YouTube Channel Profile Series: Stonesmyth's Channel

After a slight delay complicated by our busy July schedule and internet disruptions, here's this month's YouTube Channel Profile, as we again take a look at a randomly selected YouTube channel whose content is at least half devoted to local metal, hard rock, and/or punk musisicans and/or concerts! This month's channel gives us a talented solo project from a veteran local musician that we sadly lost last year, so here's what you should know!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stonesmyth's Channel (http://youtube.com/stonesmyth)

Owner: Stone Smyth singer/guitarist and veteran local hard rock solo musician Troy Isaac

Channel Timeline: Launched on May 1st, 2022; Videos uploaded from that day until June 2025

Channel Summary: The official YouTube channel for Stone Smyth, it features over 140 videos split between his original music for this project and his exploits for his outdoors company Maverick Fish Hunter, who factored into 90+ videos from August-December 2024 focusing on fishing, boating, and cooking. While not ostensibly music-linked, many of the Maverick Fish Hunter videos do feature Stone Smyth music in the background and/or credits, plus plugs and hype for future plans in the descriptions and tags. The fully Stone Smyth-centric uploads include music videos, original songs, and compilations of previously released songs, with band content fully resuming on their channel for its last six active months.

Why You Should Watch: This is the ideal place to watch Troy's 2020s music work and video content, and while a lot of his more ambitious goals for Stone Smyth in terms of releasing albums and going on tour went sadly unrealized due to his death in September of last year, he was a talented songwriter and musician! Outdoorsy readers may also like his Maverick Fish Hunter content, which covers a lot of bases, and folks may also be interested in watching his appearances as a chef on local and morning news shows from Southern Ontario in the early-mid 2000s, which made up his first uploads during his Maverick/cooking stretch in 2024. Note that some of his songs and videos have politically charged lyrics and/or imagery, while some Maverick Fish Hunter videos feature Troy catching, preparing, and cooking fish.

 Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

 

Stone Smyth Compilation video #14: Six early videos on the Stonesmyth channel are compilations of previews of songs from the project's wider catalogue, though based on the numbering, Troy took at least eight of these down for unannounced reasons. The last and longest of them from Halloween 2022 features clips of over a dozen songs from their back catalogue, including some political ones about US president preferences, so mind that going in. Of note, the song at the 8:00 mark is Troy's re-recording of "Cold Rain" from the "Local Steel" compilation CD, while "Heaven Can Wait" (featuring local guest singer Lorrie Lynn Bolduc) has an eerie title given Troy's passing three years later. Note that there are plugs to visit Reverbnation for Stone Smyth's planned concert tour dates in between previews, which unfortunately never happened. These songs are all available in full on this channel, but it's a good sampler of Troy's work!

 

 

Hit Hard - Stonesmyth, love all that action stuff thats Linda opening scene at Trout Lake: By far the most popular video on this channel, Stone Smyth's video for "Hit Hard" has logged over 1,900 views since its July 2024 upload. Rather than record performance video or scripted segments featuring himself, Troy was one to assemble videos from stock footage and (sometimes) CGI. This one is focused around outdoor activities and sports, like swimming, mountain biking, parasailing, and scuba diving, though bookended with a friend in the water at Trout Lake. This song will be reminiscent structurally of many of fellow local hard rock guitarist Tym Morrison's solo originals, and while Troy was somewhat limited vocally, he had a good ear for strong and catchy riffs, and the video is well edited!

 

 

Maverick Fish Hunter - fishing Lake Whitney Texas, smokers, camp sites, cactus, rodeo, cattle roping: Of the dozens of Troy's Maverick Fish Hunter videos, there's a lot to see for the outdoorsy type, especially anglers and boaters. Not all feature Stone Smyth music either, and a few do include stock audio that Troy didn't perform on. A good starting point for fans of the travelogue aspect of M.F.H. would be this August 2024 video of Troy visiting Lake Whitney, Texas, where he got some fishing in and saw the sights, both in nature and in the town proper, and even at a rodeo! A Stone Smyth instrumental serves as backing music here, and it's a quality composition, though low in the mix. Troy sure got around over the years, and there's plenty more where this came from on this channel! R.I.P. Troy!

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews and this month's CD review next, plus a lot of news catchup! Thanks everyone!

Our Recap Of Troy Isaac's 2024 Across The Tracks Interview On The Borderline!!

Today's post was supposed to be this month's Defunct Local Band Profile, with the former local hard rock solo project Stone Smyth randomly selected for the honours last month. However, I am going to slightly delay it so we can belatedly take a look at frontman Troy Isaac's interview with Adrian Vilaca on his series Across The Tracks on local internet radio station The Borderline! This interview premiered on May 29th of last year, fifteen months before Troy lost his battle with cancer, and alas, I didn't knew he did an interview with The Borderline until shortly after his passing. Better late than never, and this will help with additional context and information for when the Defunct Profile on Stone Smyth goes live! Before this interview, Adrian hadn't met Troy before, but he first came to know who he was via his presence on the 1998 compilation CD "Local Steel", where he played "A Long Cold Rain Comin' Down".

