BlueStoneIvoryBlog

Vacation Time!

Each year a couple of the BSI members takes a couple of weeks to go out of town on vacation. What do we do? This past week Rusty was out of town on a well deserved vacation in New Orleans with his family. Well, the band also had a gig scheduled at Bar Seventy-One. We do have an ace up our sleeve. Chris Rotsching, a music major and graduate of music, presently band and orchestra director at Indian Hill High School just loves to play with BlueStone Ivory and we love to have him sit in as well. In fact Chris will be sitting in for Gary this Saturday at the Tavern Owners Ball. Gary will be performing with the West Chester Symphony Orchestra at their annual fundraiser at the Marriott on Union Center Blvd. and will join BSI a little later in the evening.

It is comforting to know that someone with Chris' talent is usually available to help us out when we are in a pinch. Chris has helped us in the past and will more than likely sit in again in the future. Thanks Again for your help on both weekends Chris.

 
  
   
  

 

The second photo features Gary and Chris who happen to have cousin Tenor Saxophones. They are probably the only two Keilwerth Shadow tenors in Cincinnati area. Gary's is an older Tone King and Chris has the newer version SX90. These are technical terms...yes. But it means a lot to Gary and Chris. They really love their tenor sax's and it is a rare occasion when they are together on the same stage at the same time.

 

One other obstacle popped up in Rusty's absence. Who will sing "Slammin"? It is a popular song with the band and fans sooo Ted elected Gary as the fill in vocalist. We think he did himself proud. What do you think? Rusty still has the advantage! 

Here's the video of Gary's vocal interpretation of "Slammin".

Next weekend BlueStone Ivory will be at Jim & Jack's both Friday and Saturday nights. So mark your calenders.

For our complete schedule through July 2010 & directions to our gigs, or to listen to samplings of BlueStone Ivory or view hundreds of photos & now videos from past gigs go to www.BlueStoneIvory.com

If you are interested in booking BlueStone Ivory for a party, dance or wedding call Gary Rossignol. Phone 513-777-2402 or toll free 800-670-2402.

Email: Gary@BlueStoneIvory.com

We had fun at the VFW last Friday night

Last Friday night BlueStone Ivory played a "Pay It Forward" dance called the Cabin Fever Relieverat the VFW hall in Sharonville. We do this each year in exchange for the use of the hall to hold our monthly band practice throughout the year. They are so hospitable to us this is the least we can do. We had about 100 of our closest friends, family and loyal fans come out to dance the night away.

Speaking of Family...here is a video of Ted's brother Tim Donohoue on his birthday taking the stage. 

Oh yes...the crowd was loud, not necessarily in tune but they all had fun.

The VFW Hall headed up by Sherry Franks provided a lots of snacks, cash bar with low drink prices, conducted a split the pot worth a little over $100.00 and gave away at least 30 door prizes. All in all, everyone had a good time.

Saturday night was a special night for our drummer.

Keith, besides celebrating his birthday also, with his lovely wife Julie celebrated their wedding anniversary at Carlo & Johnny's.

Of course BSI (with the fantastic baking skills of Mary Jo Rossignol) provided the traditional birthday chocolate fudge brownie cake...that was absolutely indescribably delicious.

Rusty and Gary put their heads together to beat out Keith's original birthday card from last year. It was so funny Keith is still chuckling over it.

 Julie & Keith's evening was complete when Julie took the stage and sang "More Today Than Yesterday" with the band that she does soooo very well.

 

This weekend we are at one of our favorite clubs...Jim & Jack's on River Road where we always have a great time. So plan to stop by early for dinner. The food is excellent.

Don't forget to mark your calendars for next Saturday night March 27th at Princeton High School. BlueStone Ivory will be "in Concert" at Matthew Auditorium beginning at 7:00 PM. You can purchase your tickets on line at www.seatyourself.biz/princeton.

For our complete schedule through May 2010 & directions to our gigs, or to listen to samplings of BlueStone Ivory or view hundreds of photos & now videos from past gigs go to www.BlueStoneIvory.com

If you are interested in booking BlueStone Ivory for a party, dance or wedding call Gary Rossignol. Phone 513-777-2402 or toll free 800-670-2402.

