Lauded NC Songwriter’s Record Release Show

Chris Stamey is returning to City Winery to celebrate the release of the new Anything Is Possible (out July 11 on Label 51). He’ll be accompanied for this special premiere performance by a New York “A Team”: Andy Burton (John Mayer, Rufus Wainwright), keys; Jeremy Chatsky (Loser’s Lounge, Bruce Springsteen), bass; session ace Kenny Soule, drums; and longtime collaborator Dave Schramm (Yo La Tengo, the Schramms), electric guitar. The evening will feature selections from the new album—which includes contributions from the Lemon Twigs, Pat Sansone (Wilco), Probyn Gregory (Brian Wilson Band) and Marshall Crenshaw—as well as fan favorites and deep cuts from across his “5 decades ‘twixt pen and pick,” including from his tenure with power-pop band the dB’s and from his other lauded solo records.

“This album is a love letter to the kind of harmonically rich yet often lyrically innocent pop music I heard, on the family turntable and especially on AM radio, growing up in the late 50s and mid-60s in the American South. I have since come to understand more about the nuts and bolts of those songs, but the magic of those first encounters remains,” explains Stamey.

Chris began writing and playing music in Winston-Salem, NC, in the mid 1960s. In 1976, he self-released Sneakers, one of the very first American “indie” records, then relocated to Manhattan in 1977 to play and record with Alex Chilton. He formed The dB’s in 1978, then recorded well-received solo records for A&M and Warners, and toured with Anton Fier’s Golden Palominos (with Michael Stipe [R.E.M.], Jack Bruce [Cream], and Bernie Worrell). As a producer, arranger, and mixer, he has worked with over a hundred artists, including Alejandro Escovedo, Kronos Quartet, Flat Duo Jets, Skylar Gudasz, Branford Marsalis, Ryan Adams, Tift Merritt, Le Tigre, Those Pretty Wrongs, The Salt Collective, and Yo La Tengo. From 2010-2018, Stamey was orchestrator and musical director for an international series of concert performances of Big Star’s classic album Third. A “songwriting memoir,” A Spy in the House of Loud (Univ. of Texas Press), was published in 2018. His recent releases include The Great Escape, Lovesick Blues, Euphoria, and New Songs for the 20th Century.

Chris Stamey is an American musical treasure. . . . Stamey has an unerring sense of melody, and can instrumentally conjure/convey emotion that supports the lyrics. And subtle flourishes – unexpected chord changes and the like – make his music both immediately accessible and worthy of deep-dive listening.—Bill Kopp, Musoscribe.com

I’m not sure how old someone has to get before you can’t call him a “Boy Genius” anymore, but at least I know now that it’s post-60.—Mike Fornatale, Shindig

Chris Stamey’s a songwriting connoisseur. . . . A romantic versed in many genres, Chris Stamey continues to make the case that illuminating songwriting never goes out of style—Robert Baird, Qobuz

A vibrant and expressive musical palette—American Songwriter