Stonum and Drybread ... Sometimes they are a duo. Sometimes they are a six-piece band. But the sound always features the crowd-pleasing melodies of Leah Stonum, pianist and vocalist, and Mel Drybread, bassist, saxophonist and arranger.  

Their deep repertoire ranges from improvisational jazz standards like “Route Sixty-Six” and “What a Wonderful World,” to pop tunes from Elvis to the Beatles to Motown. 

Stonum and Drybread first joined creative forces on cruise boats that ply the Mississippi River. They have played separately in venues around the world with musicians such as Andy Williams, Chuck Berry, Debbie Boone, and Petula Clark. 

Stonum started her musical journey early. At home in Alabama, she amazed her family when, as a young child,  she began playing piano by ear, picking out melodies she had heard on the radio or in a film score.

After further training that included a college degree in music, she honed her skills over 25 years of playing at top venues like Pat O’Brien’s in the French Quarter, New Orleans. 

Drybread comes from a musical family in Kansas City, Missouri. He played gigs for twenty years with the area’s top jazz groups, plus  short stints with many major acts, including the Righteous Brothers, Count Basie vocalist Joe Williams, and the Tonight Show band. 

In 1992, Mel accepted Andy Williams’ invitation to join his band as full-time bassist. For the next 14 years, he accompanied Andy on world tours, on television, on five albums, and at Andy’s Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri. 

After years on the river boats, Stonum and Drybread stowed their luggage in 2016 to do something new: Play as house musicians Thursday through Saturday at The Tremont House hotel lounge in the resort town of Galveston, Texas.

In Spring 2020, as clubs everywhere went on a pandemic-forced hiatus, Stonum and Drybread were invited to entertain as a regular act aboard river boats in the Pacific Northwest of the United States for several years. Now, with their mountain home in Washington State as a base, they entertain appreciative audiences across the country.