Jimmy Buffett-Style Singer Eric Stone Playing The Slip Bar Redondo Beach

TropRock Musician At King Harbor Marina May 11

By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Music Blogger

With Jimmy Buffett not playing in Southern California this year – thus idling the annual PubClub.com party bus from the South Bay to Irvine Meadows – there is a bit of Margaritaville coming to Redondo Beach.

Buffett-style singer and songwriter Eric Stone is playing The Slip Bar and Eatery on Friday, May 11, from 9-close. If you didn’t know better, when hearing Stone you might think you are indeed listening to Buffett. And while he does some Buffett covers – yes, “Margaritaville” – he’s build a career on his original tunes, creative ones such as “Sailing Life,” “Calling In Well.” “‘Till All The Tequila Is Gone” and my personal favorite “Somewhere South Of Somewhere.”

Even the boats in adjacent King Harbor Marina will be swaying to the sounds of Stone.

Not only is the music good and will mentally put you in a tropical paradise, it’s a style that is never heard in the South Bay (except on my porch, of course). We have some great bands and sensational musicians and singers here – Barley, Shari Puerto and Jeremy Buck just to name three – but none play this type of music.

Stone sings about islands, being on boats, scuba diving and of broken romances best cured with, well, tequila.

One of his songs, “I Don’t Want To Be Jimmy Buffett,” is based on bad bands he’s heard in bars playing “Margaritaville” and endless requests to play it. “I don’t want to be Buffett,” Stone sings. “I just want to be me.”

Stone is an international touring artist who has played tours in Australia, the Virgin Islands, the Florida Keys, Texas and California. He’s a fixture and a very popular attraction at several boat shows.

He also has dozens of CDs, recorded in the same Nashville studios as several top country music artists. He’s even had a member of Buffett’s Coral Reefer band with him on occasion.

There is no cover charge to hear Stone at The Slip but this is a small bar so don’t be flaffling around on the dock; get into the bar or you won’t have a seat or may have to listen from outside leaning up against the railing.