Stone Caravan's Joe D'Urso set to play Rockland before heading to the U.K.

By Samantha Spector
For the Journal News
(Original Publication: January 26, 2007)

Joe D'Urso can't read music, didn't pick up a guitar until the ripe old [for rock, anyway] age of 23 and until 1996, worked as an agent at Manhattan's Premier Talent Agency. Relatively speaking, that should have slowed any hopes of a musical career.

Fifteen years later, the Tappan-raised D'Urso has found a devoted following around the world and developed a career based on the ideas of karma, having fun and devotion to the music he loves.
"Working at the agency allowed me to completely immerse myself in music," says D'Urso. "It made it that much easier to teach myself and learn to play for myself."

"When I started realizing what I was writing down were songs, it opened up a lot of things for me. I took all of my experience in the business side and my love of the music I'd listened to my whole life and threw it into my songwriting. I started Stone Caravan when I was 25 years old. I would play music all night and spend all day with the working musicians we represented.

"Because I spent time on both sides, I was able to build relationships and find mentors that were already out there. Having that amount of experience allowed me to get from point A to point B to point C in my own career."

Tomorrow D'Urso and his band, Stone Caravan, will bring their own brand of folk-rooted, Springsteen-esque rock 'n' roll to The Turning Point Café in Piermont.

"Some of my drive comes from the fact that I didn't do it [music] from the start," says D'Urso, who speaks of his career with a nonchalant, humble attitude. "I was always the outsider kind of looking at it from the business point of view. And then I decided one day to give it a shot. I feared not doing it more than failing.

"I'm not a musician. I'm a songwriter. I can't read a note of music, not a lick, but then I found out that neither can some of the greats like [Bob] Seger, [Bob] Dylan. I don't mind saying that I have a limited grasp on the music. But what I do have is a vast knowledge of music itself and the fact that I can do something with it makes me a fortunate person and a very lucky man."

Luck, nothing. After forming Stone Caravan - whose other members include Sam LaMonica, Greg Lykins and Lou "Mr. Lou" DiMartino - merely two years after teaching himself to play guitar, D'Urso realized that the poems, journal entries and general musings he had written down for as long as he could remember were, in fact, the seeds of song lyrics.

"I grew up listening to The Beatles, The Stones," says D'Urso, "and as a kid, I don't think you know why you are drawn to the music you like. I loved it all, and what I liked then has followed me as I got older."

"It's not always obvious, but those influences always find their way into my songs. You might not be able to hear it, but the influence is always there. I think what comes through the most is that I understand what makes a good song and I use what I hear in other bands' music when I write my own songs."

Stone Caravan released their first studio album in 1993. The disc, "Rock-Land" (named for D'Urso's childhood home), is set to be re-released early this year after spending seven years out of print. That CD follows the release of the band's 10th album, 2006's "Cause … ," an album that found D'Urso further stretching his songwriting skills. On it, he reflects on a myriad of social subjects: from politics to oil to war - as well as quieter, meditative acoustic tracks focused on friendship and love.

"I've been very blessed with the songs I have produced over the years," says D'Urso, "but I don't like to talk about it because the songs just seem to show up.

"I don't sit down and try to write a song. I love the process, I love the magic of nothing being on a piece of paper and then a few minutes later, something. I always apply that idea, that magic to the idea of a Muse. I keep my antennae up all the time and I work at it and after a while I have just become open to being inspired. It has something to do with putting yourself in situations that have good energy. That's how I write a song."

D'Urso and Stone Caravan will stay on the road through the rest of the year. After the show at The Turning Point, the band will head overseas for a string of dates throughout Great Britain, Italy and Scotland.

"I've always had an immense amount of enthusiasm for what I do," says D'Urso.

"The band really morphed into what it is now about seven or eight years ago. It made me a better musician because I surrounded myself with better players. I try to keep my mind and eyes and ears open, I try to be as entertaining as possible for the people who have given up their time and money to come see me perform.

"I also try to keep in mind that I take what I do seriously so it can get fueled into that, but it won't ever, ever become something that is ego driven."

On that note, it seems appropriate to discuss the decidedly extensive list of causes D'Urso has supported with his own time and money. He has organized and performed at benefits for a laundry list of causes: from Parkinson's disease to World Hunger Year (WHY), from Blank-Fest (where attendees must bring a blanket to enter the show) to benefits for schools in his adopted community of Bergen County, N.J., as well as his alma mater, Albertus Magnus High School in Bardonia. Two months ago, D'Urso was inducted into the school's Hall of Fame and given the "Pride of Rockland" Award after a benefit he did for the school's athletic department.

"I don't mind being recognized [for my humanitarian work]," says D'Urso, "but it's not an ego thing. I just hope it gives someone else a good kick in the ass. I do a lot of stuff, both in and out of Rockland County. We [the band and I] put these things together and raise some money and have a good time. To me, it just feels like the right thing to do, I just like the fact that I can do very tangible things with my music.

"On those evenings, I get to play music: How much of a struggle is that? It [playing and organizing benefits] has always seemed kind of normal, and over the years I've just realized what a freak for it I've become. I mean, [fellow New Jersey residents] Bon Jovi and Springsteen do it on a much larger scale and I've always recognized that and respected that a whole lot.

"However, I think the goal is just to be good. Let your actions speak or else your falling short. I find it unfortunate that some people try to put that into boxes and label it this or that instead of leading by action."

He pauses, taking his time to choose the words to adequately sum up his thoughts. "I just try to do my part and create some good karma."