Stoney LaRue to visit Columbia for tour

Stoney LaRue said he is proud of the progression of his career.

By Kristin Torres

Published Feb. 19, 2008

If there’s one metaphor for where Stoney LaRue has been and where he’s going, it’s his latest gain: a shiny new tour bus.

It’s made his old means of hitting the road obsolete: a less-than-impressive, dusty Chevy 15-seater with lackluster rims and splashed with a drab coat of white paint.

The Chevy is for sale for $9,000 on his MySpace page.

The bus has an operational toilet.

“Imagine not having to stop and take a piss break every five minutes,” LaRue said with a laugh.

Along with the toilet, the new bus comes equipped with a television, a DVD player and a refrigerator that can hold plenty of the Vienna sausages that LaRue once had to make pit stops at gas stations for.

But sausages aside, the new bus means something more for LaRue.

“There’s a huge difference in morale,” he said.

While LaRue has established a name for himself in the Red Dirt music community that finds its base in Stillwater, Okla., and though he’s racked up some help from the likes of Willie Nelson, LaRue has yet to become an immediately recognizable name in country music.

“It never really came as a ‘big break,’” LaRue said. “It’s been very constant and driven.”

Slow and steady as it might be, LaRue has come pretty far from singing into a Mr. Microphone radio at age three.

He said he’s always followed the music and where it takes him, even when it meant having to hold a day job.

A roofer, a deck builder, a police dispatcher and an Oklahoma State University business law student, LaRue had to wear many hats before strapping on the (really sweaty) trademark bandana he now wears on stage.

If it paid the bills, LaRue signed on.

“I just wanted to play music,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to sing and play music. I did it to anyone who would listen. But it took a while before I could rely on it solely.”

LaRue finally got his shot when he was old enough to grow the scraggly sideburns he still sports and play the bar scene.

“It’s been going uphill since I turned 21, and I

could play at a bar,” LaRue said. “Ever since then, you know,

it’s just been a trip.”

Born in Taft, Texas, but raised in southeastern Oklahoma, LaRue keeps his music and its style close to home, even while on the road across the country for close to 300 dates a year.

Though he’s split bills with names like Lee Ann Womack, he remains remarkably grounded.

Six years ago, LaRue fronted The Organic Boogie Band and released an album that was about as grassroots as it could get.

Recorded live in Tulsa and mixed “on a side of this cliff in a trailer that belonged to my buddy’s buddy,” the album helped establish LaRue as a vocal force and garner the respect of his peers.

Today, he’s out of the trailer and in a legitimate studio.

Working on his newest album, tentatively set for release this summer, LaRue doesn’t plan on cleaning up his sound any time soon.

“We’re diligently perfecting material right now,” he said. “But perfect in a jam band sort of situation. It’s kind of messy. It’s definitely not cookie-

cutter.”

LaRue said his crowd can expect an energetic evening with a generous slice of Stillwater sound for his performance at Mojo’s on Saturday.

“We’re gonna give them something to listen to and something to think about at the same time,” he said. “Bring an open mind and empty koozies.”