Angie Stone uses late father as inspiration for ‘Unexpected’

Angie Stone’s angelic voice seemingly was made to sing lush R&B/soul. It’s likely no surprise that her 2007 Stax label debut “The Art of Love & War,” topped Billboard’s R&B/hip-hop chart. What was surprising was that midway through planning her follow-up album, her father died unexpectedly.

“It was rough. I still have my days,” Stone said from her home in Atlanta, just before heading out on tour. “I channeled all that energy into my dad, and made him a partner in navigating the process and getting on with it. ‘Til I turned it over and made him a partner in this, I couldn’t do it.”

The result is “Unexpected,” an album full of funky back beats — such as the one on the title track inspired by Sly Stone’s 1971 hit “Family Affair” — and rich soulful sounds. The music seems a fitting tribute to Stone’s father, who she calls her spiritual anchor and creative mentor.

It’s also just what Stone has hoped moving her away from neo-soul sounds and more toward classic Stax sounds with contemporary flair.

“When I started my album I wanted to do something different,” she said. “I wanted to go right, while everybody else was going left. I wanted to go back to the day when music made you feel good, sounded good and this did that for me.”

The songs have a rich mix of textures and messages, from the up tempo “I Ain’t Hearin’ U,” — a song about gossip and innuendo that Stone co-wrote with Juanita Wynn — to “I Don’t Care,” which goes to the heart of what Stone’s dad taught her as a child.

“My dad always used to tell me, ‘Don’t worry about what people say. They can’t change anything. Whatever God wants for you is most important,” she said.

The ballad “Think Sometimes” was inspired in large part by Stone’s late father and his sudden death.

It literally took her one or two months where she “shut down for a minute” to continue work on her album.

“I spent many days — and I mean days — in a room alone and then finally someone told me I needed to snap out of it. Time was going on and it was time for me to get back to work and try to make this moment as meaningful for him as it would have been for me,” she said.

Although some would hesitate to be so candid in their songs, Stone said music played a major part of her healing process. She also shares deeply personal stories with her concert audiences.

“What I sing is in my head and in my heart,” she said. “My life is my music and my life is an open book. My music is a large part of what is inside of me.”