Stone Poneys Making the band How did the Stone Poneys get their start? Linda Ronstadt decided to move to the Los Angeles area in December 1964 to join Bobby Kimmel and form a band. Who were the original band members of the Stone Poneys? Linda Ronstadt Did anyone join Linda Ronstadt in the band? Bobby Kimmel
where did the Stone Poneys get their start?
Where did the Stone Poneys get started?
After dropping out of Tucson's Catalina High School, and completing a semester at the University Of Arizona, Linda Ronstadt decided to move to the Los Angeles area in December 1964 to join Bobby Kimmel and form a band. Ronstadt described Kimmel's vision of the band: "It was going to be five people. We had an electric autoharp and a girl singer, and we thought we were unique in the world. And it turned out The Jefferson Airplane and the Lovin' Spoonful had beaten us." The group trimmed down to a trio that called themselves The Stone Poneys. Their (misspelled) name came from Delta Blues singer Charley Patton's 1929 song "The Stone Pony Blues" (also known as "Pony Blues").  The band was discovered by a couple of music industry executives while rehearsing at a soul food restaurant called Olivia's, located in Ocean Park, a community between Venice Beach and Santa Monica. Olivia's was famous for its food and clientele, including The Doors. In 1965, they recorded the Johnny Otis song "So Fine" and several others. Mike Curb, who at that time was working for Mercury, produced the sessions. The record company wanted them to change the group's name to "The Signets" and sing surf music, which the trio chose not to do.  Instead, The Stone Poneys became a leading attraction on the Los Angeles club circuit, with Ronstadt usually performing on stage in a miniskirt and bare feet. They worked intimate clubs like The Troubadour in Hollywood, where they were opening for such musicians as Odetta and Oscar Brown Jr.; The Insomniac in Hermosa Beach, where they often appeared with The Chambers Brothers; and The Bitter End in Greenwich Village.  One night at The Troubadour, the band's first manager, Herb Cohen, told Kimmel in front of Ronstadt: "Well, I can get your chick singer recorded, but I don't know about the rest of the group". Linda Ronstadt called this "the beginning of the end", although this occurred even before they were signed to Capitol, but Ronstadt insisted that she would not record without the band. The Stone Poneys broke up briefly in this time period, and Cohen tried to connect Ronstadt with Frank Zappa to make a demo, and also with Jack Nitzsche, but nothing ever materialized (she and Zappa - who were both being managed by Cohen in this time period - would later make a radio commercial for Remington brand electric shavers that was rejected by the company). CANNOTANSWER
The band was discovered by a couple of music industry executives while rehearsing at a soul food restaurant called Olivia's,
Stone Poneys (also The Stone Poneys. Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys, and The Stone Poneys With Linda Ronstadt) were a folk rock trio formed in Los Angeles, consisting of Linda Ronstadt on vocals, Bobby Kimmel on rhythm guitar and vocals, and Kenny Edwards on lead guitar. Their recordings include Ronstadt's first hit song, a cover of Mike Nesmith's "Different Drum". Even at this early stage, Ronstadt was showcasing her performances of an eclectic mix of songs, often from under-appreciated songwriters, requiring a wide array of backing musicians.

The band released three albums: The Stone Poneys; Evergreen, Volume 2; and Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III. All three albums were reissued in CD format in the 1990s in the US. The first two albums were reissued in Australia in 2008.

History of the band

Early meetings
Linda Ronstadt first met Bobby Kimmel in 1960 while performing gigs in and around Tucson, Arizona with her older brother Peter and older sister Suzi (under the name "The Three Ronstadts", among others).  The three Ronstadts joined with Kimmel and a local banjo player named Richard Saltus, performing locally as "The New Union Ramblers".  Kimmel, who was six years older than Linda, was impressed with the strong voice and enthusiasm of the fourteen-year-old.  He relocated to Southern California around 1961 and wrote regularly to cajole Linda into joining him throughout her high school years at Catalina High. Kimmel had already met and befriended Kenny Edwards shortly before Linda's arrival in L.A., and they had started writing folk-rock songs together.