Email: Gary@BlueStoneIvory.com

Who Shot the Bassman?

If you haven't heard the story yet, its very simple. Mark is trying for the ultimate publicity a BSI brother has ever achieved. He went so far as to get robbed point-blank and shot as well. Think it's scary? So did Mark. And especially his brand new bride Andi.

 
As the story goes. Andi and Mark were suppose to be on a little getaway in NYC. A slight mix up with the airline tickets and they were left back in Indianapolis clearing out a few last minute things of Marks and finally call Newport KY home.

They ended up late and hungry so they decided to walk to their favorite neighborhood restaurant the Pepper Pod for a little late dinner. It's 1:15 am and they are walking home when out of nowhere this "Perp" snuck up behind them, demanded Marks money, grabbed him behind the neck by his collar and dragged him down this alley and the gun went off. The bullet grazed his neck, entered the top of his shoulder and made a clean exit out the top of his back.

What a lucky guy to have someone like Andi stick with him and not faint. They took a quick trip to the hospital, cleaned the wounds, gave their report to the police and went home. I listened to the news the next day. Channel 19 only mentioned an attempted robbery with a non life threatening gunshot wound a block from a local restaurant in Newport Ky.

That is about all the publicity Mark got...darn it! I'm sure he was trying for so much more than that. He was on stage with us the following night at Carlo & Johnny. What a trouper. We are all super glad this "Perp" was a lousy shot. This will definitely be a great story to tell the grandkids someday.

Is Everyone Ready for Spring?

We are. And to kick things off with a big bang BlueStone Ivory will be playing the annual Cabin fever Reliever Dance at Sharonville's VFW Hall at 3318 East Sharon Rd on March 12.

We play this dance each year as a BIG Thank you to the kind folks at the VFW Hall. They welcome us in to rehearse there throughout the year. Without the VFW hall we would have a very difficult time putting together all the new tunes that we bring to you each year.

You will be able to dance the night away beginning at 8:00 pm right up to 12:00 midnight. The VFW Hall will charge a modest cover of $8.00 that will include chips, pretzels, cash bar, low drink prices and door prizes.

So please come out and enjoy the night. Every dollar you spend helps say Thank You for allowing us to have a safe, clean accomodating facility to practice.

For our complete schedule through May 2010 & directions to our gigs, or to listen to samplings of BlueStone Ivory or view hundreds of photos & now videos from past gigs go to www.BlueStoneIvory.com

If you are interested in booking BlueStone Ivory for a party, dance or wedding call Gary Rossignol. Phone 513-777-2402 or toll free 800-670-2402.

Email: Gary@BlueStoneIvory.com

Good bye Tim

It is with great sorrow to announce that our dear friend and loyal fan Tim O'Shea lost his battle with cancer on Sunday February 21, 2010.

His funeral of Christian burial will be Friday February 26 at 10:30 am at St Jude Church.

He has struggled for many many months but kept coming out to hear and dance to his favorite band BlueStone Ivory. In fact we have a video just a couple of posts back of Tim at Jim & Jack's dancing to his favorite song "Standing on Shaky Ground" just a few days after his last major surgery.

He was introduced to BSI by his brother Dennis and sister-in-law Tracy several years ago. Once he heard our music he became and instant fan and most gigs we could always count on looking out into the audience and see Tim.

We will greatly miss Tim as will all of his family and friends. He has many as evidenced at Radel Funeral home this afternoon. The place was packed. May God bless you and keep you forever.

 

 

On a lighter note...We would like to announce a special wedding that happened last Saturday afternoon somewhere in Northern Kentucky.

Our new base player and latest member into the brotherhood of BSI Mark Bertram married his love of his life Andrea (Andi) Feld.

They wouldn't tell us where the auspicious occasion was to take place for fear of all of us crashing the party...now where did they ever get that idea from? I didn't think he knew us quite that well. But Mark has some curious insight to many things and had us summed up rather quickly. That is why he fits in with us so well.

