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The group originated in 1999 under the name "Groove Juice", a 3-piece garage band in Marysville Ohio. There wasn’t much consideration, at that time, in making anything other than lots of noise, but, of the musicians, Stevis was the only one with any experience. Eventually, the need to perform live shows became overwhelming, leading to the inevitable change in the band members. In 2000 the group had changed its name to "The Groove" and started booking shows around Columbus Ohio, but, after only 2 small shows at High Five on OSU campus, the group fell apart. Stevis, a BMI songwriter and long-time solo acoustic guitar player/singer, decided to just concentrate on the problem, which happened to be the lack of serious and motivated musicians. The only long-term answer to this problem was for him to play and record all the instruments. Having taught himself how to sing and play guitar, among other instruments, he set out to do just that. So, after about a year of writing and rewriting material and polishing up on keyboards, harmonica and drums, finally he had something that was solid, "Home-Grown Groove Juice" {available for download @ http://www.thegroove.net} a CD totally written and recorded by himself. After finishing the CD, Stevis used it as a tool for teaching the music to the constantly changing new members of ‘The Groove’, but still there didn’t seem to be any dedicated musicians who weren’t already comfortable with a band. The Groove continued to play shows in Kentucky and Ohio, all the while looking for the right musicians, the ones with talent and passion for being themselves (true passion, not the bubble-gum ‘intense romance’ version, but the absolute love for something). In 2003, Stevis met John Lowe; a bass player from West Virginia and this dude was perfect!!! “We were getting ready for a gig but we didn’t have a bass player. The drummer at that time suggested a musician that she had played with for awhile, named John Lowe. She called him up and asked if he wanted to do this show, which was the next day. John was working at a factory job and he had to be at work in only a few short hours, so, he called off work and made plans to be at practice that day. He showed-up in the afternoon (just after a newspaper reporter, who was doing a story on us, had left) and the next day we traveled from Ironton Ohio to Columbus and played the show. No sweat!” So, John Lowe, a bass player with 25 years experience, became part of the mix, adding a crucial piece to the groove puzzle. Stevis thought the group was solid enough to start the writing process again, this time, putting more of an edge to the musical flavor. With-in months they were at Rome Recording Studio in Columbus Ohio, recording the new material and preparing for a tour that the entertainment company they had signed with was arranging. At last everything was going smooth, until… the lead guitarist literally just disappeared! This incident helped out a lot because it brought out all the doubt and disbelief that was with-in the group and these are the things that truly make it hard to succeed. The Groove had been reduced to a 3-piece band, with Stevis taking up the slack in the lead guitarist department while the group searched for a replacement. But the drummer soon let it be known that she didn’t believe that the groups’ goals could be attained and she became withdrawn, sometimes not even playing one full song in a practice/writing session. This went on for a few months, until the group booked a show, which allowed the perfect opportunity for the drummer to call it quits. Now, with only John Lowe and Stevis remaining in the line-up, they decided to head back up to Columbus from Ironton and search for a new drummer. Carl May had played drums with Stevis in another music group called ‘P.O.G.O.’ for about 10 years on and off, so Stevis and John asked him to go into the studio and re-record the drum tracks on the new CD, which had already been finished once before. Carl, who was playing drums for a cover group at that time, agreed to do the recordings and to play a few promotional shows after the CD was complete. While Carl was in the studio re-doing the drum tracks, the band he was in dissipated, which made him fully available, not only for promotional shows, but for week-end performances around Ohio as well. This new development brought the urge to change the name of the group, to shake off any bad vibes and to give them a fresh start. “I’ve been traveling around the United States for a long time, playing shows with just my guitar, the whole time I was playing, people were getting to know my name, Stevis, so, it made sense to combine the 2 names into one.” So, ‘Stevis and The Groove’ became the new title to this band. This music group has 50 original songs ready for recording and more being written all the time, some of which are already recorded into either a rough draft or studio recording. As songwriters, a lot of the music is for sale, but the best is hidden in the group’s line-up of original material.