Making the band
in December 1964, after dropping out of Tucson's Catalina High School, and completing a semester at the University Of Arizona, Linda Ronstadt decided to move to the Los Angeles area to join Bobby Kimmel and form a band. Ronstadt described Kimmel's vision of the band: "It was going to be five people. We had an electric autoharp and a girl singer, and we thought we were unique in the world. And it turned out the Jefferson Airplane and the Lovin' Spoonful had beaten us." The group trimmed down to a trio that called themselves the Stone Poneys. Their (misspelled) name came from Delta Blues singer Charley Patton's 1929 song "The Stone Pony Blues" (also known as "Pony Blues").

The band was discovered by a couple of music industry executives while rehearsing at a soul food restaurant called Olivia's,  located in Ocean Park, a community between Venice Beach and Santa Monica. Olivia's was famous for its food and clientele, including The Doors. In 1965, they recorded the Johnny Otis song "So Fine" and several others. Mike Curb, who at that time was working for Mercury, produced the sessions. The record company wanted them to change the group's name to "The Signets" and sing surf music, which the trio chose not to do.

Instead, The Stone Poneys became a leading attraction on the Los Angeles club circuit, with Ronstadt usually performing on stage in a miniskirt and bare feet. They worked intimate clubs like The Troubadour in Hollywood, where they were opening for such musicians as Odetta and Oscar Brown Jr.; The Insomniac in Hermosa Beach, where they often appeared with The Chambers Brothers; and The Bitter End in Greenwich Village.

One night at The Troubadour, the band's first manager, Herb Cohen, told Kimmel in front of Ronstadt: "Well, I can get your chick singer recorded, but I don't know about the rest of the group". Linda Ronstadt called this "the beginning of the end", although this occurred even before they were signed to Capitol and Ronstadt insisted that she would not record without the band. The Stone Poneys broke up briefly in this time period, and Cohen tried to connect Ronstadt with Frank Zappa to make a demo, and also with Jack Nitzsche, but nothing ever materialized (she and Zappa – who were both being managed by Cohen in this time period – would later make a radio commercial for Remington brand electric shavers that was rejected by the company).

Record deal
After the Poneys reformed, Cohen introduced Linda, Kenny, and Bobby to Nick Venet (also known as Nik Venet) at The Troubadour. Venet signed the band to Capitol Records in the summer of 1966. Ronstadt recalls of the signing: "Capitol wanted me as a solo, but Nick convinced them I wasn't ready, that I would develop. It was true." In a late 1966 article in Billboard, Venet discussed the formation of a new record label under Capitol called FolkWorld specifically to promote folk-rock artists. Although the FolkWorld concept was never realized, The Stone Poneys became the lead act in the stable of folk-rock performers that Venet was signing and producing in this time period.

The three albums by The Stone Poneys were produced by Nick Venet. The band's original songs were credited to Bob Kimmel and Kenny Edwards, although subsequent CD reissues removed Edwards' name from most of the credits. BMI's website now credits all original Kimmel-Edwards songs to Kimmel alone, resulting in "Back Home" being Edwards's lone songwriting credit with the Stone Poneys.

The first album, simply called The Stone Poneys, was more folk than rock and featured relatively few lead vocals by Ronstadt; it received little notice. The band again broke up briefly between the first two albums; but, as related by Kenny Edwards, Nick Venet told the band: "'We can make another record, we can make this happen. If we're going to do anything with this, we've got to make something that sounds commercial and get on the radio."

Hit song and further stresses
For the second album, Evergreen, Volume 2, the songs were in more of a rock vein; and Linda was moved firmly into the lead vocalist position, with only occasional harmony vocals. The album includes the band's only hit song, "Different Drum". The original recording by The Stone Poneys of "Different Drum" was quite similar to the recorded version by The Greenbriar Boys from their 1966 album Better Late than Never!; but as Kenny Edwards recalls: "That's when Nik Venet sort of took an executive position and went, 'This could be a hit song, and we need to sort of have an arranger arrange it.' So none of us actually played on the record version of that." (A live performance of "Different Drum" in the earlier style survives though). The original album version of "Different Drum" from 1967 had a slightly longer run time (2:46) from the single edit (2:35), owing to a repeat of the harpsichord break in the middle of the song. All versions of the song reissued after that time have been the single edit although listed with the longer run time.

