & THE MID SOUTH REVIEW live, I've already had the pleasure of writing a few words about their shows and it's the memories of those very shows that led me to want to review their new CD.

Winning the 2004 IBC Award earned them to right to perform for the cocktail hour preceding that years W C Handy Awards. The thing I remember most about that performance was the bands ability to draw - and maintain - a very large and very attentive crowd to the stage, in a room where the main objective of the crowd is to eat, drink, mingle, ogle, take pictures and seek autographs.

That same week, I caught their full fledged festival act at 'Memphis in May' and that show just blew me away. The chemistry between ZAC HARMON and JEFF STONE was masterful. I'll never forget ZAC pointing to JEFF and saying "he is to me what Junior Wells was to Buddy Guy". WHOA!
...Unquestionably, in my opinion, one of the best tracks on this disc has to be a cover called "IT HURTS ME TOO". The song opens with some serious blues harp then gives way to a powerful vocal verse by ZAC...

...Besides the classic begging nature of the lyrics, Zac’s guitar and Jeff Stone’s harmonica reinforce the theme with pleading intensity...

...Muddy Water's classic Mannish Boy is next up and in B-Flat again to suit Zac's vocal pitch, this is a very tight production with all the essential ingredients, the classic riff, the hollering after the "I'm a Man..." with a very unique phrasing on the "I'm a Mannish Boy". What a marvellous blues. Mel London had a part in writing Mannish Boy and he also takes the credits for It Hurts Me Too. Zac duets with Miss Mickey Champion and the song has a superb harmonica intro from Jeff Stone...

CD REVIEWS

ZAC HARMON & THE MID-SOUTH BLUES REVUE
The Blues According to Zacariah
This Mississippi musician turned into one of L.A.'s finest hooks the listener immediately with a fun Gospel beat that invites one to follow Zac' s testimony and ride "That Mighty High." Bri1liantly segueing into the next song, "Sugarman," which is a bit profane, Zac pleads to his lover, "If I gotta pick six miles of cotton, bale a hundred fields of hay, 1'll do anything so you won't walk away!" Well, musically he does just that for the rest of this outstanding CD with seven other songs that leave you wanting more.
Zac takes full command of this recording with powerful and impassioned guitar playing and a depth of vocal resonance. You can almost imagine him swaying to his lyrics. There is a reason why he with his Mid-South Blues Revue was chosen as the best band in the Blues Foundation's International Blues Challenge in Memphis last year. "Who's Knockin" questions the fidelity of the singer's love interest. Jeff Stone's harp and Dug Mug's bass punctuate the song adding multiple layers to Zac's questioning as he shows his prowess with the slide on his guitar. "It's Cool With Me" conjures up a relentless Chicago beat with Coleman's solid drumming.
In "Mannish Boy," Zac pays homage to Muddy Waters by recreating tbe original feel of the song and polishing it to a fine sheen with his ta1ented band and versatile vocals. Nestled near the end of the CD is a duet with the inimitable Mickey Champion, a Blues woman who has never received the recognition of her peers but has outlived them all and still has tbe pipes to prove her talent on Elmore James' , "It Hurts Me Too." The other three songs all deserve a 1isten--especially "Comfort of a Man" which allows Greg Wright to lend his guitar skills to Zac' s recording.
Packaged beautifully by Jeff Stone, Zac's Chicago born harp player, and designed by "Cool" Cora Coleman, his drummer who is on loan to Prince as this review goes to press, the presentation is as appealing as the music.

Pete Sardon
Southland Bluestone Records January, 2005

Live at Babe's & Ricky's Inn

...Zac Harmon provides some excellent guitar/vocals and the cut includes some nice harmonica fills by Jeff Stone. The studio version of "Stormin' In Mississippi" puts more significant emphasis on the added harmonica not included in the live version... my favorite for "Stormin' In Mississippi" is the studio cut which seems to offer a more emotional performance...