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Andy Stokes - Rhythm AND BluesArticle by Rose Allen, CBA BluesNotes, January 2006 Photos by Greg Johnson |
I am certain that if you look into the Soul of Portland, you will find Andy Stokes…among other things. Yes, Portland definitely has got its Soul side. A sampling can be tasted every Sunday night inside the Candlelight on the south end of the city, near the PSU campus. This particular show has been going on every Sunday night now for the past five years. For any club, especially one that espouses selling Blues, that’s a pretty long winning streak. The club is, without a doubt, one of the more consistently energetic venues in town. “Light on hip but heavy on cool, a welcome anomaly in Portland…the crowd is diverse, covering all ages, colors and creeds” as described this past summer by Willy Week’s David Muller.
The Candlelight is a whole ‘nother story in and of itself. I’ve been conducting research there for a few years now. It is definitely one of Portland’s darkest clubs, creating an atmosphere that allows for a great deal of carrying on in the deep recesses of the dance floor. The small club is often packed tight, especially on weekends, which provides excuse for both intentional and unintentional body contact. The dance floor, the stage, the pool hall, it all just kind of flows together in this unconscious stream of consciousness. The place certainly has a unique energy. Connections are made here for a single night or for a lifetime. Personal counseling takes place alongside competition among pool sharks. If Pioneer Courthouse Square is Portland’s Living Room, then the Candlelight is its sunken den – that dimly lit room, which features a black leather make-out couch. Talk about bump and grind, you’d think this were its birthplace. Sunday nights seem to be the most “happening” – a definite correlation to the music being proffered. Andy’s tunes add fuel to the fire. With original songs such as: Cut the Drama, Do You Wanna? Dress Code, Fade my Way, Get Back With You and I Don’t Give a Damn. These repetitive, grooving lyrics serve to further draw people into the scene. I would bet that the Candlelight is regularly the busiest venue in Portland on Sunday nights, with its R & B, funk scene. It’s a fine mix of young and old, and it works.
The club has been owned by Joe Shore for 21years now, with live music offered seven nights a week. How many clubs can pull that off successfully? I asked Joe for his take on Andy: “He loves what he’s doing. Andy would rather be on stage than on break. He loves to entertain; he’s enthusiastic and professional. For Andy, it’s not just a job; he loves the music. He’s one hard-working entertainer.”
Andy Stokes spent his formative years moving between Danville, Virginia, where he was born, and Germany, where his father was frequently relocated while in the Army. When I asked Andy if he could speak any German, he responded with words that I could not understand. He also went on to explain additional education he gained while in the country. “I basically grew up over there.” Some of that involved experiences as a teen: his first kiss at 13, along with other “schooling” by German women. I suggested it might be inappropriate to include too much detail in this publication.
A football scholarship brought him to the Great Northwest in 1975, where he has resided ever since. His favored position was running back; he tells me he’s fast. Andy was recently honored with induction into the Junior College Football of Fame through his skills on the Mt. Hood Community College field.
He described his family, now located in the Tacoma area, as “all-Army, jocks – all sports.” “There was some music in the household in the form of record albums: Temptations, Percy Sledge, Aretha Franklin, Sylistics and such. I’d just be in my room with my back leaning against the hi-fi, using the broomstick as a mic.” Though Andy claims that he never intentionally set out to perform music, he sort of “fell into it.” “Sure, I sang around the house. I especially enjoyed the sounds of James Brown and Stevie Wonder.”
After being in Portland for a while, “I was hanging out with some friends at this place in Beaverton called the Chase Lounge on this particular Thursday night. A deejay was spinning some tunes; there was no one in the club. I got up there and just made up some words. That was the first time I ever sang in front of anyone. I went back the next night, which was Friday. The deejay announced ‘This singer just got back from performing in Las Vegas!’ I was looking around to see who it was. The guy was talking about me! So I went into the deejay both and sang Ring My Bell. I was nervous as hell! The owner asked if I would ad lib to some songs. He paid me a hundred dollars. So I did that for a couple months.”
“Ben Wolf (now with Harry Connick, Jr.) asked if I wanted to join a band and we formed Night Life. One of the other guys in the band was Ron Reagan, who now plays with Five Guys Named Moe. We played together for about a year. Tony Collins, who was with the group Pleasure, heard me sing one night when we were playing at O’Connors. Tony formed Lights Out and I joined him. When I was asked to join their band, I was really thrilled because I had the Pleasure albums at home that I listened to. I was honored to be a part of them. Here I had never even sung and I was playing with these guys! This was in the early 1980s. Other band members from Night Life formed Cool’R; I played with them for a while too. In 1989, Cool’R was signed with A & M Records. I was with that band until 1991. From there, I went solo.”
