Stone Age Institute Musicians

Carrie Newcomer / Seymour Duncan / Sage Benado / Nicholas Toth / Henry Corning
Tom Schoenemann / Kenny Aronoff / Kathy Schick / guest musicians

the Stone age institute
Musicians

Carrie Newcomer
vocalist

Carrie Newcomer is an SAI advisory board member, and her signature voice breathes life into the lyrics for The Stone Age Institute science education songs.

Carrie is a Grammy award winning singer/songwriter, who maintains a busy schedule of touring and performing concerts in the U.S. and overseas. The Stone Age Institute is fortunate to have Carrie bring her exceptional vocal repertoire and musical intuition to the song recording sessions.

Carrie's voice graces not only "From the Big Bang to the World Wide Web," "Ancestral Faces," and "Homo erectus," to name a few, but she just finished recording the vocal tracks for the newly released song, also written by Nicholas Toth and Kathy Schick, titled "I'm A Denisovan."

Seymour Duncan
lead guitarist

Seymour Duncan received three prestigious awards in 2012

Seymour W. Duncan, SAI advisory board member since 1993, is not only a guitar legend, he also lends his name and engineering genius to the world famous Seymour Duncan Company, which manufactures pickups for electric guitars and bass.

Despite having a busy schedule and living in California, where his pickup company Seymour Duncan is based, Seymour still finds time, every year or so, to make a stop at The Stone Age Institute to jam with fellow guitar enthusiast, Nicholas Toth, and a few local musicians. It was during a few of these visits that Seymour contributed his guitar talents to science education songs written by Nicholas Toth and Kathy Schick, "From the Big Bang to the World Wide Web," "Ancestral Faces," and "Homo erectus." Seymour's most recent lead guitar contribution is for "Modern Humans," which was recorded in California and digitally sent to Echo Park recording studio in Bloomington, Indiana.

For the SAI music tracks, Seymour is playing a replica of the guitar he built for Jeff Beck, which Beck played to earn him his first Grammy for best rock instrumental for the song “’Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers” on the “Blow by Blow” album (1975), produced by Beatles producer George Martin.

Sage Benado
guitarist

Sage Benado is not only an accomplished guitarist, he is also owner of Benado Effects, a guitar pedal effects manufacturing company based in Kentucky. Sage's rhythmic guitar work can be heard on many of the Stone Age Institute science education songs.

Nicholas Toth
guitarist

Nicholas Toth is a paleolithic archaeologist, guitarist, and songwriter. Nick co-directs The Stone Age Institute (SAI). He is also a professor in the Department of Anthropology and the Cognitive Science Program at Indiana University, Bloomington. When Nick is not busy co-directing SAI, he spends some of his time playing one of his vintage guitars and writing science education songs.

Henry Corning
bass guitarist

Henry Corning, Vice President on the SAI executive board, is a venture capitalist, sculptor, and bass guitarist based in California. Henry also owns Meadow Sweet Dairy. He has been very involved with the SAI science education songs project, and provides the bass rhythms for many of the song recordings.

Tom Schoenemann
drummer, percussionist

Tom Schoenemann is a bioanthropologist in the Department of Anthropology and the Cognitive Science Program at Indiana University. He is also a research scientist affiliated with The Stone Age Institute. He plays the drums and/or percussion on all of the SAI science education songs.

Kenny Aronoff
drummer, percussionist

Kenny Aronoff, an SAI advisory board member, is a world class professional drummer and percussionist who had spent many years in Bloomington, Indiana before he relocated to California recently. He has drummed with John Mellencamp, John Fogerty, Melissa Etheridge, BB King, Smashing Pumpkins, the Rolling Stones, Joe Cocker, etc. He has generously taken the time from his very busy schedule to add his talents to the SAI science education songs project. His drum and percussion beats are featured in the SAI song, "Homo erectus."

Kathy Schick
percussionist

Kathy Schick is a paleolithic archaeologist, percussionist, and songwriter. Kathy also co-directs The Stone Age Institute (SAI), and is a professor in the Department of Anthropology and the Cognitive Science Program at Indiana University, Bloomington. Kathy adds texture to the song recordings with various percussion instruments, and co-writes the SAI science education songs with Nick Toth.