credit: Daniel Coston
Chris Stamey
Chris Stamey, whose new album Anything Is Possible is slated for July release, 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 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.
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