Chris Stamey - The Great Escape (2023) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

On his new album, The Great Escape, Chris Stamey – known for his work in The dB's, the Big Star's Third concerts, returns 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, alongside adroit pedal-steel aces Eric Heywood (Jayhawks, Pretenders, Alejandro Escovedo) and Allyn Love, Mipso's Libby Rodenbough, and Chatham County Line's John Teer and Dave Wilson, he's found a distinctive spin on the '70s Southern California country-rock flavors of the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers.

There's also a vibrant version of a lost classic, the Alex Chilton / Tommy Hoehn composition "She Might Look My Way," remembered fondly by Stamey from his late '70s live performances with Chilton and the (unreleased) studio recording of it they did together for Elektra Records at Todd Rundgren's studio. Here, it features two world-class fellow producers: Mitch Easter (Let's Active), on drums and Terry Manning (Ardent Studios producer/engineer/guitarist; Staples Singers, Led Zeppelin, ZZ Top). Most tracks, however, are expertly anchored by Rob Ladd (The Connells) or Dan Davis (Six-String Drag) on drums, often accompanied by co-producer Jeff Crawford on bass. The Great Escape, the first release in decades on seminal indie label Car Records (on which Stamey had issued recordings by Chris Bell, Mitch Easter, and himself in the late '70s and early '80s), will be available on CD, digital downloads, and streaming platforms, via a joint venture with Schoolkids Record, and includes two bonus tracks: an "electric" version of "Back in New York," augmented a la Tom Wilson's electrification of "The Sounds of Silence," and a stream-of-consciousness celebration of a surprise early-morning phone call with "the one and only" Van Dyke Parks.

Chris Stamey's a songwriting connoisseur. In recent years this co-founder of the dB's, the influential '80s power pop band, has been paying tribute to classic pop song history and making a virtue of musical nostalgia. His last two solo albums, New Songs for the 20th Century (2019) and A Brand-New Shade of Blue (2020) successfully revived the kind of direct and unabashedly romantic pop songwriting that preceded rock and roll—without being boring or trite. The Great Escape, on the other hand, is a collection filled with the kind of indie rock the singer-songwriter has been making since the late 1970s. It opens with the one-two punch of the sunny, easy-to-like guitar pop of the title track and the even better "Realize." Both are reasonable facsimiles of the deep tracks that make the original pair of dB's albums so special. A welcome artifact is an earnest revival of the unknown Alex Chilton/Tommy Hoehn tune "She Might Look My Way," featuring engineering and producing legend Mitch Easter on drums and Terry Manning of Stax/Ardent Studios fame on guitar, bass, vocals, and mellotron flutes. Later, Stamey evokes the Byrds with the happy rhythms, massed voices, and nimble pedal steel of his wedding song, "I Will Try" as well as the rolling lilt and obvious title reference of "The Sweetheart of the Video." His autobiographical "Greensboro Days" harks back to '60s "California Dreamin'"-styled sunshine pop. Led by the pedal steel of Eric Heywood and the lap steel and dobro of Allyn Love, there's also a slight country shade to some of the songs. This includes the majestic and mournful ballad, "(A Prisoner of This) Hopeless Love," where fiddle accompanies lines like "jealousy and a wandering eye will tear your love apart" which force the undone narrator to concede he's "just a prisoner of this hopeless love, until my day is done." The mood swings the other way in the bubbly and sentimental "Back In New York." A nod to Stamey's continuing fascination with Tin Pan Alley that appears in both acoustic and electric versions, it's a fairy tale love song to Gotham where "the subways sing a lullaby" and where he wants to revel in a "jingle jangle morning where Dave Van Ronk would sing, where Trane played 'E-pis-tro-phy.'" A romantic versed in many genres, Chris Stamey continues to make the case that illuminating songwriting never goes out of style. © Robert Baird/Qobuz

Tracklist:
01. The Great Escape
02. Realize
03. She Might Look My Way
04. Here's How We Start Again
05. I Will Try
06. Dear Friend
07. Greensboro Days
08. Back in New York
09. The Sweetheart of the Video
10. The Catherine's Wheel
11. (A Prisoner of This) Hopeless Love
12. The One and Only (Van Dyke Parks)
13. Back in New York (Electric Mix)
14. Album Credits


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