Troy starts the discussion by elaborating on how he first got into playing music as a kid in British Columbia, what instruments he played early on, and his early run in the band Angel Dust. In his youth, he lived in West Germany as a time while his stepfather served in the military overseas, and he played in a band named Machine Head (no relation) while living there. He began songwriting at about 15 years old in the late 1970s, and followed a normal career path as opposed to chasing the musician dream, but eventually started recording his own music, and was taking advantage of at-home recording software now that it was much more affordable and accessible than it was. Aside from guest female singers, all of Stone Smyth's music was purely a solo operation. Troy next discusses the recording experience for "A Long Cold Rain Comin' Down", which led to the "Local Steel" release concert at the former Peachy's.

The re-recording of that song by Stone Smyth (now titled simply "Cold Rain") is played in full at the 9:45 mark, with the interview picking back up at around 14:50. After discussing why he re-recorded the track, Troy discusses the sounds and styles he liked incorporating in his music, Troy talks about some of the favourite concerts of his as an attendee, and his far flung times living all over Canada, before setting up the second full song played in the interview, Stone Smyth's "Hanging Onto Fire", which comes on 19:20 into the episode. The second half of the interview begins at 23:20, with Adrian asking about Troy's one-man operation and recording process, with Troy aiming to take Stone Smyth to live concert stages (it is sad that he never got to realize that goal), while addressing how the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns affected his music plans back in 2020.

At this stage of his life, Troy was focusing on doing what he loved artistically rather than money, and this leads into the third song played during the episode, "Last Chance Mountain" (27:15). Adrian picks things back up at 30:40 by talking about how much he likes Troy's new song "Summertime", and asking about what kinds of messages Troy wanted to convey in his original music. He did note that he wanted to have uplifting messages in his music more than political or divisive content. "Summertime" is played on air at 34:15, with the interview resuming at 37:40. When asked about his then-future plans, Troy noted that he had a stage setup built for eventual live gigs, and eight more songs (as of May 2024) ready to release, while also acknowledging the rings that he wore to the interview. After setting up the final song to be played on air ("Hari Cari"), we hear that at the 40:40 mark, and the last segment of the interview beginsat 44:05.

To close, Adrian asks where we can hear Troy online, and he finally addresses where the Stone Smyth name comes from here, specifically a play on "blacksmith" without using the same spelling as Aerosmith, and he used the name for his own studio and planned guitar line as well. Troy was also hoping to begin shooting live videos in the fall of 2024, Nice casual interview that helps explain a bit about who Troy was and what he was aiming for with his music, and it is a shame that he passed at just 63 before some of his bigger future plans could be fully realized. Hearing this finally will be good to fill in some blanks for our Defunct Local Band Profile, but give the full Borderline interview a listen at this link or above, and R.I.P. Troy!

R.I.P. Troy Isaac (1962-2025)

I'd like to offer our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Stone Smyth frontman and veteran local hard rock guitarist Troy Isaac, who passed away at Sault Area Hospital on Saturday at the age of 63. Troy is survived by his parents Darlene Nichols and Barry Isaac and his pet Buddy. The obituary notes that he was deeply private, but loved music, the outdoors, independence, and travelling for work and his own thrill of adventure. There will be no public services, but in lieu of flowers, family would appreciate donations to the Sault Ste. Marie Humane Society or the Canadian Cancer Society, and arrangements were entrusted to the Northwood Funeral Home. Long-time SMS readers will know Troy from his off-and-on solo project Stone Smyth (f.k.a. StrykerGC and StonesmithGC), who had launched in 2014 but ramped up their activity at points in the early 2020s with original songs & teasers of plans to tour with a full band.

Previously, Troy was the only credited solo performer on 1998's "Local Steel" compilation album via his own original song "A Long Cold Rain Comin' Down", and he performed in multiple bands while not living in the Soo, including in the British Columbia-based Angel Dust. I admittedly slacked too much in covering Stone Smyth on the SMS, bur Troy had posted new music as recently as June (even teasing hopes to tour this summer), and he has 45 songs on most major streaming services, though as of his death, he had not compiled a full album for sale. You can see multiple videos for Stone Smyth songs on their YouTube channel, largely featuring stock and CGI footage, though most recent videos reflected Troy's company Maverick Fish Hunter, where he took part in fishing, boating, and cooking uploads, and there are even television appearances there. While our political opinions differed, Troy was a good and passionate guy, and it's a shame to lose him so suddenly.

Even recently, Troy had big plans musically for Stone Smyth, and he showed a solid multi-instrumental talent range and a good songwriters' ear on their dozens of original songs. There is something ironic in how his last released song is named "Dead And Gone", and how it was written in honour of the passing of his friend Ker. I plan to talk more about Troy and Stone Smyth on the SMS soon (he was interviewed on The Borderline last year!), but give his music a spin, and if you like fellow veteran solo hard rock musicians like Tym Morrison and SweetKenny, Stone Smyth won't be far off in style. R.I.P. Troy!

Emergency Festival Fallout, Sykotyk Rampage & Tantrym Tyme Updates, And More!!

