Route 66 Productions Launched Friday at The Asbury
Charlie Stone & Nancy Ryan Birthday Bash debuts charitable venture to support writers, musicians & artists
A duo in the thick of the Asbury Park late 70s music scene are opting not to rest on their laurels but to start a new venture based on giving back.
The news broke Friday night at The Asbury during a joint birthday celebration for lawyer Charlie Stone, who once dabbled in entertainment law and music production before resting in family law, and veteran country rockabilly singer-songwriter and guitarist Nancy Ryan, whose famed Ryan Rocks radio program has been nominated in the annual Asbury Music Awards’ Top Radio Personality category more than once.
Music and art veterans, family and friend, numbering close to 200, turned out for the birthday bash, held in support of the Jersey Shore Rescue Mission on Memorial Drive; little did they know it would prove to be the official launch of Route 66 Productions.
“Tonight was really about much more than it appeared to be,” Stone said. “What we are here to celebrate is our lives and we have a lot that we can do to help others.”
Along with art veterans Michael Green and Barbara Leavitt, the pair [all shown at right] have created an all encompassing organization that will not only represent talent [be it visual artists, writers or musicians] in order to help them forward their careers, but will hold special events to raise money for charitable causes.
“We are planning a number of special events for the spring and summer of 2017,” Stone said.
Among them is this month’s relaunch of Stone and Joe Santoro [owner of Custom Pools of West Belmar] Jersey Shore Pageant. First created as a beauty pageant that quickly grew, this time around, the pageants will feature a Ms and Mr competition for those ages 21 to 35. Contestants with be judged on the five As – Ambition, Achievements, Athleticism, Artistry, and Appearance, Stone said.
Opening the event, Ryan joined her famed jazz-guitarist brother Billy Ryan [who holds a coveted spot on the Sound of Asbury Park plaque outside Convention Hall] and Paul Whistler [both shown below right], known for leading many Jersey Sound groups.
Ryan is most known for his work as a lead guitarist with the Jaywalkers, James Cotton Blues Band, and Clarence Clemons and the Red Bank Rockers.
The sharing of what the new venture would encompass came via a screening that recalled the 
beginning of close to 40 year friendship and the many divergent roads that lead back to where it all began.
Their friendship started when Ryan invited Stone into the Bob Davis restaurant parking lot in the dead of winter to hear her play. Stone had just met Bruce Springsteen and was vetting the prospect focusing on entertainment law.
Having just passed the NJ Bar exam, friends took Stone to see a burgeoning Bruce Springsteen at the Stone Pony, Stone said. At the time his law practice was at the corner of Madison and Bond, where Springsteen [in need of a lawyer] met with Stone. While the representation deal never came into fruition, Stone was bit by the bug.
When he unexpectedly heard the two painters he’d hired to paint his home playing music in his backyard, he set out to bring the dream into reality.
“I realized these guys were taking so long to paint the house because they were actually rehearsing in my backyard the whole time,” Stone said. “I was amazed by what I was hearing. I had a love of music but I had never seen or heard someone so talented as Jonathan Mays before.”
It was several months later when Stone met Ryan and saw a natural pairing.
“Nancy sounded like Bonnie Raitt and Jonathan sounded like Cat Stevens and James Taylor mixed together,” Stone said.
A 2- to 3-year journey began.
When a childhood friend invited Stone to meet with his uncle in NYC, he had no idea the meeting would be with Allen Klein, founder of ABKCO Music & Records.
“I found out in the first hour that these were the people responsible for bringing the Rolling Stones to the United States,” Stone said. “I mean, I’m sitting with the guy that owns satisfaction.”
And while a pitched record deal never came into fruition due to Mays’ stage fright, Ryan went on to, and continues to, cement her mark in country rockabilly. For the past four years, she’s shifted her talents to spotlighting others via a live talk radio program entitled ‘Ryan Rocks It Asbury Park Style.’
“The excitement and electricity in Asbury Park was something,” Ryan said of being surrounded by the local music greats who went out to carve out niches in the national, if not international landscape. “I was blessed to grow up in that era.”
Stone, who has not only run a successful law practice, once co owned the largest recording and video production studios in the east on Route 9 in Howell, launched a successful fax business, was the first divorce mediator in Monmouth and Ocean counties, has served as Attorney to the Board of Directors of the Ocean Senior Citizens Housing Corporation for 40 years, and co-owned Ocean’s 20, a Long Branch bar and restaurant.
For Stone, returning to the industry is based on ‘a goal, or rather platform’ to create a foundation that will ‘provide a sweeter life for those who suffer from chronic depression and bipolar disorder.’
Route 66 Productions will host a Celebrity Golf and Tennis Tournament at Hollywood Golf and Country Club, a Sugar Run & Dog Walk, as well as a host of VIP events at The Asbury and the Berkeley Carteret Hotels, and other varied and exciting events, including a Health and Wellness Fair, a Shorefest featuring a Battle of shore bands, all taking place at Asbury Park venues. Also stay tuned for a TV series, currently in production.
For more information about Route 66 Productions visit http://www.route66productions.org, and for more about the Ms and Mr Jersey Shore Pageants, visit http://jerseyshorepageants.com.
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