Kevin Stonerock grew up in a small town nestled in the hills of East Central Indiana in what he describes as a 'Norman Rockwellian' childhood, complete with old men in overalls, swapping tales, spitting tobacco and whittling on a bench in front of the town's only store. Stonerock's early musical influences include artists from the folk revival of the early 60's and country roots artists like Johnny Cash and Marty Robbins. "I liked Johnny Cash before it was hip." Later influences were the singer-songwriters and harmony-laden acoustic based groups of the late 60's and early 70's. These influences, combined with his rural Midwestern upbringing, have resulted in a multitude of original songs. A melding of folk, roots country and rock with straight-forward, picture-evoking , accesible lyrics performed with an honesty of emotion.
In 1978 he released his first solo album, Day Before Tomorrow on 700 West Records (see reviews). The album racked up respectable sales and received considerable regional and overseas airplay. Kevin spent the remainder of the 70's performing in clubs, coffee houses and other venues, including a strange gig as the "opening act" for the then ABA Indiana Pacers at Market Square Arena ("When the guys came out for their pregame shoot-around and the basketballs started flying around my head, I decided to shorten my set list.").
In the 1980's, Stonerock turned his professional attention to writing and acting, developing and perfecting his one-man living history performances (see living history). In 1991, he was contracted to write a series of outdoor music-dramas called The Point In Time, which ran for seven summers on the banks of the Ohio River at Carrollton, Kentucky. Not only did he research and write the scripts and much of the music, he also directed and performed in the shows as well. Through this association, the acoustic band Bottom Dollar was formed. The band released an album entitled Story In The Stone which contains much of the music from the drama series. Stonerock has also written plays for the cities of Wabash and Vevay, Indiana, the script and educational materials for the Indiana State Museum's long-running Civil War exhibit and a book and tape set entitled Civil War History Through Song. In 1994, Stonerock released his second solo album, Home Stretch, to be followed by Stranger In This Town (2001) and Land of a Thousand Smiles (2007).
In addition to writing and performing, Stonerock has worn the "producer hat" on a variety of projects for others, including Two Moon Record label mate Steven Grant Smith and Louisville based Two Cent Penny and has worked on a number of projects as a session player and vocalist. Guitar Player magazine has deemed Kevin's guitar work "strong and inspired".
With 30 years experience as a performing songwriter and actor (over the years, he has logged more than 3,500 performances of his one-man dramatic characterizations and has appeared in a promotional video for a major nation-wide realty chain), Stonerock's quick wit and affable, down-to-earth style connects with his audience and puts them at ease as if they were carrying on a conversation with an old friend on the front porch. He has performed across the country from Cape Cod to Los Angeles in venues of all types, from concert halls to living rooms and pretty much everything in between.
To date, Stonerock has five solo releases (see discography) , beginning in 1978 and including his latest release (March 2007) Land of a Thousand Smiles, on Two Moon Records.
Though the descendant of French Canadian fur traders, Wea Indians, Virginia colonists and Tennessee frontiersmen, Stonerock is happy to call himself a Hoosier, residing with his family (and dogs) in a log cabin nestled in the wooded hills of East Central Indiana , one half mile from the nearest road.
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