ST. STEPHEN'S BLUES DOES THE DEAD AND THE BLUES

For a guy who sings the blues, Robbie Stokes is solidly upbeat.

The 48-year-old Carbondale, Ill., man plays lead guitar and sings in St. Stephen's Blues, a band he helped found five years ago.

To Stokes, playing music is almost a spiritual thing. "There is nothing like it when it is really working right," says Stokes, who has performed with two members of The Grateful Dead.

St. Stephen's Blues will perform Saturday at the Cape Girardeau Riverfest. The group will take the stage in front of Jeremiah's restaurant at 4 p.m.

Riverfest will celebrate its 20th anniversary this weekend with a focus on all types of live music, from reggae to rock. Music will be performed on five different stages by more than 20 groups during the two-day festival, which begins at 4 p.m. Friday.

There are no big-name groups performing. Instead, organizers said, the focus is on providing a smorgasbord of music.

Stokes said there are three reasons why his band is called St. Stephen's Blues.

One of its founder's was Steve Asma, who was getting his doctorate in philosophy at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale at the time.

He played in the Chicago band called Howard and the White Boys. After getting his doctorate, Asma returned to Chicago and rejoined his old band.

St. Stephen also fit as a name for a blues band.

"We found out that St. Stephen was the first martyr and patron saint of lost causes," Stokes said.

Finally, The Dead had a tune called "St. Stephen."

Stokes says he is the only person he knows in a Dead-oriented band in the Midwest who was closely associated with the famous group. He is well known to "Deadheads" as a sideman for Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart and Dead lyricist Robert Hunter.

He played on Hart's "Rolling Thunder" release and Hunter's "Tales of the Great Rumrunners."

The members of St. Stephen's Blues all live in the Carbondale area, except for St. Louis radio personality John Carney. One of the original members of the band, Carney plays percussion when the band performs in St. Louis.

The band features seven musicians, plus several backup players. Six of the band members will take the stage at Riverfest.

St. Stephen's plays a wide range of blues, including the folk blues of the 1960s.

Stokes has been performing most of his life. He has worked for, opened up for or jammed with a diverse group of artists. They include Elvin Bishop, Credence Clearwater Revival, Jefferson Airplane, David Crosby and David Allen Coe.

He won the 1995 Southern Illinois Music Award for Best Guitarist. He also is a professional sound technician who owns and operates Robco Audio in Carbondale.

Stokes grew up in Carbondale. He was 13 when he played in his first band.

As a teen-ager, he dropped out of school and moved to California. He was 18 years old and immersed in the music culture of San Francisco in the late 1960s.

His band, Devil's Kitchen, was popular in the Bay Area. "We were offered a record deal, but we turned it down," he said.

In those idealistic days, Stokes said the band was concerned it would have to give up artistic control to the record company.

Devil's Kitchen toured with The Grateful Dead in 1970.

Today, Stokes has settled down. He and the other members of St. Stephen's Blues have close ties to Southern Illinois University.

"Everybody in the band is going to school or has graduated from SIU," he said.

Stokes will graduate this August with a bachelor's degree in University Studies. He plans to enroll in graduate school at SIU this fall to pursue a degree in anthropology.

Music is just one of Stokes' many interests. He also enjoys 19th century German philosophy, flying airplanes and astronomy.

He works out of his home while also raising his 8-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son.

"I do not recommend to my children that they quit school like I did to go out and be in a rock band," he said.

But Stokes doesn't regret his own actions. He met Jimi Hendrix and countless other legendary musicians.

"I would have missed the Summer of Love and I would have missed Janis Joplin," he said.

TUNE YOUR FIDDLE

The 1998 Riverfest Fiddle Contest will be held at 4 p.m. Saturday at the Family Stage at the bottom of the Common Pleas Courthouse steps on Spanish Street.

Contestants will compete in junior and senior divisions and each will perform three pieces.