During the winter months (when tour schedules typically slow down), Stoney Creek was offered the opportunity to play a hometown show once a month at Thelma’s Restaurant in Hedgesville, West Virginia. This location, under different ownership, had been home to the band during its early days. The restaurant proved to be a key venue for trying out new material and building a local fan base during the band’s formative years. The building was closed for an extended period of time, until Thelma’s Family Restaurant moved into the location in mid-2010. When Thelma’s expressed interest bringing Stoney Creek back to the reopened venue, the band decided to finally record a long-awaited live album.
Stoney Creek recorded portions of five shows during the winter months of 2010 and 2011. The band was left with over eleven hours of potential material, and they soon began selecting the best performances to use for a live album. Stoney Creek also used these shows to introduce several new gospel songs to their show. These songs were set aside for an upcoming gospel project that will also feature several studio tracks.
Stoney Creek hopes to have the live album available by late summer, although no release dates have been scheduled yet for the live album or the gospel project.
In addition to a busy show schedule this summer, Stoney Creek is also selecting material for the official studio follow-up to 2010′s “Hot Off the Press” album. “Hot Off the Press” was Stoney Creek’s breakthrough album and featured the band’s energetic versions of several standards and older bluegrass covers. Stoney Creek has been preparing several original tunes as well as selecting a few lesser known covers for the next studio album.
Stoney Creek’s tour schedule and details about the upcoming projects can be found at stoneycreekbluegrass.net.