This was not the only instance of the male band members being pushed out of the recording studio. Ironically, one of the few songs on the second album to feature harmony vocals, "Back on the Street Again" was a duet by Linda Ronstadt and songwriter Steve Gillette (though Linda's voice was clearly on top); Gillette remembers from the session: "[T]here was a scuffle and some noise just outside the door. When we opened it, there was a sad and for some, tearful scene in which it became clear that Kenny [Edwards] and Bobby [Kimmel] had not been notified of the session, and had heard about it indirectly and showed up full of anger at the betrayal. Capitol really did try to break the group up".

The very success of "Different Drum" spelled the effective end of The Stone Poneys as a band:  Almost immediately, they started to become known as "Linda Ronstadt and The Stone Poneys". Also, unlike the other 45s, which had been released solely under the name of the band, the "Different Drum" single also included in small letters: "Featuring Linda Ronstadt". As Edwards recalls:  "From the record company's point of view, immediately they wanted to push Linda as a solo artist. And frankly, Linda's taste in songs was really growing away from what Bobby was writing.... So there was a spontaneous growth toward her being a solo artist."

A series of club dates throughout the United States to support the second album followed.  Ronstadt remembers opening for the Paul Butterfield Blues Band at the Cafe Au Go Go in Greenwich Village as one of her worst experiences with the band: "Here we were rejected by the hippest element in New York as lame. We broke up right after that. We couldn't bear to look at each other."

Emergence of a star
During work on the band's third album, in early 1968, Kenny Edwards departed for India. After "Different Drum" hit the charts, Bob Kimmel and Linda Ronstadt rounded up some more musicians, and the reformed Stone Poneys began touring with the Doors. Doors frontman Jim Morrison didn't endear himself to Ronstadt; she recalled: "We thought they were a good band, but we didn't like the singer". After this tour, Kimmel also left the band.

Linda Ronstadt gamely moved forward and, effectively a solo artist already, started taking control of her career. She gathered more sophisticated material for the new album, including three songs by Tim Buckley that would become standout cuts on that album. "Tim used to live in a house that I lived in too, and we both used to move in and out ... that is, we stayed there alternately. It was the house he wrote about in 'Morning Glory,' which I call 'The Hobo'. That was the 'fleeting house.'" Buckley was among those in the group photograph that appeared on the back cover of the third album.

Although their final album still appears to be in the name of the band, the album name, Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III was purposefully vague, without a specific artist's name. Even the two singles from the album were released under different names, though Linda Ronstadt now had the burden of the Capitol recording contract: "See, The [Stone] Poneys were taken off the books after the second album. Since it was a hit, they made royalties off it. But I didn't. I paid all by myself for the third album, which was expensive, and it put me severely in the red by the time I started recording my first solo album."

Later incarnations
By late 1967, Linda Ronstadt began recruiting musicians to assist in the studio and also on the road. One of the first was an old friend from Tucson, Shep Cooke. He had already turned down Ronstadt's invitation to join Stone Poneys twice (in 1966 and also in early 1967); when she asked him again in late 1967: "Something told me I'd better not decline a third time. 'Different Drum' was climbing up the charts, and I couldn't refuse. So I joined the Stone Poneys in November 1967." Another latter-day member of Stone Poneys was Kit Alderson, who would later help train Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon in the guitar and autoharp, respectively, for their work in the 2005 Johnny Cash/June Carter Cash biopic film Walk the Line. By November 1968, a different group of musicians were billing themselves as the Stone Poneys. Joining Ronstadt was guitarist John Forsha – who was also a session player on the band's first two albums – drummer John Ware, bassist John Keski, steel guitarist Herb Steiner, and drummer Bill Martin.

Purists might contend that these Stone Poneys were not the real band, only backing musicians for Linda Ronstadt; however, they were still being billed as Stone Poneys, and many of the musicians still view themselves as "ex-Stone Poneys". Shep Cooke fondly remembers his time with the band: "We rehearsed like crazy, finished the third Stone Poney album, toured the entire country for 2½ months, played on Joey Bishop's and Johnny Carson's TV shows*, went crazy for lack of sleep, and parted company (after the last gig in late 1968) reasonably good friends but a little disillusioned about 'the big time'."

(*There was never a 'Tonight Show' Stone Poneys appearance aired.  Linda first appeared on the late night talk show in 1969.  Her second appearance wasn't until 1983.)

