Electronic Press Kit
A guitar-based retro-rock band with elements of Memphis R&B, Dooryarders call Harpswell, Maine home these days, though each member comes “from away.” Bill Stamey started the band in 2022 to focus on original music. After test runs at open mics and a lot of practice with and without audiences, Dooryarders began playing live in June 2023 – from street corners to festivals. In 2024 Dooryarders played shows in Augusta, Bath, Brunswick, Cape Elizabeth, Damariscotta, Harpswell, Jefferson, Lewiston, New Castle, Portland, Westbrook, and Windham (including a repeat visit to the Waterfront Concert Stage at Bath Heritage Days and a first time with the Live Edge Music Festival). The band has played multiple times in Brunswick, Bath, and Portland in 2025 and is planning to play the inaugural Nature’s Summit Music Festival in August.
Typically, Dooryarders perform as an electric band, but they have been known to play as “Dooryarders Unplugged,” an all-acoustic set that tends to be a lot of fun and a more intimate take on the music.
Dooryarders are influenced by Stax recording artists like Booker T and the MGs, Sam and Dave, Rufus Thomas, and Otis Redding; other greats such as ZZ Top, Jimi Hendrix, Joe Jackson, Elvis Costello (to whom the Dooryarders sound has more than once been compared), Todd Snider, John Prine, Muddy Waters, Dr. John, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Tom Petty, the Smithereens, the Clash, the Replacements, Wilco, and George Harrison. These and many more have helped to inform the Dooryarders sound.
The main goal of Dooryarders is to write and record original music, and as below, the band’s first album, Best Laid Plans, has received airplay around the world on internet and terrestrial radio stations including Boston College WZBC 90.3, and Maine at WBOR 91.1, WMPG 90.9, WCLZ 98.9. The band has also been played on the Greetings from the Area Code 207, Radio 207, and Maine Music TV regularly.
Dooryarders have been releasing singles from their second album, Exhale On Maine St. There is more on these songs below.
Meet the Dooryarders
Bill Stamey (lead vocals, guitar, songwriter) started on guitar at a young age and grew up one mile away from the site of STAX Records in Memphis – and a block away from the FM station Rock 103, where as a teen he befriended staff and got to meet and talk with touring musical artists after on-air interviews, asking about songwriting, musicianship, the road, and the life and craft of a musician. During those years Bill began playing his guitar on the hallowed ground of Beale Street, standing where BB King, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Albert King, Furry Lewis, and so many other blues greats had. Back then he also played in clubs around his hometown, including the legendary Antenna Club (The Clash, The Replacements, Cowboy Junkies, Black Flag, R.E.M., The Bears, Tav Falco, Bad Brains, Alex Chilton, and others played). By his early 20s Bill had begun gigging around the South, including a summer in Athens, Georgia with folk-rocker Vic Chesnutt, who was produced by Michael Stipe. Bill recorded in studios around Memphis including Ardent and Memphis Sound Productions, where he was privileged to spend time with local and international music greats, a schooling itself. He was always learning from those around him, having studied guitar and music theory in his early teens with jazz musician/college instructor Bob Salley, a few years later with Memphis legend and international fusion great Shawn Lane, and attended the music program at University of Memphis for a few years before leaving to make a living in music. This went on for several years before he took a big detour to medical school, earning his MD in 2002, which meant for a time he was much less able to perform. Following the move to Maine Bill studied music with local legend Bob Thompson, played here and there with artists the likes of blues man Myron Samuels, and spent five years in the rock cover band Backstage, though like most musicians was sidelined by the pandemic for a time. In 2022 he released the digital demo album get up on Bandcamp as a reference and means to meet other musicians. Following this he was interviewed on the WMPG Podcast Open Mic with Lorenzo show. POM 6/22 No. 1: Bill Stamey | Podcast Open Mic (podbean.com). In 2022 he formed the band Dooryarders and began writing and recording new material.
Howard Coven (vocals, guitar), is originally from Staten Island, New York. “Word” moved to San Diego in his early 20s, earned a degree in computer engineering, and bases a good part of his playing style on diverse influences from Bob Weir, Neil Young, and the disco genre. Having formed and played with California’s Electric Waste Band, Word honed his style of guitar. He continued developing his craft while forming and playing in another California – based band: Jetwash. Word dabbles in multiple instruments, and when he moved to Maine in 2020 he had a brief stint as bassist with the band Bombshell. He brings talent, humor, and a very cool vibe to Dooryarders. He definitely has something going on that people like. There is always someone shouting for Word at a Dooryarders show.
