Kill Devil -

Kill Devil were an American rustic-rock band from Merrifield, Virginia, that issued the 1977 private-press album Kill Devil.

Members: Stuart McArthur (vocals, keyboards, guitar, harmonica), Denis Desloge (guitar), Rod Cannon (drums), Jim Stafford (bass), Rob Whyte (vocals, guitar), Ray Richardson (vocals, guitar)

Background

Kill Devil formed in Merrifield with singer–multi-instrumentalist Stuart McArthur, guitarists Denis Desloge, Rob Whyte, and Ray Richardson, bassist Jim Stafford, and drummer Rod Cannon. Stafford began recording music in 1973 after buying a TEAC 3340S multitrack machine. The group used a Merrifield contact address when the musicians prepared their private LP.

Kill Devil

Kill Devil released their self-titled singular album in May 1977 as a private pressing.

The ten-song set draws on three guitarists and three singers with McArthur multi-tasked on keyboards and harmonica.

“Star of the Night” gallops with churning chords and barroom fills, carried out by dueling fretboard runs. “Wouldn’t You Know” treads slowly with bluesy licks and strum, culminating with spectrum-harmonied refrains.

“Spend Some Time” sprints with twangy runs amid saloon keys, brisk strum, and Southern-accented couplets. “You Gotta Stop If You Can” hops a bass-sped piano-boogie figure as humble vocals intensify in a windmill of staccato guitar trade-offs and organ swell. “Song for Lisa” is a haunted open letter to a long-lost love interest.

A1. “Sweet Country Morning” (3:34)
A2. “Star of the Night” (3:51)
A3. “You’re so Young” (3:31)
A4. “Sail” (3:45)
A5. “Wouldn’t You Know” (4:55)

B1. “Spend Some Time” (2:25)
B2. “Day to Day Living” (2:55)
B3. “Bye Bye Boogie” (3:33)
B4. “You Gotta Stop If You Can” (4:47)
B5. “Song for Lisa” (3:10)

The private pressing appeared in a sleeve that sets an ornate white band logo against a red-and-yellow circular field beside jagged brown rock forms.

In September 2025, the album entered digital circulation with the original ten-song sequence under a Kill Devil phonographic notice.

Postlude

Kill Devil issued no second album. In 2000, Stafford founded Eclipse Recording Company in St. Augustine and later worked there as an audio/forensics engineer and owner. At the studio in September 2012, Desloge joined North Star musicians Dave Besley and Eddie Pickett for an informal session.

Discography: