Tedo Stone’s rock ‘n roll origin story seems almost too authentic to be real, the type you might expect from some fabled early 20th century bluesman, but certainly not from a modern-day twenty-something with a Bandcamp page. But Stone did in fact grow up in a musical family in Covington, Georgia, a small town you might happen to find yourself in if you somehow managed to get lost trying to make your way from Atlanta to Athens. By the age of 12, Stone was already well on his way, fronting a band that he toured through the motorcycle bars of greater Covington. A more badass way to hone your chops, we cannot imagine.
By 2013, Stone was all grown up and living in Atlanta when he released his first proper album, Good Go Bad. As is often the case with debut efforts, however, Stone didn’t yet feel like he’d truly come into his own. That would change soon thereafter when he started playing around Athens and developing a raw, often-snarling, often-sweet live sound that’s about as close to the guts of American rock ’n roll as one can get, albeit with a little psychedelic undercurrent. Think Dinosaur Jr. meets Neil Young meets a mason jar full of sweet tea and bourbon before mason jars started trending on Etsy (go ahead and throw a smidge of Deerhunter in there, too). Knowing he was on to something, Stone rushed into the studio to lay it all down, live and straight to tape, as we can only assume is customary when you’re a musician from Covington, G.A. What resulted were 10 new tracks that would go on to make up Stone’s second album, Marshes, which will be available September 18 on This Is American Music.
You can listen to the album opener, “To The Marshes”, for the first time below.
