It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve featured short takes on new music I didn’t get to cover when it came out, and it’s not been for lack of material! Usually, I publish these posts on Mondays, so this latest installment of Catching Up is also a bit out of order. By the time I decided to put together this post, I already had scheduled the review of my recent Doobies concert for yesterday.
This time, both of my picks fall into the realm of Americana, a genre that increasingly seems to become more attractive to me. I’m entirely new to both artists.
Chris Stamey – The Great Escape
Chris Stamey is a Chapel Hill, N.C.-based singer-songwriter and record producer. His website notes he played bass, cello and guitar in numerous high school bands and gained basic familiarity with sound by running a basement four-track studio in Winston-Salem, N.C., together with Mitch Easter who would go on and co-produce the first two R.E.M. albums and become the frontman of ’80s rock group Let’s Active. In 1977, Stamey self-released an album with Easter as Sneakers, briefly played with Alex Chilton and co-founded dB’s, an alternative rock and power pop band that exists to this day.
Since his 1982 solo debut, It’s a Wonderful Life, Stamey has released eight additional albums including his latest, The Great Escape, which appeared on July 7. His website characterizes it as a return “to the electric guitar sounds and melodic lyricism that informed his classic ’80s solo records It’s Alright, Fireworks, and 2004’s Travels in the South—but with a twist! This time out,…he’s found a distinctive spin on the ’70s Southern California country-rock flavors of the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers.
Here’s She Might Look My Way, a nice power pop tune. Like all of the other songs on the album, it was solely written by Stamey. I dig the harmony vocals and the jangly guitar sound.
Other tunes I’d like to call out include the title track, Realize, Here’s How We Start Again and the cleverly titled The Sweetheart of the Video. Here’s a Spotify link to the entire album.
Will Rainier – Wobble in the Moon
Will Rainier is a singer-songwriter and producer from Seattle, Wash. who characterizes his music as “indie rock with a side of twang.” Unfortunately, there’s very little publicly available background on him. A review in Americana UK notes Wobble in the Moon, which came out on June 30, is his self-produced sophomore solo album. He has also recorded albums with his wife Jen Garrett under the moniker Stuporohero, as well as his group Will Rainier and the Pines.
Here’s the beautiful Are You Waving Goodbye, on which Rainier shares vocals with his wife. According to his Bandcamp page, the neat pedal steel guitar action is provided by Raymond Richards and Kevin Suggs. Rainier plays all other instruments on this tune except for the piano (Christine Hager).
Other songs I like in particular are the opener The Patio, Dark Secret Heart, the title track , To Supreme and Endless. Last but not least, following is a Spotify link to the album.
Sources: Wikipedia; Chris Stamey website; Americana UK; Will Rainier Bandcamp page; YouTube; Spotify
Christian's Music Musings 