Doug Stone Picks Up Beat For Uptempo Alternatives

Country music

Much-admired ballad singer Doug Stone is characterizing his forthcoming sixth album, and his first for the Columbia label, as a hottempo alternative to his predominant image.

“I was going for as many uptempos as I could get, because most people know me by my ballads,” he says. “It’s real risky, too, because you’re staking your career that they’re going to like your uptempos. But I figure what the heck. I’m only here one time, and if I don’t do it, I’ll turn around when I’m 60 years old and go, ‘Dadgum, I wish I had done that just to see if they’d have liked it.”’

Stone’s move isn’t as risky as one might assume, since about half the album - which is titled “Faith in Me, Faith in You” - still consists of ballads, but some of the uptempos are definitely hotter than anything Stone has done before. That is especially true of the opening cut, “You Won’t Outlive Me,” an unbridled galloper glorifying the fast life.

The collection appears to be the product of a real drive to move Stone’s career to another plateau.

One of the goals both he and Columbia appear to have for this package, which is scheduled for release April 18, is to etch Stone’s profile deeper in the public consciousness.

“The thing I’ve found is that people know my music, but they don’t really know who I am,” he reflects. On the other hand, he’s a long way from his days as a Georgia auto mechanic. “People may not be beating down my door to steal my doorknobs,” he says, “but I’m in a pretty good slot.”

Mattea video, song a winner

Kathy Mattea’s “Walking Away a Winner” video is now available in stores as part of the official 1994 NBA World Championship Video, “The Houston Rockets - Clutch City.”

The single “Walking Away a Winner” is included on “Women for Women,” an album to benefit breast health awareness and the National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations. The latter project contains other cuts from such singers as Sheryl Crow, Carly Simon, Melissa Etheridge and Annie Lennox.