Post break-up
Despite the lack of big hits, Linda Ronstadt was becoming increasingly well known following the success of "Different Drum", and in 1969 she officially went solo with her album Hand Sown...Home Grown. However, beginning in the mid-1970s, Kenny Edwards recorded and toured with Linda for about 10 years. In 2007, Linda Ronstadt reconnected with Bob Kimmel in Tucson and sang harmony vocals on one of Kimmel's songs, "Into the Arms of Love" that was included on a CD released that year by his new band, BK Special.

Albums and singles

Official Capitol releases
On the first two albums, most of the songs were written by Bob Kimmel and Kenny Edwards.  Under the guidance of producer Nik Venet and Capitol, the group recorded their first album in the fall of 1966, The Stone Poneys, which was released in January 1967.  The album is notable for its precise strong-voiced harmony vocals.  The disc's one and only single release "Sweet Summer Blue And Gold" received no airplay and failed to chart anywhere. (The first album is now mainly known by the name of the 1975 reissue, The Stone Poneys Featuring Linda Ronstadt).

The second album, Evergreen, Volume 2 was released in June 1967. On this album, Linda Ronstadt sang lead vocals on almost all songs. The exception was the title track, which has a psychedelic rock feel. Kenny Edwards was the vocalist on "Part One", while "Part Two" was an instrumental that featured fine sitar work (also by Edwards).

The band hit pay dirt with Michael Nesmith's "Different Drum" (written and copyrighted in 1965 prior to Nesmith joining The Monkees), the second 45 (following "One for One") from the new album. The band's version of "Different Drum" hit the Billboard Pop Chart on November 11, 1967 and stayed in the Hot 100 for 17 weeks, getting as high as No. 13. The song also reached No. 12 on the Cash Box survey. The song has been a staple on oldies radio ever since and remains one of Linda Ronstadt's most popular recordings. Its parent record slid up Billboard's main album chart to No. 100 and lasted for a respectable 15 weeks on that chart.

Their third album was titled Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III (released in April 1968); at this point, Capitol was promoting Linda Ronstadt rather than the band, and only Linda's picture was on the cover. Like its predecessor, the album had two singles: "Up To My Neck In High Muddy Water" b/w "Carnival Bear" (released under the name Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys) which stalled at No. 93 on the Hot 100; and "Some of Shelly's Blues" b/w "Hobo" (released under the name Stone Poneys, Featuring Linda Ronstadt) which, like the album, did not chart in the US, but did reach No. 94 in Canada. "Some of Shelly's Blues" was another Michael Nesmith song. The album ended with the Laura Nyro song, "Stoney End", which turned out to have been aptly named (although the song was not written for The Stone Poneys).

"So Fine" single
After "Different Drum" became a hit, Mike Curb pulled out two of the recordings he had produced back in 1965, "So Fine" and "Everybody Has His Own Ideas", and decided to release them in 1968 as a 45 on his label Sidewalk, which was a Capitol subsidiary. The single was put out without the knowledge of Capitol – or Mercury either, for that matter, who had paid for the recording session. Capitol record company executives were understandably furious, and the single was immediately pulled from the market.  Thus, this disk has become one of the rarest Linda Ronstadt collectables, bringing as much as $144 (in a 2007 eBay auction).

Reissues
In the early 1970s, the Pickwick record label licensed several Stone Poneys tracks from their Capitol albums.  Five of these songs were included as Side 2 on a dual compilation album called Back on the Street Again (catalog number SPC-3245), with Side 1 consisting of five songs by David Clayton-Thomas that are taken from solo albums that he was recording while serving as the lead singer for Blood, Sweat and Tears.  Other than the title song and "Different Drum", the Stone Poneys songs on this album are relatively obscure tracks that have hardly appeared at all on Ronstadt's compilation albums over the years: "Song About the Rain", "I've Got to Know" (also known as "I'd Like to Know") and "New Hard Times".

Apparently somewhat later, Pickwick released Stoney End (catalog number SPC-3298) under the name Linda Ronstadt & The Stone Poneys.  The only song included on both of the Pickwick albums is "Different Drum"; the other tracks on this album are mostly familiar songs like "One for One" and "Some of Shelly's Blues", as well as their recording of the 1960s classic "Let's Get Together". (The album was released on the heels of the successful reissue of the version by The Youngbloods in 1969).

