Whereas it may be a ridiculously large stretch to say that Chris Stamey has collaborated with each nice musician on the planet, he’s definitely made the rounds within the indie universe. His connection to Huge Star and Tv are the primary resume gadgets of notice. Within the Nineteen Seventies, he recorded with Richard Lloyd, performed bass for Alex Chilton and later launched Chris Bell’s “I Am The Cosmos”/“You And Your Sister” single on his Automobile label.
The next decade was marked by his storied work within the dB’s with Peter Holsapple, a songwriting partnership that outlived the band by a couple of a long time earlier than a 2012 dB’s reunion. Within the ’90s, Stamey crossed paths within the studio with Yo La Tengo, Whiskeytown, Le Tigre and different acclaimed acts. Extra just lately, Stamey’s Ardent Studios connection has come full circle as a member of the Huge Star Quintet. Led by the band’s sole surviving member, drummer Jody Stephens, the core lineup additionally contains R.E.M.’s Mike Mills, the Posies’ Jon Auer and Wilco’s Pat Sansone.
Sansone is among the many many notable names affiliated with Something Is Attainable (Label 51), Stamey’s newest solo album, which is formally out tomorrow. Different friends embrace the Lemon Twigs, Probyn Gregory (Brian Wilson), Matt Douglas (Mountain Goats), Matt McMichaels (Mayflies USA), Robert Sledge (Ben Folds 5), Marshall Crenshaw, and longtime buddies and collaborators Don Dixon and Mitch Easter. Produced by Stamey at his Fashionable Recording in Chapel Hill, N.C., the album is a love letter to the late-’50s/mid-’60s AM-radio hits of his youth.
Stamey walks us by Something Is Attainable monitor by monitor for this particular preview.
—Hobart Rowland
1) “I’d Be Misplaced With out You”
“The recording began with me pounding out the chords on piano, to which Mitch Easter then added an amazing twangy, reverbed-out Fender Bass VI a la Carol Kaye, apart Rob Ladd’s distinctive orchestral snare drum and drum-kit prospers. When Wes Lachot and the Lemon Twigs got here into the image, it morphed into one thing greater—a lot greater. Then Probyn knew simply what icing this cake wanted on flugelhorn and trombone. The manufacturing admittedly evokes the summery ’60s L.A. Ocean Manner sound, but it surely started otherwise—with my fascination for Jerome Kern’s “All The Issues You Are,” a tune that winds by ever-shifting key facilities however appears melodically inevitable all of the whereas. As written on piano, it seemed like a tune Chet Baker may need solar: sparse, nocturnal, intimate. I discovered quite a bit concerning the Seashore Boys recording model from my studio work with Alex Chilton—one thing else I’ve to thank him for.”
2) “Something Is Attainable”
“For a second in 2023, it appeared as if room-temperature chilly fusion energy was inside our attain. Alas, not but. However nonetheless, generally science makes a leap and all the pieces will get higher (automobiles that don’t burn fossil fuels, cell telephones) … or worse (cell telephones). Undecided the place discovering life on Mars would fall although. I requested Mitch to play his most Bev Bevan-ish drums. It was a lot enjoyable to play bass towards his fills and flams. The Lemon Twigs—with Pat Sansone and Wes—be a part of me once more on the hovering harmonies right here.”
3) “After All This Time”
“Definitely some debt is owed right here to the mid-century trendy torch-song champions of yesteryear. This efficiency by the Fellow Vacationers is from our one essential day of ensemble monitoring. After we reduce the monitor, I organized the strings and brass and added the weepy bottleneck Strat solo. Probyn performed flugelhorn.”
4) “Meet Me In Midtown”
“Tony Hatch wrote the basic ‘Downtown’ from a resort window in Instances Sq., mistaking it for the wilds of bohemian Greenwich Village. After I heard the tune on AM radio as a baby, I didn’t know any higher both. However dwelling within the Village within the days of CBGB, Lydia Lunch and the Mudd Membership, I noticed he’d missed the boat. I began to think about the tune he would possibly’ve written if he’d cottoned on to the place he was. Ultimately, I feel it additionally evokes the seedy mystique of the bars round Wall Road, after the stockbrokers abscond for Connecticut every evening—so perhaps I additionally missed the boat, geographically. It’s Charles Cleaver (on hyper-compressed grand piano) and Dan Davis on drums, I’m on bass and guitars, with Matt contributing the scintillating alto-sax break. Marshall Crenshaw, Robert Sledge, Lynn Blakey, Matt McMichaels and Rachel Kiel embrace the ‘yet one more for my child’ vibe and chime in on the refrains, with a ‘Hernando’s Hideaway’-ish ‘ooh’ within the bridges for good measure.”
