Welcome to Stevenson Road!

So, welcome, everyone, to the official weblog of the rock band Stevenson Road. For those of you who got here by accident, Stevenson Road is a 2 piece rock band made up of Jake Stevenson (guitar, vocals, beer) and Keith Alstrom (drums, beer). Their name comes from the street they both grew up on, which not coincidentally is also Jake's surname. Their common musical influences include bands like Toadies, Counting Crows, Coldplay, and the Pixies.

Jake will most likely be the main person posting here, although Keith will be given full access and encouragement to post as well. So, unless otherwise stated, anytime you see the word "I", that means Jake. This blog may stray from time to time, but mostly it's going to be about what's happening with the band.

How we got to this point

Keith and I have known each other for 25 years. His family moved to my street when I was 3, I think. We lived out in the country, in a neighborhood made up of a single street (the aforementioned Stevenson Road), so Keith and his brothers and my brothers and I spent a lot of time playing together growing up.

Keith's dad is musically inclined, so Keith and his brothers grew up learning piano and guitar. Throughout junior high and high school Keith and his older brother Chris played in various garage/patio bands. I know they played at least two gigs under the name "Fetish". I was at one of them. It was in Port O'Connor for 4th of July, and they opened for the local cover band on the beach. They played awesome. Little Chris wore sunglasses at night as they did a rockin' version of The Troggs' "Wild Thing".

No one in my family could play instruments growing up. Both of my parents can carry a tune, but neither of them can play an instrument. Both of my brothers picked up the guitar sometime in college. My parents saw I was musically inclined, and offered me guitar lessons, but I balked (wasn't 'manly' enough for me--*sigh*). I got a guitar for the Christmas of my junior year in high school. I went through the typical learning process of practicing chords alone in my bedroom after school, and pretty soon I could play a lot of popular songs. The first song I learned was "Closing Time" by Semisonic. The first song I learned to play and sing at the same time was "Goodnight Elizabeth" by Counting Crows. During college I got good enough to start singing and playing at family get togethers. Playing Gin and Juice by the Gourds always got a good laugh.

Fast forward several years to 2007. Keith and his wife Sarah had recently moved back to Austin (more specifically Round Rock) from a 2 year hiatus in Colorado. I had just moved back home after a year and a half in Iraq. I moved in with them while I was househunting. They let me crash with them, rent free, for 3 months. During this time, Keith and I picked up one of our favorite pasttimes--pipe dreaming about being rockstars. Keith had been talking about picking up the drums, so as a thank-you for letting me stay with them, I bought him a $300 Gammon Percussion drumset. When it arrived, we decided to jam the next day. Keith had his drum rig and practice amps set up in their upstairs loft. I brought my $150 Takamine acoustic/electric, plugged it into a 8" amp Keith had, and started off on this G-B-C riff I'd liked forever. After 3 or 4 bars, Keith kicked in a beat. Our first song, "Waste My Time", was created. Stevenson Road was born.

We started practicing every Thursday night. That was in September of last year. I think we've missed one week since. Practice is awesome. It's the highlight of my week. We play covers we both like. We drink beer. We write new songs, and polish old ones. We drink more beer.

We've settled into a routine of playing a 10 song original set. Then we may play some covers, try to write something new, re-practice ones we screwed up, or call it a day (if there's good sports on TV). I bought a house with a detached garage, which I've started remodeling into a studio. It's far from finished, but makes a great practice space.

A couple of weeks ago, we had our first gig, at Hanover's in pflugerville. It was awesome and one of the funnest days of my life. After playing together for a year, we finally had a gig!

So anyway, that pretty much catches y'all up on what's happened up to now. We're practicing, longing to record, and trying to get more gigs. I figured a blog was a good way to keep track of what we're doing. I wouldn't say we have "fans" yet, but we do have people who may be interested what we're up to. So that's what the blog is about.

Thanks for reading. See ya next time.