Let's tackle most of our backlogged news on the site today, including some assorted recent notes, bug updates and news from prominent bands on each side of the border, and first, some extra fallout from a recent local concert festival, so here's what you should know!

Here's some more notes relating to last weekend's second annual Emergency Festival, including the anticipated new episode of Local2's music webseries Tuned with Donna Hopper! In this episode, Donna (who also MCed the festival) talks with festival founder/LopLops owner Stephen Alexander after the conclusion of the festival about how the festival went overall, how Stephen decided on the lineup, and what plans they're looking at for 2016's installment. He didn't address the Downtown Association issues and related move to Rocky DiPietro Field in the interview other than to say that this was the first year that they ticketed the event, but he expressed hope that the festival will get more local sponsor support next year and allow them to get even bigger acts from out of town (no word though on if it will move back downtown next year.) I did find it interesting that Stephen noted that the local bands were partly chosen as they hadn't had a chance to play the festival last year, even though all but Northwest did (maybe he meant the main stage?)

As for footage from the festival, there is some unique footage in the Tuned episode not previously seen in the prior Local2 video from the event, including clips of headliners The Fast Romantics at the start, and every band sans Gnaeus at the end (though muted Gnaeus clips can be seen during the interview), so if you were hoping to see footage of The Pixo Control, Northwest (well, just Marc Santos), and The Poor Young Things, here you go! Quality episode, especially if you attended the successful sophomore installment of The Emergency, so give it a look above! Remember, we can't embed Local2's videos here.

Next up, here's the first video that we've found from Friday night's first annual Superior Festival at The Savoy Bar & Nightclub, though surprisingly, it's not of one of the out of town headliners. This is actually of young Sault Michigan metal band Tantrym Tyme covering Black Stone Cherry's "Lonely Train" and Alter Bridge's "Metalingus" at the end of their set, as per their Facebook page yesterday, but the video appears to unveil the band's new lineup, as they've finally found a replacement for the already departed Quinton Jacobson. Though their sporadically updated Facebook page doesn't confirm his identity yet, personal Facebook postings confirm that the new guitarist is Grooves Music instructor Michael McLeod, giving the band a quartet lineup and a long haired member once again. I'm not familiar with Michael from other local bands, but as he is a guitar instructor, you know he has the chops, and he sounds pretty good from what I can tell in the video!

As for the video itself, it's filmed on the vertical cell phone camera angle, close to the corner of the stage. The guys are on form, handling the songs with relative ease, and the double guitar attack helps fill out their sound again! Also, singer/guitarist Jacob Hotlen is sounding more and more like Ten Kings' Brandon Carr as his voice develops! Give this new Tantrym Tyme video a look below, and stay tuned for more from the guys when posted!

Also, here's the latest from the original crash band, "blue Chinese metal crash punk" quartet Sykotyk Rampage! First, the veteran rockers will return to the stage for the first time in four months (and only the second time this year) on Monday, September 21st when they will join The Bear Hunters as openers for Mexican death metal band Evilheart at The Algonquin Pub! While not yet confirmed by promoters, they'll reportedly replace The Apocalypse Afterparty on the lineup for unannounced reasons (though note that they still haven't publically clarified their new lineup either.) Nice to see Sykotyk Rampage hopping on the Gonqshow train, and don't miss their creative crash rock next month! Also, Sykotyk Rampage have posted two new "albums" onto their Reverbnation page in the past month, those being "Kalos Kagathos" (an ancient Greek term for a military ideal of personal conduct) and "Soaked To The Nipple" (they titled it, don't shoot the messenger!), bringing their official discography to 54 albums.

Though the band no longer releases sale copies of their albums (these and other recent "albums" are all available as free streams), the fun, improvised, and irreverent nature of Sykotyk Rampage's albums come through as usual on these albums and other recent works, so if you like puppies snoring and stars decaying, give Sykotyk Rampage's newest material a listen above, and see them next month at The Gonq!

Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news items from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist or store name:

• After some prior uncertainty about it's status, local music instrument/lessons store Music Depot has apparently closed it's doors permanently. While the sign in the door of the Gore Street business still says "Closed until further notice" (as it has since December), it's Facebook page was quietly deleted this year, and Google Maps lists it as "permanently closed", joining Colosimo's Music Store & Sault Michigan's Steve's Music Center in local music store closures in the last two years. Disappointing for fans, but at least we still have four other regional music store options!
• Local classic metal quintet Project 421 have launched an official YouTube channel, and they've already stocked it with lots of videos from their concerts! Created by bassist Daniel Horton, I believe we've featured or acknowledged every video on the channel on the SMS in the past, so there's nothing brand new there yet, but it's a nice convenient spot for their videos, so check it all out above!
• Ex-StrykerGC frontman Troy Isaac Kulka is looking to join or start a new local band project, as per his post on the Musicians Wanted Facebook group on Tuesday. He sings and plays guitar, is in a place where he can focus more on music, and while he shared the StrykerGC Reverbnation page as a sample of his work, he described it as "a home recording project" that "was just a learning experience", and he's not requiring the songs to be played in his next work. Troy's a talented music veteran, so give him a shout above or at this link if you want to jam with him!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for much more news and updates this week! Thanks everyone!