The City Of St. George continues their Concert in the Park Series 2008 with R.B.Stone on Monday, May 12, 2008 at 7:30 pm at Vernon Worthen Park.

R.B. Stone’s life is, in a word, “Americana.” Born in Huntingburg, Indiana, R.B. graduated from Kenton High School in Kenton, Ohio. Shortly thereafter he hired onto a 90-man railroad work gang, laying quarter-mile lengths of rail across the Midwest, living in camp cars. After two years he went to work as a manager for a plumbing, electric and heating company and, after three years of that he assessed his life. “I had acquired two cars, two trucks, two motorcycles and a house. And I was not happy. “So,” he says, “I sold everything except one truck, a shotgun, some clothes, a guitar and a songbook and headed west to Colorado to become a cowboy.”

Along the way, driving from Vail to Durango, R.B. met an old cowboy from Texas who was riding a horse thru the mountains. “I started hanging with him awhile later in Ignacio, Colorado. For two years he taught me how to green break and train horses while I slept in my truck or the tack room. I’d learn horses during the day and taught myself to play guitar at night.”

He became skilled enough at both horses and music that he was hired to wrangle horses and pack people in the mountains on hunting and camping trips. At night on these trips R.B. would entertain them as they sat around the campfire. He even got to take John Denver up for four days. “I thought I was in heaven,” he recalls, “having horses and the Rockies by day and music by night. Then I got laid off after some cancellations, so I set up shop playing in a small mountain bar for tips, meals and a place to sleep.

“On Middle Mountain at Vallecito Lake, Colorado, I rode a horse I was breaking for 11 hours one day and found we were doing some Man From Snowy Mountain stunts for real — bucking on and off all day and running full-speed down the mountain. “I will never forget that day,” he adds, “and that’s why I named my music company ‘Middle Mountain Music.’”

R.B. eventually put together a band and, he says, “I never looked back. “Well, actually,” he confesses, “I didn’t look back but I did make a side trip into trying to be a rodeo cowboy riding bareback and saddle broncs, but a few broken bones convinced me to get back on track with music.”

He moved to Nashville and, unsuccessful there, on to California. There he met and partnered with Gwen Gordy, of the Motown Gordy dynasty. Through her, some of his song catalog was eventually sold to EMI and, for them, he went back to Nashville to produce some new albums for himself and some music for EMI.

Loving travel, he became a jet pilot between music tours “and it was the perfect way to feed my gypsy blood,” he explains. “I did this after I began entertaining military pilots and Northwest Airlines crews in Japan. I got to fly Lear and Hawker Jets for a while. That was a treat.”

Since he left the mountains — and entertaining across the US and in 30 countries — R.B. Stone has recorded 12 albums, won numerous awards and performed with many fine artists, including: Suzy Bogguss, The Marshall Tucker Band, Trisha Yearwood, Charlie Daniels, Billy Dean, Earl Thomas Conley, Sawyer Brown, Rob Crosby, Johnny Rodriguez, Martina McBride, Mel McDaniel, David Frizzell, the Burrito Brothers and the late Chris LeDoux.

R.B. Stone’s music has been played around the world; he’s won several awards (among these a songwriting award from Billboard) and praise from his professional peers. He says, “I am now gearing up for the second half of my career. I’ve seen a lot of the world but still want to see more and have more. I vow to play, write and tour until I die. “It’s what I am and it needs to be expressed.”

R.B. Stone is Americana — his story is unique to America

Sponsored by the City of St. George and funded in part by a grant from the Utah Arts Council, Concert in the Park 2008 Series is free to the public. Don’t miss the second Monday of each month through September. Park seating is available, bring blankets, lawn chairs, food and the family. For more information call 634-5942.