The temptation to talk about Allen Stone's look — the long, straggly blond hair, his trademark Seattle Supersonics jersey and those chunky reading glasses a great-grandmother might consider out of style — completely disappears once he opens his mouth.
That's because a voice like Stone's warm tenor sounds like a product of a forgotten, pre-Auto-Tune era.
Stone, who is currently opening for Jack's Mannequin but will perform his own headlining set at the 8x10 on Sunday, is one of the most promising and surprising soul singers in years. He's capable of switching between full-throated wails and ice-melting falsetto, all with the type of restraint the great singers possess.
But as a "total sports kid raised in the country," Stone nearly kept his gift hidden because he was worried about being teased.
"In third or fourth grade, I remember going to music class, and for some reason I knew I could sing," said Stone, a minister's son who first sang in church. "But sitting next to my buddies, I faked it. I didn't want to sound good because I didn't want them to make fun of me."
As he grew older, Stone became more confident in his ability. He said he realized he wanted to be a singer at 19, after being "mesmerized" by blues-pop singer Marc Broussard in concert. After a semester of community college, Stone moved to Seattle and never looked back.
He hasn't had much time to. In the past two years, Stone, now 24, has self-released two albums ("Last to Speak" and last year's self-titled effort) to critical acclaim. Even the country's most prominent critics couldn't help tossing Stone's name around with Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke and Stone's first singer-hero, Stevie Wonder. ("It's kind of stupid, huh?" he said of the comparisons.)
Plenty of people are buying into Stone's talent, including Conan O'Brien, who was "blown away" by Stone's performance of "Unaware" on his show last October. It was a vindicating moment, Stone said, because he had earned the right to perform without a major label's "big elbows nudging [show producers] into that spot."
Allen Stone's beautiful soul
Singer Allen Stone performs Feb. 12 at The 8x10 in South Baltimore. (Jason Tang, Handout photo)