News

We are happy to announce the release of our fourth CD, Sound Judgment. It’s another diverse set of songs with an ever expanding group of singers, with some adult contemporary, pop, rock, Americana, western swing and modern country. We are pleased to be able to work with some of the same singers we’ve worked with in the past, Dave Collaton, Tim Daley, Jeff Hendrick, Elise Lieberth and Jon Statham, and it’s also great to find new singers like Christie Gerwinat, Meghan Knight and Connie Lopez. Instrumentation and production duties were shared by Jeff Hendrick, Jim Hendrick and Andy Kemp, all tied masterfully together by Jim Hendrick. Thanks to all for a job well done.  This CD, as well as the previous 3 can be purchased from our Home Page, as well as our Songs Page.

We wrote a song about shrimping in the Gulf with the hope that it would help out the folks who were making a documentary about that declining industry down in SW Florida. They liked it well enough to use throughout the film. The documentary previewed at the Fort Myers Beach Film Festival to rave reviews and won the People’s Choice Award. We are pleased to have had a small part in this project. Watch Pink Gold Rush here: http://www.pinkgoldrush.com/ and listen to our song with the same title.

We are honored to have three of our songs included in a documentary about suicide prevention called If You Only Knew What You Left Behind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kiqViVazhY&feature=youtu.be Can’t Say It Enough, Here With Me and Pretty Good Place are well placed in this excellent and worthwhile watching documentary.

We were Finalists in the SongDoor Songwriting Contest for 2013 with Out Of Love. As if that honor wasn’t enough, three other songs, Second Chance, About That and Red Rose were Honorable Mentions in the Country category and Awakening was an Honorable Mention with Special Recognition in the Soft Rock category. What an awesome experience!

Jim and Ricki added a video to their website to a new song called "Out of Love" recorded and performed by Jeff Hendrick from Denver.  The song originally called "Meant To Be" was critiqued by SOWI and re-worked and emerged with some new lines and a new title.  It's quickly becoming one of their favorite songs from their ever expanding catalog.  Since their partnership began three short years ago,  Ricki and Jim have recorded about 70 of the 90 songs they've written.  As of this writing, they have four new songs being recorded.  Please watch and listen on our Videos page.

Ricki and I just released our third CD called TECOS (third eclectic collection of songs) and on this CD we feature six different singers.  We have a very diverse CD musically speaking with some contemporary country, folk, country rock, pop ,country swing, a Gospel tune and some Bakersfield country.  The vocalists are Elise Lieberth and Jeff Hendrick from Denver, CO., Dave Collaton from Ft. Myers Beach, FL and Tim Daley, Jen Friend and Jon Statham from Nashville. Instrumentation and production were by Jim Hendrick and Jim Purtell was the executive producer.

Wisconsin Public TV has selected "Before It's Too Late" a song Ricki and Jim wrote about teen suicide for a program airing state-wide in Wisconsin on December 11, 2012.  Stoney Beach Music will be offering a free download of the song following the airing until December 31, 2012.

Jim and Ricki were notified that their song "The Price" was picked up for a short Indie film in LA called "The Company".

Ricki and I placed in two different SOWI (Songwriters Of Wisconsin, International) song contest categories.  In the Open Category "Can't Say It Enough" took second and in the Rock/Pop category "Awakening" took second place.  Ricki and I were named Songwriters of the Year.

Ricki and Jim are busy composing new songs and several were selected by an LA based company that provides songs to advertising, movie and TV outlets.  The documentary Duty, Honor, Country:  Betrayal is in post production and should be released soon.  Jim is the associate producer of that film and Ricki and Jim have five musical cues in that documentary.  Ricki and Jim have been in conversations with another independent filmmaker in LA about using songs from their ever expanding catalog.  Ricki, Jim and Al Torsiello's CD Vietnam:  There and Back is now available at www.vietnamthereandback.com and has received several very good reviews.   One song "Nobody Cared" is also in the documentary referenced above.

Vocalist Elise Lieberth is featuring a Bellos and Purtell song called "Rescue" on her youtube channel.  Check her out:  Elise Lieberth YouTube Page

Ricki and Jim placed five songs in a documentary called "Duty, Honor Country:  Betrayal" which will be released shortly.  Stay tuned as there may be a soundtrack for this film.  Ricki, Jim and Al Torsiello placed a song called "Nobody Cared" in the same documentary.  This song will be featured in their new CD called Vietnam:  There and Back which will be available soon at a site which is currently under construction www.vietnamthereandback.com

SECOS is now available!  We will be working this week to get it up on this site (Direct), and on Reverb Nation....Stay tuned...

Ricki helped Jim and his Vietnam Vet buddy Al Torsiello write a CD about our Vietnam experiences which is being recorded and produced as of this writing.

Our new album "SECOS" will be available in about 10 days.  Please contact us to pre-order your copy, and watch here for the official release...

Colleen Miller, Jim Hendrick and Jim Purtell teamed up once again to do a video to a Bellos & Purtell composition called "Almost There".  The team interpreted the song in this video to be about a grieving widow who is considering another romance after losing her husband in Iraq.  She has met another guy who she cares for a lot and she's "Almost There" with regard to making the commitment.  Elise Lieberth from Denver, CO did the vocals for this video.

Ricki and Jim recently wrote a song to honor Korean War veterans after Jim attended an event honoring his uncle at the Highground Veterans Memorial in Neillsville, WI.   The Korean War is commonly called the forgotten war and the veterans who fought in that war were referred to as forgotten veterans.  Ricki and Jim picked up on that theme and wrote a song called "Forgotten No More".  After the song was completed, Jim decided to do another music video.  Jim recruited his sister Colleen Miller and with Jim Hendrick they produced a moving music video called "Forgotten No More".  The song is performed by Jon Statham.  The video can be viewed on our Videos page, as well as on YouTube.