The term American singer-songwriter has seldom fit better than it does on Ty Stone.
He was born in the shadow of Midwestern steel mills in the Detroit heart of urban America, and raised on a steady diet of rock'n'soul. He cut his teeth in bar bands and minimum-wage day jobs, headed West looking for a big break, and then got it back home – though he never lost the earthy core that informs every word he sings and every note he plays. As he puts it, "You don't have to be a 16-year-old with a Mohawk to get Ty Stone music. You just have to be the guy who goes to work every day."
Kid Rock, who signed Stone to his Top Dog Records label in 2005, got it almost immediately – when a friend of Stone's handed the superstar a demo CD during a Detroit Pistons game. "He's a great songwriter and has the most incredible voice," says Rock, who executive produced "4 ON THE FLOOR," a debut EP that will surely whet appetites for Stone's forthcoming full-length debut. "His soul and his Rhythm & Blues instincts are just spot-on. It's exciting stuff to hear."
"4 ON THE FLOOR" offers clear-cut evidence of why Rock, Uncle Kracker, Hank Williams, Jr., David Allen Coe, Travis Tritt, and John Rich, among others, are singing Stone's praises. In "Blessed St. Anthony," a listener can visualize the transplanted artist, sitting alone in a Los Angeles apartment, wishing good things for those he left behind. We can feel the friendly fist thrust in the air in his home town-saluting rocker "Down River" and the warm, nostalgic nod to his influences in "Bob Seger." The subjects of "Beauty Queen," meanwhile, are as vivid as characters in a novel.
"I see myself filling that void that guys like Bob Seger and John Cougar Mellencamp once filled, that kind of Americana, normal, blue-collar, everyday man," Stone explains. "That's something everyone can relate to, y'know? I'm not a super pretty dude. I lived like everyone else and had all the bullshit jobs people had. I just want to write about real things that normal people can relate to."
Stone's musical indoctrination came from a real place and a real person – his father, who'd leave his job at McLouth Steel every day, come back to the family's home in Lincoln Park, a downriver suburb of Detroit, and play guitar along with early rock 'n' roll records in the basement. There are photos of toddler Stone holding a doorknob like a microphone and wailing along to Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry songs. Hip-hop also beckoned when he was young, and Stone bought a four-track recorder when he was 11 to record the rhymes he was busting.
Rap lasted through high school, but when Stone graduated and went off to Kenyon College in Ohio to study Political Science, with an eye towards law school, he took his father's guitar with him and started writing rock and country songs. Stone formed his first band during his senior year, and his post-graduate ambitions were scuttled. "We won this big battle of the bands, and that was it," Stone recalls. "Once I got a taste of that, I got caught up in the music thing."
Returning home, he went to work for Great Lakes Steel and formed a Southern-styled rock group called 2 Days Straight. The group recorded "THE CHROME ALBUM" in Nashville and had some regional success, but after Ty was laid off from his job, he decided to seek his fortune in Los Angeles. He spent three years alternately flipping hamburgers and playing clubs as a troubadour – and also recording a solo album, "TCMFB," that introduced him to producer Brian Irwin, who remains his primary studio collaborator.
The call from Kid Rock – and a subsequent visit to Los Angeles to see him perform – brought Stone back to Detroit, and before he knew it Ty was opening concerts in the kind of venues he'd only entered as a fan before. "I had that experience everyone fantasizes about – some rock star grabs you up out of your crappy life, moves you into his house, puts you on private jet, introduces you to his rock star friends," Stone notes. "That shit happened to me. I learned so much. It was just like having someone open your eyes, and you realize, 'Oh, this is what's going on!'"
The time since has been spent writing more songs – Stone figures he has more than 60 at the moment – and honing his sound. He's worked with a wealth of producers, co-writers, and musicians, traveling between Detroit, Nashville, and Los Angeles. He's also kept his playing chops up, both with his band and as a solo act, and he won a pair of 2009 Detroit Music Awards for Outstanding Rock/Pop Artist and Outstanding Acoustic Artist.
"He's come a long way with his songwriting and his stage presence," notes Kid Rock. "He's done a lot of different writing with different people and he's really been growing, just 'cause he's dedicated and a hard worker."
"4 ON THE FLOOR" offers a sampler that supports the success Stone's had so far. But there's more – much more – where that came from, and he's looking forward to letting the world hear those songs, too.
"I feel very blessed about the things that have gone on in my life," he says, "and music gives me the opportunity to give some of that positivity back to people. That's what I want to put out there right now. I have music that makes people feel good, just because they can relate to it and can feel like we're going through the same thing. I like that connection."
