Winners of the 2019 “Best Cover Band” awarded by Vermont’s own Sevendays Magazine, Sticks and Stones delivers nothing but the best in top quality entertainment for your wedding, corporate function, or special event. 

    For over 7 years, the band has been playing everyones favorite modern pop dance music, classic rock, and country rock cover songs. Fronted by the very talented Hayley Stone on vocals, tight bass grooves held down by local music scene veteran Aaron Albee (bass) guitar virtuoso Brian Maple and Sam Averbuck guitar and vocals and Troy Cyphers (drums and vocals), this band strives to make all of their tunes sound tight and right at every performance!  There are no weak links in this lineup and people who come to see this band have said they stayed just to hear what song the band was going to play next. Sticks And Stones features multi vocal talents, jaw dropping guitar work, and stage presence that is sure to grab your attention and keep you dancing all night!

Meet the Band

Aaron was born and raised in Newport Center VT. His Passion for music started early and by the age of 14 he had bought his first bass guitar and it took off from there. “I have very fond memories as a teenager sitting around a big round table with family and friends learning and playing all kinds of music from The Eagles , Neil Young, Vince Gill, Garth Brookes, Bad Company, to Buddy Guy.” By 18 Aaron moved to Burlington VT, and started immersing in the local music scene. Playing in bands such as Pleasant Tense, The Albee Damned Blues Band, Sand Blizzard, Dirty Work,  and Dan Parks and The Blame.

Brian is a musician from Burlington Vermont.  He started out 20 years ago playing alternative rock and various metal genres.  He graduated from Johnson State College with a degree in Jazz Performance. He enjoys many styles of music including blues, jazz, rock, metal, and has even been known to listen to Indian classical music and Pakistani traditional songs.  He has always been a rock player but favors rock music with a strong jazz influence.  Some of his favorite guitar players are Michael Landau, Wayne Krantz, Shawn Lane, Pat Metheney, John Pettrucci, and Jerry Cantrell.

When Brian isn’t practicing guitar he can be found teaching guitar lessons at Advance Music, spending time with his fiancé and their family, motorcycling, mountain biking, and eating junk food, especially Sour Patch Kids.

Hayley started singing at the age of 10 with her Dad and family at the piano and from there was the passion for plays, chorus, concerts and of course singing for family and friends wherever she could, which they remind her of all the time.

I had the opportunity to sing back up for a band that came in from Nashville and played at Higher Ground and that was the start for me to do something I knew I wanted to keep doing. I went to Nashville and took some vocal lessons and continued singing in other bands and filling in for back up singing wherever I could.

My brother Justin and I had talked about doing something with music our whole lives and we finally had the opportunity and started Sticks and Stones. We have played so many great events and can’t wait for more!

My free time consists of spending time with my two kids, biking, running, paddle boarding, skiing and being active.

Troy attended a Boston area weekend party with his parents where the hosts happened to be friends with the band Boston, and the house served as their rehearsal space for a period of time. Troy ventured down to the basement and discovered Sib Hashian’s practice drum kit and could not resist sitting down and trying it out. The adults upstairs immediately took notice and convinced his parents that they should buy him a drum set. Sure enough they got him one shortly after and things took off from there.

Beginning at age 10, Troy began taking drum lessons and participating in many of the school concert bands and jazz/percussion ensemble’s all through graduation from Ward Melville high school on Long Island. Since age 17 he has been actively performing with a variety of bands in all the places he has lived throughout the country, beginning in his hometown of Port Jefferson and then spanning from Martha’s Vineyard to Sonoma county, California, and for the past 12 years, here in Vermont where he lives with his family in Malletts Bay.

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Dan has been a part of the Burlington (VT) music scene for many years. Having played in The Limit and the blame, he’s released plenty of original material including the blame‘s full-length CD “Shine Again”, the single “I Want It” for the soundtrack of the film National Lampoon’s Cattle Call, and the single “Christmas Eve” (on which Aaron plays bass!).
“I’m happy and excited to be a part of Sticks & Stones. There’s great energy, and they’re really a fantastic, tight-knit group. And the music? Let’s just say I was really impressed with just how well they…we, all play together”