They left Cincinnati for New York City for a little jag away home before our crazy schedule begins starting in March. They are due back late on Friday in time for Mark to play at Carlo & Johnny this Saturday.

We are gearing up for very busy March and April. In fact we don't have any Friday or Saturday off in March. That's right! You will have plenty of opportunity to come out and see and hear BlueStone Ivory over the next 60 days.

We kick everything off playing at The Middletown Moose March 5 & 6. You do need to be a member to attend this engagement or you could be a guest of a member. If you find a member ask if you can join us one night that weekend.

Our next open engagement will be on March 12 at the VFW hall in Sharonville. This is an open dance from 8:00 pm till 12:00 am. We play this gig each year as a special thank you to the kind folks at the VFW hall for allowing us to practice there many times throughout the year. There will be an $8.00 cover charge that will include chips, pretzels, low drink prices and door prizes.

Then we will be back to Carlo & Johnny on Saturday March 13, Jim & Jack's on March 19 & 20, Guys n Dolls on the 26th and then on March 27th we play the concert at Princeton High School that got snowed out a few weeks ago.

For our complete schedule through May 2010 & directions to our gigs, or to listen to samplings of BlueStone Ivory or view hundreds of photos & now videos from past gigs go to www.BlueStoneIvory.com

If you are interested in booking BlueStone Ivory for a party, dance or wedding call Gary Rossignol. Phone 513-777-2402 or toll free 800-670-2402.

Email: Gary@BlueStoneIvory.com

Happy Birthday to You Crew...

In the last week we had a couple of very special birthdays. Last Thursday February 11th Dave Kastrup our fearless Crew leader and expert sound engineer better know as "Mongo" celebrated his birthday. This past Tuesday February 16th Doug, our second in command celebrated his. We always do it up right amongst the BSI brothers.

We had a special fudge brownie birthday cake (prepared by Mary Jo Rossignol) and Rusty & Gary designed a special birthday cards for the two of them and presented this all to them last Saturday at Jim & Jack's. The brownie cake was really GOOD.

Here they are, Doug & Dave. The musicians of BSI have to admit...these two are the best road crew/technicians a band could ever ask for. They are responsible for how good our sound comes out to you and how we look, lighting wise on stage. No magic can make us look really good...but they do the best they can. They are the first to show up at every gig and the last to leave. They unload, setup, and maintain all of our sound and lighting gear, plus drive everything to and from in our BIG Truck "Moby Dick".

THANKS GUYS, And Happy Birthday

We are at Guy's n Doll's this Friday night. We play from 9:00 pm till 1:00 am.

The concert at Princeton High School was rescheduled for March 27th.

For our complete schedule through April 2010 & directions to our gigs, or to listen to samplings of BlueStone Ivory or view hundreds of photos & now videos from past gigs go to www.BlueStoneIvory.com

If you are interested in booking BlueStone Ivory for a party, dance or wedding call Gary Rossignol. Phone 513-777-2402 or toll free 800-670-2402.

Email: Gary@BlueStoneIvory.com

Princeton Concert CANCELLED for tomorrow...

We will be rescheduling the Princeton High School concert for another date TBD soon. The weather got the best of us this weekend. We certainly didn't want to play to an empty theater and no one would expect you to come out into this bad weather for a show.

Belated birthdays are fun...at least I think they are. I'm proud of my age. My kids think I'm getting old but I still play Rock-n-Roll music and I don't let them forget that. So at 58 I'm doing really good.

Last Friday we publicly embarrassed Carol Schilling. She is one of our most loyal fans. It is a rare occasion that she miss one of our performances.

Her birthday was actually last Saturday January 30th but we weren't gong to see her then so we brought her on stage and announced it and gave her a special present from her favorite band.

And now here we are doing it again. We love you Carol. You keep coming back. In fact the funny thing is she was going to miss this concert. Her granddaughter was giving a very special recital and Carol needed to be there for that.

 

Next weekend we will be back at Jim & Jack's, one of our favorite places to play. So plan on coming there and having a nice dinner and then you can dance the night away to the Rock-n-Soul, Rhythm-n-Roll sounds of BlueStone Ivory.

