The Stuff of Legend

We kindasorta called our cover boy's musical ascension.

by Brian Howard

You could call it one heck of a spit-claim.

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Back on Oct. 11, 2001, when I was the music editor for this newspaper, I wrote about a recent Penn grad who'd sent in a nine-track demo CD of his smooth, piano-grooving soul music. Though the name didn't exactly roll off the tongue, the music was hot. These were the days when Jill Scott vaulted from unknown to super-known overnight, the Roots were on the verge (some things are constants) and the Illadelph was the clubhouse of the neo-soul cognoscenti. Anything seemed possible. In a regular Music Issue feature called "A Dozen To Go" wherein we tabbed Philly's next wave of up-and-comers, I wrote:

Things tend to happen early for John Stephens. He started playing classical piano at 5. Began writing and performing his own songs at 11. He was directing choirs by 13. At age 16, the Springfield, Ohio, native graduated from high school and started at Penn, where he directed Counterparts, one of the nation's top collegiate a cappella choirs, and won a bunch of awards. The dude's talented, all right? Now 22, Stephens is based in New York, but is still very Philly at heart, as evidenced by the groovin' retro soul he's been hard at work on. A musician, composer, songwriter with a little bit of Stevie Wonder-kind magic at work, Stephens' nine-song demo ... displays a sultry soul groove that hearkens back to the smooth '70s but never sounds dated. Check this cat out on the way up, as he'll be playing an intimate show on Nov. 3 at North by Northwest in Mount Airy.

Now I could act all Kreskin and say I called it, like I totally foresaw the rise and eventual Legendification of Stephens and it's just no surprise to me at all that the guy I wrote that blurb about is now our flag-wrapped cover boy and will be playing the Art Museum fireworks show July 4.

But that'd be bullshit. I liked Stephens' demo (and wish to hell right about now that I could find that old copy) and could tell he was mad talented. But any star turn requires a little luck. You just can't predict that kind of stuff. Stephens had his Kanye moment and became Legend.

His albums, especially the multiplatinum Get Lifted, established him as a force; his appearances on the Colbert Report and, oh man, in that Will.i.am Obama video, established him as a voice.

For this week's cover story, we told A.D. Amorosi to get to the heart of the man who would be Legend, his Philly ties and what this huge gig means. And we sent Michael T. Regan to New York to drape the man in a flag and photograph him. Along with the cover shot and the gorgeous black-and-white image inside, you can browse outtakes from the shoots and stream "Green Light" (featuring Andre 3000), the first single off his forthcoming Evolver album.

A young black man who aspires to be a voice of change and is about to take a huge stage on the cusp of what could be a career-defining moment is a fitting metaphor in this political season. (That this weekend's Welcome America! festivities are sponsored by an oil company is another.)

On the Road Again

Two weeks ago I told you that David Sylvester's riding his bike across America and will post updates to our staff blog, The Clog. This week I'm telling you that another CP contributor's biking cross-country and updating on The Clog. This time it's Matt Stroud, who penned our brilliant "Notes From Underground" a few weeks back. He tells you why right here.

Contents

Last week we overhauled our table of contents to make it more of, well, a table of contents. That map is gone and in its place is a numerically delineated listing of all the excellent stuff you'll find inside. There's Rick V.'s story about a guy catching fire on the train tracks. And there's Mary Armstrong's story about the French Algerian guy who covered the Clash. Is it exciting? Maybe only to us. Is it useful? I think so, but you tell me.

(bhoward@citypaper.net)