5) “Don’t Discuss (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)”
“A really minimal monitor in Brian Wilson’s authentic Pet Sounds model—however that trip cymbal mesmerized me in highschool. Right here it’s organized extra as if it have been a full-on Wrecking Crew journey, with Jennifer Curtis enjoying 1,000,000 string components. Jason Foureman bowed and plucked acoustic bass and Josh Starmer performed cello, with Rachel on flute, Wes on organ and Dan on drums (besides on the finish). Once more, it’s Wes and the Lemon Twigs within the choir, singing components that have been organized and recorded for the unique model, then left on the cutting-room ground throughout mixing. (Darian Sahanaja, Wilson’s musical director, kindly despatched me the scores for these, plus the unique string components.)
6) “One Day, When My Ship Comes In”
“My dad served in World Conflict II. When he got here again, he appreciated to play a few of the songs of the day that evoked the continental separation of {couples} and the uncertainty as to whether or not they’d ever actually be reunited. ‘I’ll Be Residence For Christmas’ is a nice instance of those, as is ‘I’ll Be Seeing You.’ I feel this sense of being separated from family members, questioning if that ship will ever actually come again to port, is one thing we’ve all skilled. Hopefully, we received’t discover warfare as the rationale in years to come back. I’m on piano on this one. Because of Probyn for essential additions right here: flugelhorn, trombone and guitar fills.”
7) “In A Lonely Place”
“The scrumptious noir movie by the identical identify didn’t want a theme tune. It’s just about good as is. Nonetheless, I purloined a few of Dixon Steele’s dialogue and imagined what a later Roy Orbison-era theme would possibly’ve been. Don Dixon and Probyn cowl the brass right here, with Charles and Dan once more holding all of it down. Rachel, Robert Sledge and Matt McMichaels sing harmonies.”
8) “As soon as, On A Summer time’s Day”
“My first single underneath my very own identify, again in 1977, was ‘The Summer time Solar.’ I really like the seashore within the wintertime, nevertheless … sweaters, sandals, shivers, bonfires, gulls overhead. Rod McKuen and the Anita Kerr Singers had a moody hit in 1968 with The Sea, The Earth, The Sky, and I knew this was (pardon me, McKuen followers) terrible and sappy stuff. However I considered that file (I’m considerably embarrassed to confess) after I determined to seize a taste of the seashore in a method fairly totally different from what’s known as ‘seashore music’ in North and South Carolina. Right here, summer season is within the rearview. Kelly Pratt performed trumpet right into a batch of electronics, and Rachel added flute. The seagull guitars are mine.”
9) “Carried out With Love”
“This tune lifts a line and an angle of resignation from “As Tears Go By,” the Marianne Trustworthy hit. There additionally may be a debt owed to the sort of chord adjustments Graham Gouldman used on Hollies hits (or so I keep in mind considering after I was scripting this tune). I believed up the refrain sighs later as one other thought for the Lemon Twigs. Their touring schedule intervened, and Brett Harris nailed the components superbly. I simply love the best way Charles’ organ solo wraps across the modulated adjustments right here. Ben Robinson is on trumpet. I’m on drums on this one. I wished a simplicity and a scarcity of finesse in that regard—and I feel I discovered it.”
10) “Au Revoir And Good-Bye”
One other one carried out by the core quartet of Charles, me, Dan and Jason, this quantity started visually greater than musically. I imagined it happening on the Plaza in New York Metropolis, but additionally underneath the ‘huge clock’ of the Ray Milland movie. In some way this introduced me into an nearly Richard Rodgers place, harmonically. However I wished to combine it up a bit, give it a carefree Prohibition/flapper ‘straightforward come, straightforward go’ angle, so I put a waltz part into it—like one thing Michael Brown’s Left Banke would possibly’ve achieved. Laura Thomas performs the violin solo, surrounded by Rachel on flute, Matt Douglas on clarinet and Leah Gibson on cello.”
11) “Leaves In The Wind”
“The adjustments are taken from an instrumental composition of mine, ‘Un Autre Temps.’ I used to be keen on this as a piano piece, however I believed there may be room for including some phrases and melody. That is the place it landed. It was the final tune written for the file—I at all times assume albums ought to have one thing previous, new, borrowed and blue. Jason’s acoustic bass brings a delicacy and finesse to the adjustments right here that I really like. Probyn advised me he wasn’t certain he might discover any Chet Baker inside his horn. Was he ever fallacious.”
See Chris Stamey stay.
