Getting the blues off Broadway with L.A.'s Stoney Curtis Band

Local concert organizer and blues devotee Larry Underberg was in a music store in Indianapolis when he stumbled across a psychedelic blues album titled "Acid Blues Experience."

"This disc had amazing cover art that looked exactly like the kind of thing I would enjoy -- a '60s psychedelic look -- and it had the word blues on the cover," he said.

Underberg said the album's artist, The Stoney Curtis Band, quickly became one of his favorite groups. He was so impressed that he is flying the Los Angeles-based band into Cape Girardeau to perform at the recently renamed concert series, Blues off Broadway. The concert will be from 8 to 10 p.m. at Dockside the Upper Deck on Spanish Street. Admission is $15.

"I really think this may be one of the hottest bands that we've brought in," Underberg said.

The Stoney Curtis Band is a blues power rock trio that has been on the music scene for about 14 years. Underberg's discovery, "Acid Blues Experience," was the band's first label record, released in 2005. Guitarist and lead vocalist Stoney Curtis said the band hooked up with Shrapnel Records in 2004 and released that album, as well as "Raw and Real" in 2007.

As a "fly under the radar type band," Curtis said the the record deal is what gained many of the band's fans, such as Underberg.

"People know who we are all over the world because of these records. If we didn't have these record deals we'd still be doing gigs in LA and no one would know who we are," he said. "We've been able to do things like this -- go to Missouri and do a gig -- and other things we probably wouldn't have been able to do."

Curtis said he and drummer Charles Glover II are the full-time members of the band and have been playing together since 1995.

"The drummer and I have been together longer than most married couples. We've been through the wringer together."

The two players have melded their Chicago-blues and funkadelic influences to create their own brand of psychedelic rock blues.

"I grew up in Chicago," Curtis said. "With that being said, I grew up listening to blues, of course. When it's around you everywhere, you can't help but absorb it. When I started writing my owns songs, it was of course going to have blues influence.

"Charlie's really into soul, R&B, like Earth Wind and Fire, Parliament Funkadelic, Ohio Players. So he has a lot of that swinging kind of groove to him. He kind of brings that little bit of funk to this hard rock and blues stuff."

The duo plays with three different bassists -- Wayne Carver in LA, Uwe Bottcher in Europe and traveling player Willy Andresco. Andresco will be playing bass at the group's gig in Cape Girardeau.

While Curtis cites the albums as an accomplishment, he said the band survives by doing shows. The group has been on a number of tours across the country, including the U.S. tour that wrapped up in May, as well as four European tours. While on its second tour in the United Kingdom, the Stoney Curtis Band was asked to play Rockpalast, a long-standing rock show in Germany.

Curtis said the trio plans to be on the road touring again by September.

"We're a grassroots band, and we make money by going out and working hard and getting gigs," Curtis said. "Put out great shows that people will come out to next time we come around. It's a struggle. Every day you're looking for a new job, because you're looking for new gigs, a new place to play. We're certainly not getting rich from it, and we knew that going into it. We may still be broke but we're happy doing what we want to do."

Underberg is the talent scout for Tunes at Twilight and the Blues off Broadway concert series, formerly known as Blues on Broadway when it was held in the Marquette Tower on the first Friday of every month.

Underberg said he wanted to keep a familiar name, and that Blues off Broadway was only fitting. Even though the Dockside on Spanish is a change of venue, he said concertgoers can expect the similar theme of "beverages and blues."

Underberg said the next Blues Off Broadway concert will be an "exceptional" group, Nigel Nack and the Blues Attack on Oct. 2.

WANT TO GO?

What: Blues off Broadway features The Stoney Curtis Band

When: Friday, July 3, 8 to 10 p.m.

Where: Dockside the Upper Deck, 4 N. Spanish St.