For our complete schedule through April 2010 & directions to our gigs, or to listen to samplings of BlueStone Ivory or view hundreds of photos & now videos from past gigs go to www.BlueStoneIvory.com

If you are interested in booking BlueStone Ivory for a party, dance or wedding call Gary Rossignol. Phone 513-777-2402 or toll free 800-670-2402.

Email: Gary@BlueStoneIvory.com

BlueStone Ivory playing a benefit for Princeton High School

 

Princeton High School Yearbook Club is proud to present  - BlueStone Ivory in concert, February 6, 2010  at 7:00 pm.  This will take place at Princeton High School in Matthews Auditorium (11080 Chester Rd, Cincinnati, Ohio 45246).  All proceeds will benefit the Princeton High School Yearbook Club and help reduce the cost of yearbooks to the students.   Tickets are $10 for adults and $7 for students.

You can order tickets on line at  www.seatyourself.biz/princeton or purchase them at the door.

Here is a few minutes of what you might hear at Princeton high School next Saturday. This is compiled from Keehner Park concert last summer.

Thanks to all of our fans that came out to Putter II last Friday night they were very happy with our performance and the healthy turnout. We are in negotiations on our next date to play at Putters II. We will let you know when that will be.

For our complete schedule through April 2010 & directions to our gigs, or to listen to samplings of BlueStone Ivory or view hundreds of photos & now videos from past gigs go to www.BlueStoneIvory.com

If you are interested in booking BlueStone Ivory for a party, dance or wedding call Gary Rossignol. Phone 513-777-2402 or toll free 800-670-2402.

Email: Gary@BlueStoneIvory.com

 

 

This Blog is for you, Tim

This video is amazing. First of all I wanted to feature our dear friend Tim O'Shea who had major cancer surgery last Monday morning, being given huge doses of Chemo and came out to see and hear his favorite band BlueStone Ivory. He had just enough strength to get on the dance floor during his favorite song "Standing on Shaky Ground" by Delbert McClinton. He really has the moves for just getting out of the hospital...doesn't he?

It will also show you a BSI performance from my perspective on stage. I stand to Rusty's left just behind Ted. I video'd this during our performance last Friday night. It looks and sounds a little different from here?

We plan to dedicate this song to you Tim every time we play it. Our thoughts and our prayers are for you to have a speedy recovery. We hope you will soon be able stop the Chemo and be able to taste food again. May God bless you till we see you again soon we hope.

This weekend we are playing a double header. It starts on Friday night at a new club for BlueStone Ivory. Putters 2 Putt in Maineville. We hope to make this a regular stop throughout the club season.

Saturday we are at Carlo & Johnny in Montgomery. Small club but they like us and we like them. It is a mutual labor of love for all of us. Visit www.BlueStoneIvory.comfor all the details.

Hopefully we will be releasing our entire Summer schedule in a few weeks. I can give you a few hints of where we will be: June 6th a brand new festival for BSI, All Saints in Kenwood. Right next door to where BlueStone Ivory was born at Moeller HS. June 12 we are at St Maximilian in Liberty Township. June 24 we will be in Lawrenceburg for the their Music on the River concert series. July 9th at our favorite summer place Coney Island with JD Hughes and Sunday June 11 at the Mason Sunshine concert Series. Just to name a few. So stay tuned for more summer concert and festival updates.

We hope you all enjoy the BSI blog. We try to put an interesting point of view on our performance and the personalities of the members of BlueStone Ivory and our fans. If you have any suggestions...feel free to leave a comment by clicking on the comment button below.

For our complete schedule through April 2010 & directions to our gigs, or to listen to samplings of BlueStone Ivory or view hundreds of photos & now videos from past gigs go to www.BlueStoneIvory.com

If you are interested in booking BlueStone Ivory for a party, dance or wedding call Gary Rossignol. Phone 513-777-2402 or toll free 800-670-2402.

Email: Gary@BlueStoneIvory.com

Highlights from 2009

Off and on for the next couple of weeks I will provide some photos or video of some cherished moments of BlueStone Ivory for our fans. The following is a video Mary Jo took with my Panasonic DMC-ZS3 HD digital camera at Jim & Jack's on December 18, 2009. It features the legendary Mr Bob Wilson singing and playing one of my favorite Otis Redding songs "I've Been Lovin You Too Long".

