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Last Updated:
Feb 2nd, 2010 - 13:42:13 |
Ty Stone's
Search For "The Truth"
You may wander your whole life in search of the truth — searching portals through travels, family, drugs, religion, poetry … any path that you feel will set you free. But for Ty Stone, the singer, the search for truth ended with results last week inside the walls of vintage clothing store, Showtime Clothing.
Stone isn’t just any voice to come out of metro-Detroit. His country swagger and pop sensibilities are celebrated by his buddies Kid Rock and Uncle Kracker and he’s being poised as “the next one” to break it big …
On The Rocks music aficionados Kathy Vargo and Dana Forrester teamed up with CW50 and Ty Stone in his search for “The Truth,” a contest they held that would actually result in the formation of Stone’s new band. CW50 has a Made in Michigan sector that highlights different events and people responsible for making things happen in Michigan … and Stone caught their attention fairly quickly with his charisma.
Stone was blessed by the music gods when, in 2005, one of his friends happened to be at a Pistons game that Kid Rock was attending and gave him Stone’s demo CD (don’t get any ideas, Kid Rock doesn’t have time to hear every demo from every Detroiter). But after the game, Kid Rock popped Ty's demo in his limo and two days later, Stone got a phone call from him that would change his life.
He has a voice of soul, rock, country and blues and is definitely one of Detroit's rising stars. Originally, Stones' sights were set on law school and he went to Kenyon College in Ohio, and while going to school he found the time to write rock and country songs. He formed his first band during his senior year and they entered a battle of the bands and won. This set the wheels in motion for Ty to switch gears from law to music. Now he's living the dream and is bringing some others with him. In Ty's search for "The Truth," there were more than 100 applicants and the first round of auditions was held at the Guitar Center in Allen Park. The turnout ranged from the seasoned musician to the young and aspiring, plenty of talent came out of the woodwork for the potential chance to be in Ty's band. For round two, the venue was the Detroit Hard Rock Café, where the contestants were put into three groups and had to play three songs together in front of a packed crowd. This had to be quite a challenge when you consider that they had never played together and had a very small window of time to practice before performing.
Two of the three groups were chosen to go on to the next round of the competition. For the final chapter and round three, the contestants played a live show with Ty at the Emerald Theatre on October 17 for Detroit’s Best of 2009. Each round of the contest has been made into a webisode that can be viewed on the CW50 Detroit website. The newest webisode will be shown at Ty Stone’s Thanksgiving Rockin’ Eve where he will debut his new band at St. Andrew's Hall on Wednesday, November 25. To announce the winners for the contest it was arranged to have them all come to Showtime Clothing — the store that’s been dressing rockstars in Detroit for 20 years. They were not yet privy to the information that they had won. CW50 and the Detroit Gossip Girls were there for the filming of the next webisode. The Detroit Gossip Girls are the winners of a month long contest put on by CW50. The three lucky girls (Lauren, Danielle and Veronica) get to go to all the exclusive events and happenings around Detroit. You can check out their blogs and pictures on the CW50 website.
Once all the contestants were there, they gathered in the back of the store. Ty announced to them that he had some good news and some bad news, which did they want first? Everyone agreed that the bad news should be first. Instead, he told them the good news first, which was they won the contest and would be his new band, however there was a bit of a catch — a slight hazing, per se. They would be getting makeovers and they would also receive some awesome threads from Showtime. For the makeovers, celebrity makeup artist and stylist Jon Lieckfelt was front and center to make these talented musicians look their best. Some of Jon’s celeb clients include Adam Brody, John Malkovich, Kevin Costner and Jaime Pressley, just to name a few. His studio is located in Birmingham and he has his own line of fantastic cosmetics called Priss. The new faces and talent of Ty Stone’s band are Billy Reedy, Mitch Schirr, Mike Vendittelli, Christian Draheim, Greg Bayer and Lauren Whitmore. The most nervous participant in the makeovers was Billy Reedy, who did not want to cut his hair. Ty jokingly yelled across the room to the owner of Showtime, “Dan, do you have any handcuffs?” Billy tried to talk his way out of it, but it had to be done. Guess what? It looked great after it was done and he was digging it.
For a little insight into Ty’s new band we’ll start with Billy Reedy who's been playing guitar for 30 years. Some of the bands he has played with include Novadriver, Walk On Water and Vivian George. When asked what some of his major musical influences were he responded with, “Everything I’ve ever heard, even the bad stuff, it showed me what not to do.” Next up we have Mitch Schirr, who’s been playing drums since the mid-'80s. Bands that he’s performed with include Huck Johns, David Shelby and the Marta Complex. When asked to describe his feelings about the modern music industry he responded that it’s like the wild west. Moving on to Mike Vendittelli, who has 15 years of guitar experience, 10 years of bass and 12 years of vocals. He has played lead guitar and sung background vocals for 10 years in the band Greenstreet. Next is Christian Draheim who has 20 years guitar experience and 10 years on bass, he’s played with Blue Eyed Soul and the Infatuations. Last up is the talented vocalist Lauren Whitmore, who has been singing with the band Broke for the past few years and cites Pat Benatar as a huge influence. In one of the webisodes on the CW50 website they show her singing a song by Carrie Underwood and just from watching that brief clip you can tell why she was chosen as a winner in Ty’s search for “The Truth.” It’ll be exciting to see Ty’s band’s synergy as they embark on their musical journey together. Currently, the future looks extremely bright and the possibilities are endless. | RDW
Ty Stone & The Truth • 11/25 • St. Andrew’s Hall
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