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STUNT ROAD 20 YEARS LATER
STUNT ROAD, the San Fernando Valley's Premier Classic Rock Jam Band, has re-invented itself several times during its 20 year history. From Classic Rock Band to Grateful Dead Tribute Band (there were seven such bands in Los Angeles County alone at one point!), and now to Classic Rock Jam Band, the blending of the east and west coasts, and all of the music of its past.
Known for its almost infinite variety of musical styles, the band will cover Rock (Jimi Hendrix, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, Traffic, The Doors), Rock and Roll (Chuck Berry), British Invasion (Beatles, Rolling Stones), Progressive Rock (Steely Dan, Frank Zappa), Blues (Steve Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, Allman Brothers), Psychedelia (Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd), New Orleans (James Crawford), Jazz (Miles Davis), Soul (James Brown), Reggae (Bob Marley), Country (Merle Haggard, Hank Williams Jr., Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins), Fusion, Ballads, Fifties, Surf, Spiritual, and much more!
Much of Stunt Road's history can be gleamed from its extensive media coverage, having been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Daily News, Glendale News Press, Ventura County Star, and many other publications. A 1999 article from the Los Angeles Times appears below:
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FROM THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
May 21, 1999
Grateful Revival
Deadhead Songs are not fading away as Stunt Road plays in Simi Valley
By BILL LOCEY
Special to The Times
They may not look much like Deadheads, but the five dudes in Stunt Road can play like the Grateful Dead - probably even better - and that's the general idea.
The band, whose own long strange trip began almost 15 years ago - or about as long as a Dead version of "Sugar Magnolia" - will be at Season Ticket in Simi Valley tonight.
The Grateful Dead, the world's best party band, stopped in the county a few times. The first time was in 1982, when about 13,000 Deadheads met about three cops. Their last gig a few years later featured about 13,000 cops who treated the love-in like an outbreak of cholera, handing out jaywalking tickets by the ton.
The Ventura City Council and the Fair Board were later convinced that the Deadheads were not, in fact, the right kind of tourists for the Poinsettia City. Exit the Dead around here.
Enter Stunt Road, named for a party spot in the Santa Monica Mountains off Mulholland Highway. The band lineup has changed as often as the lunch crew at McDonald's. The current version includes Andy Roth on lead guitar, founding member and lead singer Mark Watson ..boards, Tom Atkins on rhythm guitar, Dave Nelson on drums and John Oestman on bass.
Stunt Road started gaining popularity after Jerry Garcia died in 1995, which was shortly after Watson decided to make the group a Dead-friendly band. Since all those swirling Deadheads still needed a soundtrack when Phish wasn't around, they began playing regularly at the Cobalt Cafe in Canoga Park and Pelican's Retreat in Calabasas.
Season Ticket, which sits between Rite-Aid and Vons in a shopping center, is a neighborhood sports bar with a fair-sized dance floor, pool tables and lots of televisions.
Even though there's not a herd of VW vans in the parking lot, Season Ticket becomes the Deadhead center of the county a few times a month when Stunt Road plays there.
"It's a neighborhood sports bar, so we get the regulars, plus we get some people in tie-dyed shirts," Roth said. "We're really glad we're so well-received there. During our last gig, a couple of guys were shopping next door at Vons next to Season Ticket and just happened to hear a Dead song as they drove by."
The boys in the band have done their homework. Atkins has seen the Dead about 200 times, Roth about 20 times, with Watson somewhere in between. The band knows upwards of 120 songs, with 70 or 75 Dead songs. For example, the Deadhead version of "Not Fade Away" got the Season Ticket bartender dancing on the bar, and it wasn't even 10 o'clock yet.
"All of us were, at one time, very much into the band, and we travelled around and followed the Dead," Roth said. "The music is very good and there's a lot of variety. We could go for two or three nights and not repeat any songs. It's a hit - sometimes there's 70 people still there at closing time."
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