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TJ McCloud

American musician

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 27, 2025
Entity authorityQ7670513 ↗
Source-derived summary

TJ McCloud (born August 26, 1980) is an American indie and folk singer-songwriter and missionary.

Early career

Born in Stillwater, Oklahoma, in 1980, he lived in Perry, Oklahoma until 1990, then moved with his family to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he finished high school. In 1999, he co-founded the group Doubting Thomas with Jenks High School buddies Ab Colby and Rockwell Ryan Ripperger. While a student at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas, McCloud and Ripperger later morphed into the successful indie group Stephen Speaks. The band's first full-length album No More Doubt, released in September 2001, did well, spreading through college campuses and the newly formed Internet sharing service, Napster. Through word of mouth, the singles "Out of My League" and "Passenger Seat" were picked up internationally and both songs went to No. 1 on Filipino radio stations throughout the Spring of 2003, breaking all previous pop music records for that country. The album, then signed and distributed through Warner Bros., went certified platinum for that market. A music video for "Passenger Seat" was also produced and went to No. 1 on MTV Asia.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “TJ McCloud” as american musician. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around McCloud, American and musician.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1980, 1990, 1999, 2001—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1980-08-26. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with McCloud, American and musician providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “TJ McCloud”, the useful work is to connect “american musician” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 27, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7670513. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1980, 1990, 1999 and 2001.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “TJ McCloud”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow TJ McCloud primary sources, TJ McCloud archive and McCloud research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “TJ McCloud”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “TJ McCloud” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.