Allen Stone (born March 13, 1987) is an American

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun '':wikt:soul, soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The ea ...

and R&B singer and musician.Deming, Mark. Allen Stone Biography

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

. Retrieved February 15, 2013.

Early life

Stone was born on March 13, 1987, in

Chewelah, Washington Chewelah ( ) is a city in Stevens County, Washington, United States. It is located approximately northwest of Spokane. The population was 2,607 at the 2010 census, a 19.3% increase from 2000. History The name of the town comes from a Kalispel ...

, near

Spokane Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Canada ...

. He began his career singing at his father's church. His father was a preacher and his mother was an OB/GYN nurse. He began singing in church at the age of 3. By 14, Stone was leading worship at his church and playing the guitar. The draw of music for Allen was mainly being able to express himself to a crowd of people. Allen did not discover soul music until he was a teenager, and started collecting classic albums from the 1960s and 1970s. He was 15 when he heard

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, pop, sou ...

's 1973 album ''

Innervisions ''Innervisions'' is the sixteenth studio album by American singer, songwriter, and musician Stevie Wonder, released on August 3, 1973, by Tamla, a subsidiary of Motown Records. A landmark recording of Wonder's "classic period", the album has be ...

''. When

Stacie Orrico Stacie Joy Orrico (born March 3, 1986) is an American singer, songwriter and occasional actress. After signing to ForeFront Records, Orrico recorded her first album, '' Genuine'' (2000), which sold 13,000 units in its first week of release. Af ...

, a close friend of Allen's as a teen, became successful in music, Stone decided to become serious about his musical career. Orrico released a record and had become successful. "She was traveling, singing everywhere, and recording," Stone related. "She was just a year older than me and I was like, 'Man that would be so much fun to do, sing and actually have people listen.'" When Stone was 18, he moved to Spokane, where he attended community college for a semester followed by a year at Moody Bible Institute in Spokane. After that year, Stone had an epiphany. He stated in an interview with SF Gate, "I learned the history of the church and the conception of the Bible and learned about the religion and really just, like, didn't believe it... I got to the point where it was like, 'I don't believe this is the truth.'" Not long after, he moved to

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

to pursue his musical career.

Influences

Stone has been influenced by

Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown (music style), Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player ...

, The Meters,

Aretha Franklin Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Referred to as the "Queen of Soul", she has twice been placed ninth in ''Rolling Stone''s "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". With ...

Gladys Knight Gladys Maria Knight (born May 28, 1944), known as the "Empress of Soul", is an American singer, actress and businesswoman. A seven-time Grammy Award-winner, Knight recorded hits through the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s with her family group Gladys K ...

Jamie Lidell Jamie Alexander Lidderdale (born 18 September 1973, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, England), known professionally as Jamie Lidell, is an English musician, soul singer and podcast host living in Nashville, Tennessee. Lidell was formerly a part of ...

and James Morrison.

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

compared his socially conscious music to the likes of

Donny Hathaway Donny Edward Hathaway (October 1, 1945 – January 13, 1979) was an American soul singer, keyboardist, songwriter, and arranger whom ''Rolling Stone'' described as a "soul legend". His most popular songs include " The Ghetto", "This Christmas ...

Bill Withers William Harrison Withers Jr. (July 4, 1938 – March 30, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He had several hits over a career spanning 18 years, including "Ain't No Sunshine" (1971), "Grandma's Hands" (1971), " Use Me" (1972) ...

and two of his musical influences

and

Career

He has released five albums, ''Last to Speak'' (2010, self-released), the self-titled ''Allen Stone'' (2011, ATO Records), ''Radius'' (2015,

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...

), ''Building Balance'' (2019, ATO Records) and ''APART'' (2021, ATO Records). ''Radius'' was also re-released by ATO Records in 2016 as a deluxe edition with seven additional tracks. Stone had been touring cross-country for a few years and sold a self-released album on the Internet. However, it was not until October 2011, when his second album was released, that his career began to truly kick off. On this album, he was backed by

Raphael Saadiq Raphael Saadiq (; born Charles Ray Wiggins; May 14, 1966) is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He rose to fame as a member of the multiplatinum group Tony! Toni! Toné! In addition to his solo and group ...

's rhythm section and

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musi ...

' keyboardist

Deron Johnson Deron Roger Johnson (July 17, 1938 – April 23, 1992) was an American professional baseball infielder, outfielder, designated hitter, and coach, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees, Kansas City/Oakland Athletics, ...

. A few songs on ''Allen Stone'' were co-written with

Andy Grammer Andrew Charles Grammer (born December 3, 1983) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is signed to S-Curve Records. His debut album, '' Andy Grammer'', was released in 2011 and spawned the singles " Keep Your Head Up" and " ...

