Stone Cloud 4 jams to help Kids Grief Camp
(Courtesy photo) Stone Cloud 4 — frontman Liam McCoy, bass guitarist Sean Causey, lead guitarist Jake Smith and drummer Riley “Bam Bam” Christman — will be playing a benefit concert Friday for Bonner General Health Community Hospice’s Kids Grief Camp. Doors open at 6 p.m. with the music kicking off at 7 p.m. at the Bonner County Fairgrounds.
(Courtesy photo) Stone Cloud 4 — frontman Liam McCoy, bass guitarist Sean Causey, lead guitarist Jake Smith and drummer Riley “Bam Bam” Christman — will be playing a benefit concert Friday for Bonner General Health Community Hospice’s Kids Grief Camp. Doors open at 6 p.m. with the music kicking off at 7 p.m. at the Bonner County Fairgrounds.
(Courtesy photo) Stone Cloud 4 — frontman Liam McCoy, bass guitarist Sean Causey, lead guitarist Jake Smith and drummer Riley “Bam Bam” Christman — will be playing a benefit concert Friday for Bonner General Health Community Hospice’s Kids Grief Camp. Doors open at 6 p.m. with the music kicking off at 7 p.m. at the Bonner County Fairgrounds.
SANDPOINT — Great music AND a great cause?
You have to be talking about Stone Cloud 4 and their plans to hold a benefit concert Friday for the Kids Grief Camp. All proceeds from the concert, which will be held at the Bonner County Fairgrounds, will go toward campers and the camp.
Special guests High Trees N’ Ammunition will be joining the band for the concert.
Doors open at 6 p.m. with High Trees N’ Ammunition set to play from 7 p.m.-7:45 p.m. and Stone Cloud 4 from 8:15-10 p.m.
Tickets are $10 and are available at Sandpoint Super Drug, Eichardt’s, and Evans Brothers as well as at the door.”
Looking for a chance to help others and have a little fun doing something they love, Stone Cloud 4 decided to hold a benefit concert to raise funds and awareness for the camp. All of the ticket and silent auction proceeds from Friday’s concert with go toward the camp.
“We won’t be making a dime, it all goes to the kids and know it will help them find healthy ways to cope,” said the band in a press release. “It’s really an honor to be supporting such a beautiful organization and giving all that we can to give these children the tools they need to excel and become happy, healthy, and whole.”
Stone Cloud 4 frontman Liam McCoy, bass guitarist Sean Causey, and lead guitarist Jake Smith have been playing together since middle school. But it was when newst member Riley “Bam Bam” Christman joined the group a few months ago as Stone Cloud 4’s drummer that the band’s sound really gelled into something special.
“Liam, Sean and I have played together since middle school and have a really good chemistry,” Smith said. “I kept hounding Bam Bam to join our group, I was telling him we have a great sound and I thought he would really enjoy it, but he was very focused on jazz. Until one day when he gave in and came to a practice, we knew from the minute we all started playing that it was something special. It’s been straight down the rabbit hole ever since!”
Stone Cloud 4 features a classic lineup of guitar, bass, drums, and frontman who does it all. Smith said the band’s sound has a modern youthful rock ‘n’ roll with heavy influences of funk, blues, classic rock (Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, and Cream), as well as soul, and jazz.
The quartet has played for “quite a few years” and they’ve definitely all grown up around music., he added.
The band is already taking off in the area, with several gigs at Eichardts and Symes Hot Springs, Mont.
“This is going to be a huge step as far as crowd and venue size goes for us,” Smith said. “I wanted to play a charity concert because in the early days it was really hard to book gigs due to our age, and no bar would hire kids in compliance with the law.”
So, the band started getting creative, Smith said, and that’s when the idea for a benefit concert got it’s start. McCoy’s grandfather had been a hospice volunteer for over 30 years and it as natural for Stone Cloud 4 to pick hospice as the recipient for their benefit concert.
Helping organize the event is McCoy’s mom, Heather, who has been crucial to getting things set up and organized.
“She has done so much work for this event and it really means a lot,” Smith said. “I know all of the guys and I are incredibly grateful to have her on our side.”
The generosity of the band and the compassion of Stone Cloud 4’s members to hold a benefit concert for the Kids Grief Camp is such a blessing, Lissa DeFreitas, volunteer/bereavement coordinator for Bonner General Health Community Hospice, said.
Through the years, Heather McCoy — dedicated mom, fan, public relations director and hospice community partner — has been a witness of her dad’s hospice volunteer presence with Bonner General Health Community Hospice’s annual Kids Grief Camp.
“The whole family had the experience hearing stories of great transformation, fun and value — as grieving children found a new connection with healing that seems to come along with joining with other children walking through such a journey,” DeFreitas said.
“Th seed of generosity’ for adopting our Hospice Kids Camp as a benefit concert, was a thoughtful and passionate vision for Stone Cloud 4 band member,” she said.
Caroline Lobsinger can be reached by email at clobsinger@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @CarolDailyBee.