Stillwater's self-described red-headed stepchild found a home at Stonecloud for their album release party
Billy Bonney debuted As The Canyons Roar — recorded live in three hours at Tulsa's Church Studio — to a packed Stillwater crowd
On a slightly too-chilly night for an outdoor stage, the patio at Stonecloud Brewing should have been empty. Instead, it was full. The crowd — more "traditional family" than the punk and emo shows I've been hitting lately — stood shoulder to shoulder, drinks in hand, as Billy Bonney ripped into another blues-soaked rock number.
Hair's own path to this stage wound through Stillwater and Perkins, with a long pause when his daughter's health took priority. "I'm 37, so as a musician, especially as a guitar player, I'm kinda among the first babies of the Cody Canadas and Mike McClures," he said. Rejection from the Stillwater scene, he admitted, ended up shaping what he wanted Billy Bonney to be. "Felix and Greg felt the same way." Now, he's excited to see places like Velvet Fudge and Mama Tried Vintage popping up and genuinely supporting artists.
The occasion was the release of As The Canyons Roar, the band's latest album, recorded in a furious three-hour session at Tulsa's legendary Church Studio. "The whole concept was let's try to cut as many as we can, live, and release it as is," Hair told me before the show. "Raw, with all the imperfections." They walked away with seven tracks. Sure, he admits, there are moments they'd like another crack at ("particularly the vocals"), but that was the point. "We wanted to give listeners an idea of what we sound like live, so I think we achieved that to an extent."
On the patio, that idea came to life. The band's setup was one of the most compact I've seen — small drum kit, minimalist pedal boards for bass and guitar, a clean, uncluttered stage. No frills. Just three people making noise. Hair pulled out a slide for multiple guitar solos throughout the evening, adding a greasy, aching texture to songs that already leaned hard into blues rock territory. His voice never smoothed out; it stayed rough, frayed at the edges, exactly as the album promises.
The band's banner hung behind the drum kit. The album cover, painted by frontman Kurtis Brock Hair, sat on an easel at the edge of the stage. And Hair's voice, rough and completely unedited, cut through the cold air like it belonged there.
The crowd responded to every song, but the clear highlight was "Maurice." That's the silly little tune Hair wrote about a jumping spider in his garage, and he's right — it's an audience favorite. They played it live, just as they'd cut it in one take at the Church Studio. "Musically, though, I'd say 'I'm Ready' says a lot about us as musicians," Hair said. Tonight, both songs fit the same mold: direct, lived-in, and genuinely fun.
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Between originals, the band slipped in a few covers that felt like personal signatures. A James Gang number drew nods from the old heads in the crowd. But the one that landed hardest was Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing." Hair didn't overplay it; he let the slide do the talking. I'll admit a bias — I grew up a few miles from where Hendrix did — but even without that, the cover worked because it wasn't an imitation. It sounded like Billy Bonney borrowing a friend's song for the night.
That sense of community ran deeper than the setlist. Stonecloud, Hair explained, has been an unlikely refuge for a band that doesn't fit the "red dirt" mold that dominates central Oklahoma. "We're not a red dirt band, so there's not a lot of places to play here in town," he said. The band's merch shirts, on sale that night, put it more bluntly: Stillwater's Red Headed Step Child, Billy Bonney LIVE. "Matt and the Stonecloud crew have been so open to us, and from what I see, extremely supportive to other musicians and really just the community at large. Matt offered to hold the party for us, and I can't tell you how happy that made us."
He name-checked friends like Dylan Moss & The Middle Class ("Good people") and floated the idea of a show with the Waxie Dargles at Stonecloud. "A few of the cats are friends of mine, and although our music is so much different, I think it'd be a blast."
After the set, as the patio cooled down even further and the crowd lingered over last calls, it was clear that the night had worked exactly as intended. As The Canyons Roar — short, raw, a snapshot of a live band in a room — now had a living companion. And the band already has more coming. Hair said they'll be back at Stonecloud on April 12, then at the Norman Music Festival (two sets), with a return to the studio next fall or winter. "Hopefully, this can be a full-time thing," he added, "but ain't that everybody's?"
On a chilly night on a brewery patio, with a hand-painted album cover on an easel and a slide guitar crying into the dark, Billy Bonney made it feel possible.
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