The Blackstones

There is two bands by the name The Blackstones. 1. A mid-60s Chicago-area beat combo. 2. Behind every indie rock band is a story... And I suppose, ours is similiar to others. The Blackstones were initially birthed out of the dusty remains of a band called ?The Tremolo Cowboys?. Which was fronted by yours truly, (Aaron LaMere) and whose members included myself, Michael Salinas, Bobby Love, and Keith Young. Three of the closes friends I ever had in the world...

1. A mid-60s Chicago-area beat combo.

2. Behind every indie rock band is a story...

And I suppose, ours is similiar to others.
The Blackstones were initially birthed out of the dusty remains of a band called ?The Tremolo Cowboys?. Which was fronted by yours truly, (Aaron LaMere) and whose members included myself, Michael Salinas, Bobby Love, and Keith Young. Three of the closes friends I ever had in the world...

At some point, as The Tremolo Cowboys we put out a cd... and it got a lot of great reviews and even generated some label interest and some national attention. So we went on some small tours and then disbanded just as our families lives were falling apart back home. A couple of years later, after things had calmed down a bit, we got back together and started playing again.

We reformed as ?The Blackstones? in 2005 using a collection of old members from The Cowboys and some new members also. In 2006 we released an obviously homemade sounding demo/record called ?The Legend of Simon Peter'. Shortly after our first record release guitar player Bobby Love who had been a member of both The Cowboys and The Blackstones dropped out of the band to pursue other interests and ended up playing with another great West Coast band called ?Telecast'.

My close friend Michael Salinas and I went on writing songs and playing with different musicians and with the help of our close friends CJ Pickett, and Max Taylor released a record in December of 2006 (The Blackstones EP). This new line-up would end up being the line-up that most people have known as ?The Blackstones'.

The Blackstones EP, more kind reviews, and a few tours that followed gave us a lot more regional attention but really, didn't quite do what it would have taken to keep us busy enough to call ourselves a ?fulltime' band anymore... and being such, The Blackstones disbanded while I moved to Nashville with my family for a short time to pursue other songwriting and career goals.

After being in Nashville for a very short time, my wife and I both realized that we hated being so far away from our families so we moved back home to the Pacific Northwest. The band didn't immediately begin playing with one another and at the time of this writing still hasn't really re-emerged as a true band. though we all remain close friends.

What did happen?:

After coming back home in 2007, I decided to release a solo project and began writing and collecting songs for a new project or projects... I'm working on that record now.... and as I've been working on the new record a host of opportunities to play local live shows has come up so the band has decided to back me up at many of these local shows. Thus, we are now practicing and will be out on the road as ?Aaron LaMere and The Blackstones'. The boys and I are playing a collection of new songs from the solo project as well as old songs from The Blackstones catalog.

I also end up playing a select grouping of local shows alone on an acoustic guitar or piano as ?Aaron LaMere'.

That's probably enough info for even the closest of our followers or those wondering why we play under three different names, etc... I'm sure to have left something out of course...
In any case, that's the rundown.

A new name, a new record coming, new shows... and a bit of a re-emergence from an old friend.

This bio could be re-written every 6 months it seems...

Love to you all, -Aaron LaMere