In 1974, prior to the release of Heart Like A Wheel, Capitol issued a Linda Ronstadt compilation titled Different Drum, which featured five Stone Poney tracks and five songs from Ronstadt's first three solo albums.  Aside from the title track, the four Stone Poneys tracks were remixed tracks from the third Stone Poneys' album, all featuring Ronstadt solo: "Hobo," "Up To My Neck In High Muddy Water," "Some Of Shelly's Blues," and "Stoney End."

Eight years after the release of the band's first album (in March 1975), it was reissued by Capitol under the name The Stone Poneys Featuring Linda Ronstadt, as a result of the multi-platinum success Linda Ronstadt had in 1974-75 as a solo artist with the No. 1 album Heart Like A Wheel. The song listing in the reissue highlighted Ronstadt's three solo performances (she also sang solo on one verse in a fourth song that was not so identified). As a result, the largely unknown first album by The Stone Poneys was more widely available in the 1970s and 1980s than the subsequent albums that featured the band's more familiar songs.

In 1995, Capitol briefly issued the three Stone Poneys albums as individual CD releases. These releases were removed from the catalog within a few years.

In 2008, the Australian label Raven released The Stone Poneys, a 27-track "two-fer" CD featuring the first two Stone Poneys albums plus four tracks from their third album.
  
Linda Ronstadt has claimed dissatisfaction with the arrangements of the three Stone Poneys albums many times over the years, but Capitol has continually made money through reissues of the early material in numerous configurations. Also, in addition to their hit song "Different Drum", several of the other Stone Poneys tracks have been featured in many of Linda Ronstadt's compilation albums over the years, such as "Hobo", "Some of Shelly's Blues" and "Stoney End".

Unreleased material
The now deleted Linda Ronstadt Box Set included the initial release of "Everybody Has His Own Ideas" besides the original 45; otherwise, the only Stone Poneys music made available on CD has been the songs on the original three albums, which has left many songs such as "Carnival Bear," from a 1968 single that never appeared on any of the albums, without any available issue. Even the three song "fragments" that open the third album – which total barely 1½ minutes – have never been reissued as full songs.

Discography

Albums

Singles

Promotional singles

References

 Regarding Reference No. 1 – This article erroneously listed Arizona State University (which is located in Tempe, not Tucson) instead of Tucson's University of Arizona as the college that Linda Ronstadt attended for one semester in the fall of 1964.  Archived enrollment records from U of A confirm this.

External links
The Stone Poneys
Stone Poneys Lyrics
Stone Poneys V2 Lyrics
Stone Poneys V3 Lyrics
Linda Ronstadt and The Stone Poneys live
Nik Venet

 01
Folk rock groups from California
American musical trios
Linda Ronstadt
Musical groups from Los Angeles
Musical groups established in 1965
Capitol Records artists
Stoney End is a compilation album of folk rock music by Linda Ronstadt and The Stone Poneys. It was released in 1972 by Pickwick Records in the U.S. and Canada.

The recording
The official release of the album has only been issued on vinyl. The nine songs on the album feature Ronstadt, a major star by the time of this release, on lead vocals; and are taken from the band’s second and third releases, Evergreen, Volume 2 and Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III, from 1967 and 1968, respectively. The material was licensed by Pickwick from Capitol Records.

Track listing

Side 1
 "Wings" (Tim Buckley) – 2:57
 "Different Drum" (Mike Nesmith) – 2:38
 "Some of Shelly's Blues" (Mike Nesmith) – 2:11
 "Driftin'" (K. Edwards/B. Kimmel) – 2:30
 "Stoney End" (Laura Nyro) – 2:40

Side 2
 "December Dream" (John Braheny) – 3:25
 "Hobo" (Tim Buckley) – 3:04
 "One For One" (Al Silverman/Austin DeLone) – 2:50
 "Let's Get Together" (Dino Valenti) – 3:10

Notes

References

Stone Poneys albums
Folk rock compilation albums
Linda Ronstadt compilation albums
1972 albums Bobby Kimmel (born September 1, 1940) is an American musician and songwriter who currently performs with the acoustic folk group I Hear Voices. He has been recording and performing in concert for over 50 years and was a founding member of the Stone Poneys, along with Linda Ronstadt and the late Kenny Edwards.

Bobby Kimmel moved to Tucson as a child for his asthmatic condition. His father was a studio musician in New York City, and become the principal double bass player in the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. He also owned and operated a retail music shop near the university.