Randy Shaw (vocals, bass) is originally from Rhode Island, played in rock bands in high school and moved to Maine to attend Bowdoin College. During that time he played in the Photons, and still has annual reunion gigs with them. Randy is one of the founding members of the electric blues and classic rock cover band Dr. Whitebread and his Jam, where he spent 20 years and with whom in 2011 released the album Burned and Toasted, which enjoyed local airplay. The “Jam” evolved into the decidedly more rock Backstage in 2018, though that band is on a hiatus currently. Randy has an encyclopedic knowledge of rock music, and it takes very little to prompt him into discussing that topic… but a lot to make him stop.
Drummers
Greg Saucier recorded percussion for the album and video version of the song “thorns,” and the video version of the song “she’s gonna be my girl.”
Scott Mills played several shows between July 2023 and July 2024 and recorded drums on all other songs of Best Laid Plans.
Stephen Almasi (pictured above) has played live with the band for multiple shows since summer 2024 and has tracked several songs for the second album.
Hudson Bird played at The Chocolate Church Arts Center in Bath, ME with the band Feb 2025, and Tonic in Brunswick, ME, and Hi-Fidelity in Portland, ME in March 2025.
Best Laid Plans
The album best laid plans was released on streaming services and Bandcamp October 20, 2023. The CD release of the album was March 1, 2024 and per www.crookedcove.com that release spent 6 weeks in the Bull Moose Local Artist Top 10. It has returned a few times to that list in 2025.
The album is an independent work: the ten songs recorded, mixed, and mastered at Bill’s home studio, informally known as “The Dooryard,” in Harpswell. These songs were written by Stamey, and hang together in that they were taken from life experiences and tend toward difficult situations with an element of chance and risk: card games with unusual stakes, letting someone know that you are in and they are out, the cost of having a “head full of doubts and a mouth full of lies,” an open letter to someone who should have known better, a bank-robbing uncle, the perils of institutional belief, forgiving yourself for having been young and foolish, owning up, and the heartbreak of losing someone to ideology. A line from the song “don’t let go” illustrates the final example:
“Close your eyes so you don’t see it
Close your mind on another trip
Now you think you know the truth
Twisting tighter with a broken tool”
Some of the lyrics are lighter, such as in “best laid plans” – a nod to poet Robert Burns, where the opening line of this romp is
“the best laid plans of mice and women often come right down to a different end.”
The songs of Best Laid Plans have played on terrestrial and internet radio, podcasts, and streaming platform playlists.
New Releases
Dooryarders have begun releasing singles from their second album, to be called Exhale on Maine St. The first single, “Cheap-ass Wine,” was released to streaming services on November 27, 2024. It has been played multiple times on Maine Music TV and Greetings From The Area Code 207, was featured on the Christmas week 2024 edition of Music from 207 on WCLZ 98.9 FM. Less than a month following release the song was selected for the Mainebrews N Musicreviews Best of 2024 list. “Blind Spot” was released January 1, 2025, and has been played on MMTV, GFAC207, and WCLZ Music From 207 also. Similar response was given to “3 O’Clock in the Morning,” released February 25, 2025, and “Sugah,” released April 25, 2025.
Listen to the new releases on our landing page.
Quotes about best laid plans
“…Bending space and time with their Retro-Rock sound.” Dev Atwood, host of Music from 207, WCLZ, FM 98.9
“Hey, alright! …I like that! A nice addition to the station.” Mike Halmo, host of The Blues Highway, WBOR, FM 91.1
“We love those guys.” Steve Smith, host of 20 @ 7 on Maine Music TV
“A strong offering…really like them” Mark Glazier, Global Indies with Marky
“They have an amazing sound, don’t they!” Isaac Banks, Banks Radio Australia
“…great music….” Chris Duke, Dukester Podcast
“Fans of R&B will love it. Certainly a great listen.” Paul Harwood, New and Independent Artists and Bands on Facebook and Instagram, review of album best laid plans.
Quotes About Dooryarders Live
Troy Bennett, The Harpswell Anchor, May 2025. “…the band swaggered through a 90-minute set of original songs about love, drinking, and bank robbery… Halfway through the set, a pair of young women came through the door and sat down at the bar. Minutes later, they were all smiles, paying attention and clearly loving it. ‘You guys are really blowing my mind,’ one of them told Stamey after the show.”
Tonic – Maine, (Facebook 3/18/25) “These guys crushed it last night!”
Matthew Glassman Chocolate Church Arts Center 2/7/25) “They’re here to remind us that we’re alive, and our hearts are beating.”
Bath Heritage Days (Facebook Comment on a band post 7/6/24) Thank you for coming again! So many compliments from the audience! Cheers to another Bath Heritage Days with Dooryarders!
Flight Deck Brewing (Facebook Comment on their post 7/2/24) Thank you for the amazing energy you brought! Customers and staff were rockin’ all night!