Acclaimed North Carolina singer-songwriter, musician, and producer Chris Stamey, will release his first studio album in two years, Euphoria, June 2.
The album is now available for pre-order at Yep Roc and iTunes with an instant download of “Invisible,” which premiered today at Brooklyn Vegan. Listen to the song in the player below.
Recorded at Mitch Easter’s Fidelitorium and his own Modern Recording with the help of Jeff Crawford, the 10-song set finds Stamey returning to his electric roots with an emotionally resonant set of rocking, melodically infectious, sonically bracing new tunes, with expansive arrangements incorporating horns alongside unexpected sonic textures.
“I found these songs inside the same dilapidated old Silvertone lipstick guitar that I’d written my first records on,” Stamey asserts. “Maybe that’s why it sounds a bit like those records in some ways.” In addition to Stamey’s own memorable compositions, the album highlights includes the rousing opening track “Universe-sized Arms,” a previously unreleased Ryan Adams composition that Adams suggested he record.
Assembling some longtime friends from Chapel Hill’s fertile musical community, the album features Tony Stiglitz, F.J. Ventre, Wes Lachot, Matt McMichaels, Eric Marshall (Let’s Active), Django Haskins (The Old Ceremony) and longtime cohort Mitch Easter, as well as guests Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub), Pat Sansone (Wilco).
The follow-up to 2013’s widely acclaimed Lovesick Blues, and 2012’s dB’s reunion album Falling Off the Sky. Since 2010, Stamey has been the musical director and orchestrator for a series of all-star international concert performances of Big Star’s classic album Sister Lovers aka Third, with a rotating musical cast that includes Big Star’s Jody Stephens as well as members of the Posies, R.E.M., Teenage Fanclub, Wilco and Yo La Tengo.
Stamey has also produced and recorded a wide variety of artists at Modern Recording, the Chapel Hill studio that he’s operated for the past two decades, including the likes of Whiskeytown, Alejandro Escovedo, Flat Duo Jets, Le Tigre and Tift Merritt.
Tracklisting:
- Universe-sized Arms
- Where Does the Time Go?
- Invisible
- Make Up Your Mind
- Euphoria
- Awake in the World
- Dear Valentine
- When the Fever Breaks
- You Are Beautiful
- Rocketship