Laughlin Entertainer: Cover Stories

Every once in a while a unique band, new to the Laughlin market, makes it to a casino lounge. The kind of band that goes beyond playing straight covers and brings a little bit extra to the stage.

One such band is Stone Lizard, playing the Caboose Lounge within the Tropicana Express, Wednesday, August 6, through Sunday, August 10. They provide the music on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday from 8:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m.; and on Friday and Saturday from 9:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. There is no cover or drink minimum in the Caboose Lounge.

The “Lizard” is made up of talented musicians who came together in Las Vegas through a love of a similar strain of music: blues. They soaked it all up-from Stevie Ray Vaughan to Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Etta James and B.B. King-and have put their own spin to things. A spin that works beyond blues festivals and just for diehard blues aficionados.

The band consists of lead singer Liz Ramey-former host of TV's “Las Vegas Music Videos” and current freelance producer for HBO. A longtime devotee of the blues, she possesses the requisite powerful, bluesy vocals to give heart to the “Stone”.

Jim Baich-a studio guitarist in California for 10 years who has been playing rock and blues guitar in clubs for over 20 years.

Danny Buss-bass player who has toured with many national acts including Ozzie Osborne, Deep Purple and Triumph.

Chuck Logan-drummer for 25 years, mainly in Vegas show bands and numerous rhythm and blues projects.

The Laughlin entertainer recently talked with Jim Baich of Stone Lizard about the band and the music they bring to the Caboose Lounge.

Q. Describe what listeners can expect from Stone Lizard.

A. We do everything from Zeppelin to Stevie Ray Vaughan. It's all blues based and has a edgy energy to it.

We're not a pop group.

It's the kind of stuff that, every time we play, the younger kids will tell us, “we don't know what you're playing, but we sure like it.” We feel that's a significant compliment-especially when radio stations decided they're only going to play a limited number of songs, with all of it being about selling commercials.

There have been a lot of good blues artists coming out the last 20 years. Kenny Wayne Sheppard for instance, who has kept the music alive even though he gets no radio play. He does very well. That's why we include some of his music.

I think we do the kind of music that's fun to see live. Music that's difficult to play. You have to be pretty good to play it properly. I've seen people do Stevie Ray Vaughan's music, but they really don't do it the right way.

The four of us are good at what we do, we enjoy it and it's a fun side thing we do almost every weekend. It's getting as lucrative as our day jobs. It comes down to us being in our late 40s and just wanting to do this for fun and doing it well-people seem to like it because we keep getting hired.

Q. So how does the blues tinge translate to people who want to dance in a setting like the Caboose Lounge?

A. It comes down to Chuck Logan, our drummer. He's played in R&B groups and casino bands for years. He's a flashy kind of drummer and we scooped him up because we like what he does. He's got a Motown feel to his drums which also plays well for blues music. He's conscious of people dancing and he gets them to dance with the kind of energy he creates. The drummer is more important than a lot of people realize. He's the guy they're dancing to.

Q. It is our understanding you're a hell of a guitar player. Talk about that? Who are your influences?

A. I was a studio guitarist in California for 10 years. It's something I'd always done, and I was pretty decent at it. I never wanted to be a rock star, but I did pretty well.

They would throw anything at me, to back up whoever was coming through. I'd have to play new wave stuff, rage stuff-sometimes they'd want an Eric Clapton or Eddie Van Halen-type solo, so I learned how do all of those.

I use all of those things I had to learn and put it into the music we play now. If a band like ours had been around in the'70s, there's a good chance we would have made it big. But the truest thing about being musicians is we hate the industry. We play for the people and love it. We just want to play good music-that's the bottom line-play good music and have a good time.

As for influences, I grew up listening to guys like Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Q. How long has Stone Lizard been together?

A. Since April. Danny (Buss) and I have known each other about 10 years. The two separate bands we were in joined as one.

But we're all pretty experienced, with similar musical tastes and it's worked out really, really well. We hooked up with Liz because we like a woman singing the blues-and with her raspy voice, it's just perfect.

Q. What do you like about playing the smaller venues?

A. It's a more intimate feel and it's more fun. It's like having a party rather than a job. We'd rather be in a place where we get to know the people. Big name bands nowadays don't make that much money. They stay in crappy motels and they don't get to meet anybody. Here, we get to know the people who come out to see us play-we become friends. So many of our friends were fans of the band or the music and we met them while playing music. It's a good social gathering of like-minded people.

For us, it's all about just having fun, being loose-and musically tight at the same time. If we see everybody dancing and having fun, you can feel the energy-the spirit of the event. If we're having fun, the crowd's having fun. It doesn't matter if there's one person or 2,000 people in the room we love playing music, even if it's just for each other-and that comes across. Having pretty decent musicians helps. We all respect each other.

Q. Q. Do you do any original music and have any CDs out?

A. Yeah, we wright our own stuff. We have a record coming out this fall. I've written eight songs for the CD. We're fine tuning right now. I'm also working on an acoustic rock CD, which will be coming out within a month.

Q. Talk more about the songwriting.

A. I've been stockpiling songs since my studio work days. I don't write political songs, I write relationship songs.

I won the John Lennon Songwriting Contest four years ago. It was a blind contest, the judges picked my song at this big event called June Fest. There was Kansas and Joan Jett, and I opened up for them.

Q. Are you more inspired to write songs when you're pissed or in love?

A. I went through a divorce and all these things came pouring out-miserable, soul wrenching sad songs.

One of those sad songs was called “I'm Better Off Being Alone”-ouch. I keep them inside for a long time and a lot of the time write them for my own entertainment, for my own edification. Every now and then, I'll play one, test it out on whatever crowd happens to be there. How people react to it pretty much decides how you do it.

Songwriting, to me, is like putting your head on a chopping block, because some people will say, “wow, I didn't know you felt that way.” At least I've got a creative outlet.

Playing guitar is also like sticking my neck out. If I mess up, everybody knows it. It takes a lot of guts to play guys like Jimi Hendrix. It's a bold move playing their songs-you better know what you're doing.

There's not a big market for guitar heroes any more. The'60s and'70s were great eras for them, but it's gone-dead. Stevie Ray was about the only one who made it mainstream as a fluke. Singing is the main thing these days.