Now based in Traverse City after years in Grand Rapids, Stover is recording a new studio album and literally writing ‘365 Songs for 365 People.’ He plays Elk Brewing on Thursday.
Gigging ‘Constantly’: Stovepipe Stover and his one-man band apparatus are back in Grand Rapids this week.
THE ARTIST: Stovepipe Stover
WHAT HE PLAYS: One-man band folk and punk with a hint of country
WHERE YOU CAN SEE HIM: 8 p.m. Thursday at Elk Brewing in Grand Rapids
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Armed with a guitar, bells, whistles, harmonica and his “one-man band contraption,” Traverse City’s Stovepipe Stover deftly uncorks a rich and diverse musical stir all on his own.
“It’s a mix of Tom Waits-ian folk and punk, with some very subtle country influences here and there,” suggests Stover, whose distinctive music leans heavily on a device called the Farmer BackBeat.
“I play this drum with my two feet, and connect the snare drum to my guitar neck via a string. I also add a bit of piano, banjo and whatever weird stuff works.”
Weird, maybe, but Stover (aka, Justin Stover) has made a career out of his one-man band – or one-beard band – approach the past two years.
Recording ‘Weird, Spooky Stuff’ With a Heart: Stover
He’s in the midst of recording a new solo album at Matt Ten Clay’s Amber Lit Audio in Grand Rapids as well as writing and releasing a song a day for donors who’ve contributed online to his “365 Songs for 365 People” Kickstarter project.
A native of Maine who lived in Grand Rapids for 14 years before he and his fiancé bought “a little cabin in the hills of Traverse City” in 2013, Stover proudly notes that one-man bands have a “very rich history” across the globe dating back to the Middle Ages.
“It was an integral part of Vaudevillian performance in America,” he says. “It is starting to come back, slowly but surely.”
Those curious about Stover’s unusual one-man show can watch him perform at 8 p.m. Thursday at Elk Brewing, 700 Wealthy St. SE, in Grand Rapids. Beaumont Chateau, a budding new Grand Rapids indie-folk-rock band is also on the bill. (Check out video of one of his one-man band performances below.)
As part of his mission to promote one-man bands, Stover also has assisted Traverse City-based Farmer Foot Drums, which creates “portable foot-played drum kits” and accessories. It’s owned by Pete “Farmer” Kaynor, who relocated to Traverse City from Seattle, Wash., a couple of years ago.
A number of renowned artists have played the instruments, including Les Claypool of Primus, Christian Wargo of Fleet Foxes, G. Love, J.J. Grey and Laura Love.
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Stover’s fondness for genre- and instrument-mixing is partly the result of growing up in Maine amid a rich, eclectic musical environment, listening to The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Loving Spoonful as a kid, followed by the punk of The Replacements, Husker Du and The Lemonheads, the grunge of Nirvana, and eventually singer-songwriters such as Tom Waits, Jolie Holland, Josh Ritter and Warren Zevon.
“As far as instruments, I learned to play a lot of them because my dad was a music teacher. He was always bringing different instruments home,” he recalls.
Learning a Lot of Instruments at a Young Age: Stover
But he concedes that mastering his one-man band contraption “took a lot of practice. I spent about three months practicing daily, often up to eight hours a day.”
Since then, however, he’s “played out constantly – lots of Michigan shows, but I have also toured from Michigan to Maine and have very gratefully developed a loyal, growing following in these travels.”
A landscaper during the summer months to supplement his income, Stover is otherwise a full-time musician who also teaches songwriting, plays “street corners” and is working to write music for businesses, film and television. And through “Stovepipe Music,” he’ll write songs for anyone who asks: “They come up with the topic, I write the song.”
While he’s committed to his one-man project, he’s performed occasionally as a duet with musical pals from Grand Rapids such as Mat Churchill, Nathan Kalish, Benjamin Riley, Kyle Rasche of Chain of Lakes and others. “I do like having complete creative control, and let’s be honest, I want to make some money at this and it was always hard to do so when I played with bands,” says Stover, who’s released a handful of recordings over the years.
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He’s also pleased with the welcoming nature of the Traverse City music scene, particularly for acoustic music and “singer-songwriter types.”
“Folk music is huge in northern Michigan. My music isn’t just folk and has an enormous amount of punk influence and such, as that’s the kind of music I love,” he says. “But still, I do play mostly acoustic music, so there is a natural connection to folk music.”
As for his upcoming new album, “Love in the Time of Satanic Panic,” it’s “very much” a one-man band project with “more of the punk influence” shining through.
“It’s a bunch of love songs, stories featuring grotesque characters and situations,” he says. “You know, there’s a song about a satanist with a broken heart, a proper British woman whose husband leaves her to live in a cave with hippies, vagrants who get frisky in a graveyard. Weird, spooky stuff, but with a heart.”
VIDEO: Stovepipe Stover, “Half-Assed Revolution”
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