“While I was in Japan performing with Cool’R, I was approached by Charlie Wilson and George Clinton, who I sat with at dinner. We were in Tokyo, performing with different bands. I damned near had stage fright! These guys are listening to me! Wilson had some money and asked if I wanted to do a solo project. So this guy starts sending me money and hooked me up with people out of San Francisco. He flew me down there and I recorded a song called Test of Time with a label out of Atlanta. It was played on the radio and just took off. It made the Top 10 on the charts; that was 1992.” I asked Andy exactly which charts: “Billboard.” I was impressed.
“After returning to Portland, I was in this radio interview with Z100. They had put out an album with some of the Trail Blazers who performed to raise money for the Blues & Girls Club. The station called and asked if I had a song to contribute. They played Test of Time on the air and the phones lit up. It was a funk tune that was written by these two Jewish guys! That’s how I gained my notoriety. So, I put a band together and enjoyed the popularity. Then after a while, age caught up. I took a break for a couple years. From there, I started the Andy Stokes Band until 1996. Then I took another few years off, and started up again in 2000.” During his “time off” Andy traveled mostly and visited family in Virginia. And worked. Andy explains that he is employed in the area of customer service. Most recently, he earned his real estate license.
I asked Andy whether he has done any other recordings. There is a cd called Tell Me What You Like, with ASB Records. The band has recorded two live cds, Live at Bacchus I, followed by Turn Up the J (Jam) Set. These are available for purchase thru Andy at the shows. 
As far as the band itself, Rusty Cox serves as the band’s drummer. He also provides for an additional, distinctive vocal style that further broadens the range of the band. Andy was initially surprised when he found out that Rusty could sing. When I asked for his interpretation, Andy explained, “Rusty’s got his own style, it’s goovin, hip hop, R & B.” They have been performing together some twenty years, since the Cool’R days. “We toured in Japan 1989 for almost six months. Rusty came back home, I came back home and was going to take a break. Everybody encouraged me to continue. The only one around here was Linda (Hornbuckle); there were no other R & B bands. It was kind of like my Second Coming. The whole generation that saw me in Cool’R had grown up. I was sort of nervous at first; that was in 1999-2000.”
“Then Rusty tells me about this killer keyboard player from Detroit; I had no idea who he was. After I heard Craig Stevenson play, it was a done deal. I thought he was phenomenal.” Bass player Randy Monroe is the newest band member. “He played a couple of years with Linda’s band. Randy and I used to play together in Lights Out – that was the second band I was ever in.” Andy feels that Randy was the missing link. “As far as being a funk band, drums and bass are the key.”
If the Candlelight room is a little more than you care to handle, Andy Stokes Band also performs on occasion at Bacchus in Vancouver and occasionally at the Liquid Lounge in Seattle. Last year, they placed first in a Battle of the Bands competition in that city.
Andy has also performed with Curtis Salgado, Linda Hornbuckle, and New Shooz locally, along with Michael Bolton, George Clinton, Connie Stevens, Temptations, Stylistics and others on a broader scale. Additionally, he was voice for one of the famous California Raisin characters, developed at Will Vinton Studios. It was a CBS special in 1989, called “Meet the Raisins.” Now, how many artists can say they have been able to interpret the voice of a piece of fruit?
Finally, I asked Andy about his involvement with the Ray Charles Tribute, which was initially performed at this summer’s Waterfront Blues Festival. “Patrick Lamb came up with the idea; I was the first person he called. He said, ‘If anyone can do Ray Charles, that’s you. You have to do this.’ He paired me with Duffy (Bishop), my favorite female singer. I’m her groupie because I just love her stage presence, and to get to do the duet with her? That was it for me! I’m telling you, I love Duffy Bishop. We had one practice before the festival performance, and then we went out and did it. We’ve since performed a couple of shows, one for the Oregon Food Bank, and another for the Trail Blazers. The Ray Charles Tribute received a Muddy Award for Performance of the Year. I never thought I would ever get anything dealing with the Blues; I’m not really considered a Blues singer. I told Peter Dammann, ‘If I don’t sing another note, I’m the happiest man in the world.’” There are some twenty performers in the Tribute Band.
It certainly appears that Andy is comfortable out front as bandleader to his fellow performers. I asked about that: “It took some time. When I was in Cool’R, I hadn’t known anything about the biz; those guys taught me: Tony Collins, Nate Phillips, Ben Wolf. They were the ones. Also, a guy by the name of James Heffner heard me sing at the Rodeo Club – I was getting hoarse all the time. He taught me Italian Opera techniques for a month and I’ve never been hoarse since. I haven’t seen him again in 25 years. I feel very blessed because my voice never gets tired because of what he taught me.” Andy is looking to embark on being a vocal teacher as a next phase in his life; he already has a couple of students.
There is quite a bit Andy wants to do in the upcoming years, and feels he can’t be performing forever. Whatever Andy Stokes ends up doing, he’s served as a positive influence on many. We are certainly grateful for his contributions to the music of this city.