Kevin's seventh and latest Americana album, released in May, 2020. Purchase also includes digital download of Twilight Town.
Includes unlimited streaming of Twilight Town
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 2 days
Purchasable with gift card
$15USDor more
about
Black Diamond was a brand of guitar strings. Cheap guitar strings with a tensile strength roughly equivalent to fence wire. (Disclaimer: Black Diamond has changed with the times and makes very high quality strings these days!) Nearly every kid guitar player who grew up in my era (and before) was familiar with them because they could be found just about anywhere; the corner drug store, the five and dime, etc. If you were like me and lived miles away from a real music store, that was pretty handy, as were the callouses you developed by using them. This song was inspired by my own 1953 Gibson Southern Jumbo. I recently bought it from a former guitar student. Her dad bought it from the original owner, a man named Ray, which also happens to be the name of the fictional protagonist in this song. This song is a shout out to the unsung heroes of my dad’s WWII generation, the original owners of my guitar who took such good care of it and the fine American craftsmen who built it.
lyrics
He came from Alabama, no banjo on his knee
He had a beat up Gibson made in 1953
He came north to work the graveyard shift in a rust belt factory
Til him and Mogan David lost that job
So he wandered to a little town, doing odd jobs for his pay
He’d save a little money then he’d drink it all away
He’d talk about his buddy who he lost in 44
Who never even made it to the shore
He never had much money but the one thing that he had
Was a gift for playing guitar that he picked up from his dad
He’d play for folks at Christmas in department stores downtown
And they would come for miles to hear that sound
He could make it talk, he could make it sing
He could make those old Black Diamonds ring
He could make it laugh, he could make it whine
He could make those old Black Diamonds shine
And the world seemed like a brighter place
When Ray would open up his case
“You could make it on the Opry” folks would often say
He’d just smile and shake his head and turn the other way
“You belong in Nashville, down on Music Row”
But he’d always mumble something about St. Lo
Instrumental
He lived behind the hardware store in a room they let him use
He was master of the fretboard but he never beat the booze
Sometimes I’d sit and listen underneath his window sill
Late at night when all the streets were still
He could make it talk, he could make it sing
He could make those old Black Diamonds ring
He could make it laugh, he could make it whine
He could make those old Black Diamonds shine
And the world seemed like a finer place
When Ray would open up his case
from Twilight Town,
released May 6, 2020
Ed “Pee Wee Charles” Ringwald: pedal steel guitar
Kevin Stonerock: lead vocals, acoustic guitar, bass and baritone guitars,
Produced by Gabriel Stonerock and Kevin Stonerock
Recording Engineers: Jeff Monroe, Group Effort Studio, Erlanger, KY
Ben Kempel, Among The Hung Studio, Conestoga, Ontario, Canada
Mixed by Jeff Monroe
Mastered by Dan Murphy
Photos and Design: Andy Carr
Songwriter and master storyteller Kevin Stonerock is a product of the Midwest, born and raised in a small town 40 miles east
of Indianapolis. He was Americana before the word became a staple in the music lexicon—an amalgamation of traditional country and roots rock, with the sensibilities and lyricism of a folk artist....more
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