Kimmel's early musical influence was jazz, especially "West Coast" jazz. He also listened to the "harder" East Coast jazz. His passion for jazz continued all throughout his high school years, and it was not until he discovered the guitar (at age 17) that his musical direction changed.

He became aware of the folk and blues musicians such as Doc Watson, Lightnin Hopkins, Merle Travis, and Mississippi John Hurt, as well as contemporaries like Dick Rosmini, Steve Mann and Ry Cooder. Phonorecords from his father's music store at this time contributed invaluably to his musical education.

At that point, Kimmel fully turned his attention toward folk music. He began playing both bass and guitar in the folk music clubs around Tucson in the early 1960s. He started performing with his friend Linda Ronstadt. During that period he played bass in a folk group with Linda and her older brother and sister Peter and Suzie.

The LA Years
In 1963, Bobby left Tucson for Los Angeles to further his music career. Quickly he called Linda to join him in LA.

Linda agreed, together they formed The Stone Poneys with LA guitarist Kenny Edwards. After a few months of rehearsal (including in the local laundromat which had great acoustics), the trio played an open mike gig at The Troubador in West Los Angeles. That one performance resulted in a multi—album contract with Capitol Records.

The Stone Poneys
The Stone Poneys recorded three albums for Capitol in the mid-60s and had a major hit in 1967 with "Different Drum", written by soon-to-be Monkees member Michael Nesmith. Different Drum peaked at #12 on the Cashbox Top 100 chart on February 12, 1968. The first two Stone Poney albums mostly featured Bobby's original songs.

The band toured nationally and played the popular music TV shows of the day. They appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in New York. They even toured briefly as the opening act for The Doors when "Light My Fire" was a huge hit and Jim Morrison was quickly becoming a pop music phenom.

Just about the time "Different Drum" became a nationwide hit, Kenny Edwards quit The Stone Poneys. That was the beginning of the end. Linda and Bobby played one more tour under The Stone Poneys name with pick-up musicians, and the group disbanded at the end of the tour.

McCabe's Guitar Shop
After the Stone Poneys broke up, Bobby created and developed the concert series at McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, California. It became one of the premier acoustic music venues in the country. By the time he left 7 years later, McCabe's was a notable concert venue attracting artists such as Jackson Browne, Odetta, Emmylou Harris, Bill Monroe, Jennifer Warnes, Doc & Merle Watson, The New Grass Revival, David Grisman, Tom Waits and Chet Atkins had all headlined there - and many others.

In the mid-1970s, Bobby also teamed up with Shep Cooke (also from Tucson and who was on the final Stone Poneys tour) and LA musician Kit Alderson. They formed The Floating House Band, an acoustic singing trio. They recorded an album for Takoma Records, which was owned by folk guitarist John Fahey.

With Doc & Merle Watson
In the late 70s, Bobby went out on the road playing upright bass with Doc & Merle Watson. They played the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

Japan
Bobby's last music business endeavor in Los Angeles was arranging tours in Japan by American folk artists. Working in tandem with his Japanese partner Hiroshi Asada, they booked tours for three years, including tours by Jesse Colin Young, LA session guitarist Larry Carlton, The New Grass Revival and a bluegrass all-star band featuring David Grisman, Tony Rice, Richard Greene, Bill Keith, Peter Rowan and Todd Phillips. Kimmel went on several of these tours as road manager.

Back In Tucson - 4 Corners
Bobby moved back to Tucson in 2001 and connected with his friend Jo Wilkinson, a powerful lead singer and songwriter from LA who also moved there. Since Jo and Bobby had played together at parties in LA,  they got the idea of forming an acoustic singing band here. They went to the 2002 Tucson Folk Festival together, and on the second day they heard Stefan George and Lavinia White. Bobby immediately approached Stefan and Lavinia and proposed that the four of them get together to play music. Stefan and Lavinia were cautious at first, but after a while and a number of casual living room sessions at Bobby's house, they warmed to the idea and finally 4 Corners was formed. At the beginning of 2003, the quartet began rehearsing seriously.

4 Corners sang together for 3 1/2 years and released two CDs before Jo left the group in the summer of 2006.

BK Special
After Jo left 4 Corners, Bobby, Stefan and Lavinia decided to try to go on as a trio.

Bobby had written a group of new songs full of possibilities for rich harmonies, and much room for Stefan to play. (Bobby and Stefan had figured out how two finger-style guitarists could play together). So along with a crop of Stefan's latest songs to work with, the band quickly developed a new repertoire and a new harmony sound. The acoustic music community in Tucson was quick to embrace them.