The super good news is that Bob Wilson will be playing with us a couple times later in 2010. So for all you Bob Wilson fans...watch your email and our website for our Bob Wilson Alert.

Last Weekend we had a great time at Bar Seventy-One. In fact it was a capacity crowd. Too bad about the Bengals...but we definitely rocked the people till 1:30. Our good Friend Steve Scavo stopped in and sat in on the drums for Mustang Sally. Great job Steve.

 

Today is Karen's birthday...Happy Birthday Karen! She is always at our gigs. One of our many very loyal fans. This photo was taken last year of our birthday tribute for Karen.

If any one ever has a birthday or an anniversary and at one of our gigs be sure to come up and let us know. We would love to dedicate a song to you and publicly eembarrass you from the stage. Well not quite to this extent! But we promise to take care of your moment of fame with BlueStone Ivory.

We would like to send out a message to all of our friends to keep Tim O'Shea, another of our loyal fans in your prayers. He has been struggling with a bout of cancer this past year. He has been through Chemo and yesterday went through surgery to remove an infected lymph node in his liver. We were told the surgery was successful and he is back on Chemo. He is not out of the woods yet so all we can do is Pray for his speedy recovery. Prayer is powerful medicine. If anyone would like to get a message to Tim, just comment to this post and I will see that he gets it.

Be sure to come out to Jim & Jack's this Friday & Saturday nights. That is where you can dance the night away to the Rock-N-Soul, Rhythm-N-Roll sounds of BlueStone Ivory.

For our complete schedule through April 2010 & directions to our gigs, or to listen to samplings of BlueStone Ivory or view hundreds of photos & now videos from past gigs go to www.BlueStoneIvory.com

If you are interested in booking BlueStone Ivory for a party, dance or wedding call Gary Rossignol. Phone 513-777-2402 or toll free 800-670-2402.

Email: Gary@BlueStoneIvory.com

How're we lookin?

2010 looks like it will be a terrific year for BlueStone Ivory fans. We will be playing a bunch. Starting in January...every weekend, February...every weekend, March...every weekend and April...every weekend.

WOW! There is more opportunity to see and listen to BlueStone Ivory than ever before. You can go to our website www.BlueStoneIvory.com for all the details.

New Years Eve was a real blast according to all that attended. I personally got to talk to many of the attendees and the consensus was two thumbs up all the way around.

 
Here is a photo of the festivities from December 31, 2009 just before the clock struck 12:00 and it turned into 2010. The dance floor was full all night long right up to 1:20 AM New Years day when we finally stopped playing.

The food was excellent, the service was superb and the guest's...well, they were great BSI fans. Each and every one.

As many know... New Years Eve is a special day for Ted our guitar player/vocalist. It's his birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY again to Ted.

New Years Eve turned out to be an exceptionally special day for another couple. Mark Walker and his girl friend Kerstin got engaged just before the festivities happened on the stage.

 Here is a short video showing off her sparkly ring.

We would like to wish them well in the future. Mark is our third guy on the crew that we use exclusively when we play the larger venues that call for a three man crew. Off & on during the summer you will see Mark working to help set up and then responsible for our lighting during the show.

This weekend we are at Bar Seventy-One in Deerfield Township. We start playing at 9:30 and play till 1:30 AM. Bar Seventy-One will be open for the Bengals game and are running a few specials they would like you to know about. They will have Drink and Appetizer Specials all afternoon during the big game. So come early, enjoy a great dinner and then you can dance the night away to the Rock-N-Soul, Rhythm-N-Roll sounds of BlueStone Ivory.

For our complete schedule through April 2010 & directions to our gigs, or to listen to samplings of BlueStone Ivory or view hundreds of photos & now videos from past gigs go to www.BlueStoneIvory.com

If you are interested in booking BlueStone Ivory for a party, dance or wedding call Gary Rossignol. Phone 513-777-2402 or toll free 800-670-2402.

Email: Gary@BlueStoneIvory.com