Stone Water – Make Me Try
Time Zone Records
11 Tracks – 49 minutes
Stone Water hails from Hamburg, Germany. The band members are Bob Beeman on harmonica and vocals, Robert Wendt on guitar, Artjom Feldtser on bass, and Hanser Schuler on drums. Their story opens with the standard story of the pandemic. Bands were shut down – no touring. The frustration from the canceled tour for his band moved into inspiration for Robert and gave him the time to write a number of new songs. This motivation then brought Robert to reach out to the other three musicians, all of whom knew each other while performing on tour with other bands. This is the debut album for the group, which has been nominated for the German Record Critics Award for Blues. The other nominees include Joe Bonamassa, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Christone “Kingfish” Ingram. On tour now, they have also added American guitarist Ben Forrester to make a quintet. Julian Bergerhoff guests on piano and organ.
Their music is blues rock which they reference to the styles of The Rolling Stones, Tom Petty, The Black Crowes, Little Feat, and early Lynyrd Skynyrd. The album rocks out with an obvious tip of the hat to the Stones on “Stony Rock” and perhaps a touch of Southern rock guitar with Bob’s raspy, but soulful, vocals. The music moves more solidly into a Southern rock sound as Bob addresses the “Change” as he is “sad and blue…you are gone for good”. “Scarecrow” features some nice slide guitar and an undertone of Bob’s harmonica moving into solid blues mode with a reference to “when the angel of death comes calling taking away a part of your life…open my eyes to see the saddest skies”.
“Make Me Try” starts in a slow groove as Bob sings to “please make me try one more time” as he tries to save a relationship. Midway through the song it shifts gears into an all-out rock beat and into a full-blown shout by Bob. Robert’s slide rips out again as Bob says he has got the “Awful Blues” “down deep inside”. Bob’s harmonica sets the tone for a sweet and bouncy “Fare Thee Well” as he begs her “to just tell me what is wrong, and I will make it right” and if not “I will just move along”.
“Second Floor” gets the funk going with a bit of a Little Feat groove mixed in. “Backdoor Man” is not to be confused with Willie Dixon’s song of the same name. This is an original song where he is hanging at her back door “waiting all night to lay your burden down, ain’t that right”.
“Sweet Charms” clearly has some of the Rolling Stones’ “Beast of Burden” sound as it begins but moves into a slightly quieter sound. But this sets up a move into the sole cover on the album, The Rolling Stones’ “Sway” from their Sticky Fingers album. The band delivers a solid version of the song. The album concludes with an acoustic ballad mixed with slide, “If You Get Lost” as Bob sings “Things aren’t the way they used to be. Friends are gone and passed away, now they won’t hurt me no more.”
The comparisons to the other bands that obviously have provided the inspiration for their sound is not to be negative. They have clearly learned from these bands, but they have combined that sound into something unique to the band. Bob provides solid vocals on every song and Robert’s guitar provides a distinctive sound while Artjom and Hanser provide a steady rhythm in well-written songs. They blend together into a band that certainly deserves recognition.
