Blue & Lonesome: The Stones’ No-Overdub Blues Blast at British Grove

The 2016 album Blue & Lonesome wasn’t just another Stones record — it was a raw, live-in-the-studio blues homage cut entirely without overdubs. They booked British Grove Studios (Mark Knopfler’s place) because it had a vintage Neve console and a stash of old ribbon mics, which producer Don Was used to capture the band playing together in one room, exactly the way they used to.

Was set up the amps far apart to avoid bleed but let the natural room sound fill the tape. Keith Richards used his signature Fender amps; Charlie Watts’s drum kit was positioned so the subtle floor tom thump came through unaltered. Most songs were first or second takes — no punch-ins, no fixes. The result is the loosest, most honest record they’d made in decades, and their first all-covers album since 1964.