The BK Special CD - with Linda Ronstadt
Although BK Special only formed in the summer of 2006, by the end of that year, they were already talking about recording their first CD. They followed through, and in March 2007 the trio went into Duncan Stitt's A Writer's Room studio to begin recording. They recorded 12 songs live in the studio over the next couple of weeks.

Somewhere toward the end of the mixing process, and before Stefan's return, Bobby got a call from Linda Ronstadt who was in Tucson and wanted to visit. They went out to dinner, and during the evening Bobby was raving about how excited he was with the way the CD was turning out. Linda said, "I'd love to hear some of it." Since they were near Bobby's house, Linda stopped by and Bobby played her a few of the rough mixes.

Linda was immediately impressed with the sound Duncan had achieved on the all-acoustic CD, and really liked the trio's three-part vocals. One of the songs Bobby played was his own Into The Arms Of Love, and Linda started singing a pretty harmony part under her breath. Bobby asked if she would sing that part on the CD and Linda said, "Sure." That was it.

By the time Stefan came back from Germany, the CD was nearly mixed - and Linda had agreed to sing on it. The band quickly cleaned up whatever remained to be done, Linda came into Duncan's studio and added her vocal part, Stefan mastered it with Craig Schumacher at Wave Lab, and off it went to be manufactured.

The Second BK Special CD
In 2010, BK Special released their second CD Hope Spring, containing eight original songs by Bobby Kimmel. Both BK Special CDs remain in print and available.

I Hear Voices!
At the beginning of 2012, Bobby retired BK Special after almost ten years together to focus on a lifelong dream of forming a quartet with a purely vocal concept and almost no instrumental presence. Bobby joined with Tucson musicians Kathy Harris, Bobby Ronstadt and Suzy Ronstadt to form I Hear Voices! and realize that dream.

I Hear Voices! released their self-titled CD in the summer of 2013 during their appearance at the Tucson Folk Festival where they had a featured spot. In July 2013 the group traveled to Santa Monica, CA to play McCabe's Guitar Shop, the club Bobby opened in 1969, and had become one of the premier acoustic venues in the country.

Discography
Numbers in parentheses indicate the date of release, and also the highest position on Billboard charts

Singles
 The Stone Poneys - "Sweet Summer Blue and Gold" b/w "All the Beautiful Things" (rel. 1/67) – #45-1024 Capitol Records
 The Stone Poneys - "One for One" b/w "Evergreen" (rel. 6/67) – #5910; Capitol Records
 The Stone Poneys - "Different Drum" b/w "I've Got to Know" (rel. 9/67) – #2004; (#13) Capitol Records
 The Stone Poneys - "Up to My Neck in High Muddy Water" b/w "Carnival Bear" (rel. 3/68) – #2110; (#93) Capitol Records
 The Stone Poneys - "Some of Shelly's Blues" b/w "Hobo" (rel. 5/68) – #2195; Capitol Records

Albums
 The Stone Poneys - The Stone Poneys (album) – (rel. 1/67) Capitol Records
 The Stone Poneys - Evergreen, Volume 2 – (rel. 6/67) (#100) Capitol Records
 The Stone Poneys - Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III – (rel. 4/68) Capitol Records
 The Stone Poneys - The Stone Poneys Featuring Linda Ronstadt – (rel. 3/75, reissue of first album)  (#172) Capitol Records
 The Floating House Band - The Floating House Band - (rel. 1972) Takoma Records
 4 Corners - 4 Corners
 4 Corners - 4 Corners Live at McCabes
 BK Special - BK Special (rel. 2007)
 BK Special - Hope Springs (rel. 2010)
 I Hear Voices! - I Hear Voices! (rel. 2013)
 I Hear Voices! - I Hear Voices with Strings (rel. 2015)

Compilation albums
 The Stone Poneys - Stoney End (Linda Ronstadt album) – (rel. 1970) Capitol Records
 The Stone Poneys - The Stone Poneys (two-fer CD) – (rel. 2008) Capitol Records

References

External links
Biography on BK Special Website
History of Stone Poneys
I Hear Voices! Website

Living people
Musicians from Tucson, Arizona
American folk rock musicians
Songwriters from Arizona
1940 births