. ''Allen Stone'' peaked at the number 2 spot on the R&B/Soul charts on iTunes and hit number 9 and number 35 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' Heatseekers and R&B/Hip Hop Album charts, respectively. ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virg ...

'' called Allen Stone a "pitch-perfect powerhouse". On October 26, 2011, he performed his song "Unaware" on '' Conan''. In 2012, he was featured on the song "Neon Cathedral" by

Macklemore Benjamin Hammond Haggerty (born June 19, 1983), better known by his stage name Macklemore ( ; (formerly Professor Macklemore), is an American rapper and songwriter. A native of Seattle, Washington, he has collaborated with producer Ryan Lew ...

and

Ryan Lewis Ryan Scott Lewis (born March 25, 1988) is an American record producer, DJ, videographer, photographer, graphic designer, music video director, rapper, and songwriter. Along with producing his own album, ''Instrumentals'', Lewis produced the alb ...

off their album '' The Heist.'' Stone was voted one of mtvU's ''Freshman 5'' in late 2012 and tapped as VH1's first "You Oughta Know" artist of 2013. Then on January 3, 2013, he appeared on ''

The Ellen DeGeneres Show ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' (often shortened to ''Ellen'' or ''The Ellen Show'') is an American daytime television variety comedy talk show that was created and hosted by its namesake Ellen DeGeneres. Debuting on September 8, 2003, it was pr ...

'' and sang "Sleep". He appeared on '' Conan'' again on June 17, 2015. ''Radius'', his first album for

, was released on May 26, 2015. It was recorded in collaboration with Magnus Tingsek, and features production from Malay and

Benny Cassette Benny Cassette (born in Los Angeles) is an American record producer, rapper, singer, and songwriter. Signed to Kanye West's Very Good Beats as a producer since 2013, he worked on Kanye West's '' Yeezus'' and ''The Life of Pablo'' albums among ot ...

. Allen Stone said of the album title, "The radius is that line extending from the center of the circle to its exterior, and in a lot of ways this album is about getting out things deep inside—whether it's love or insecurity or joy or frustration about things going on today." On March 25, 2016, ''Radius'' was re-released as a deluxe edition by ATO Records with seven additional tracks. On April 13, 2017, Stone's song "Perfect World" was featured on the trailer for the upcoming

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

series ''

Dear White People ''Dear White People'' is a 2014 American satire (film and television), satirical Black comedy, dark comedy-drama film written, directed and co-produced by Justin Simien. The film focuses on escalating racial tensions at a fictitious, prestigious ...

''. In 2018, Allen released the single "Brown Eyed Lover" and appeared on ''

American Idol ''American Idol'' is an American singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It aired on Fox from June 11, 2002, to A ...

'' in 2018, to sing duets with multiple contestants. His fourth full-length album, 2019's ''Building Balance'', was co-produced with

. In 2022, Allen competed in the ''

American Song Contest ''American Song Contest'' is an American music reality competition television series based on the Eurovision Song Contest. It sees all 50 U.S. states, five territories, and Washington, D.C. compete for the title of Best Original Song. The f ...

'', representing his home state of Washington. He placed first out of eleven in the jury vote for his semi-final, and advanced to the competition final and finished in fifth place despite not performing live due to personal reasons. October 4, 2022, Allen released his new single "5 Minutes" and will be going on tour in Australia on November 11, 2022.

Social commentary in music

On Allen Stone's self-titled album, a few songs discuss social and political issues, such as "Unaware", "Contact High", and "What I've Seen". A live music video of "Unaware – Allen Stone – Live From His Mother's Living Room" on Stone's YouTube account has been viewed over 13,000,000 times. Stone wanted to have a different and weird setting for this video, so they recorded it on a set that looked like a living room.

Discography

Albums

*''Last to Speak'' (2010,

self-released Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author at their own cost, without the involvement of a publisher. The term usually refers to written media, such as books and magazines, either as an ebook or as a physical copy using POD (pri ...

) *'' Allen Stone'' (2011,

– Released in 2012 by ATO Records) *''Radius'' (May 26, 2015, Capitol; deluxe edition: March 25, 2016, ATO Records) *''Building Balance'' (November 8, 2019) *''APART'' (November 12, 2021)

As featured artist

* ''Run Deep'' (March 23, 2018, "Turnt Up" by Deva Mahal, Motema Records)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stone, Allen American rhythm and blues singer-songwriters American soul musicians American soul singers American male singer-songwriters Singer-songwriters from Washington (state) 1987 births Living people 21st-century American singers 21st-century American male singers ATO Records artists MapleMusic Recordings artists Capitol Records artists American Song Contest contestants