First, the official word/press release as tablesetter: “Anything Is Possible is the latest collection of original material (and one affectionate cover) from North Carolina songwriter / vocalist / guitarist / producer Chris Stamey, an indie rock icon with a long and illustrious history that’s encompassed co-founding seminal avant-pop band The dBs, playing with Alex Chilton in the ’70s and more recently with Jody Stephens’s Big Star Quintet, and recording with the all-star smart-pop outfit the Salt Collective. The new album features special guests such as The Lemon Twigs, Pat Sansone (Wilco), Probyn Gregory (Brian Wilson band), and Marshall Crenshaw among others. The album was produced by Stamey at Modern Recording in Chapel Hill, NC. Anything Is Possible is being released by Label 51 Recordings on 12” LP vinyl, CD, digital download and streaming platforms on July 11.
“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.
Anything Is Possible’s music was first workshopped in L.A. with members of the Wild Honey Orchestra reading from written scores. The initial basic tracks were then recorded at Overdub Lane (Durham, NC) with Dan Davis (drums), Jason Foureman (acoustic bass), and Charles Cleaver (piano), with Chris singing, playing additional keyboards, guitars, and bass as well as writing the orchestrations. The record was then shaped and completed over the course of a year at Modern Recording with contributions from the Lemon Twigs, Matt Douglas (Mountain Goats), long-time collaborator Mitch Easter, Probyn Gregory (Brian Wilson Band), Marshall Crenshaw, Don Dixon, Brett Harris, Rachel Kiel, Matt McMichaels (Mayflies USA), Kelly Pratt (War On Drugs arranger), Pat Sansone, Robert Sledge (Ben Folds Five), and the Modrec Orchestra. Wes Lachot, NC musician/engineer and internationally lauded studio designer, came on board in the final stages with fresh ears and invaluable advice.
Among the album’s highlights is “I’d Be Lost Without You.” Chris describes the song’s development: “It started with me pounding out the chords on piano, to which Mitch Easter then added a great twangy, reverbed-out Fender Bass VI à la Carol Kaye, aside Rob Ladd’s distinctive ‘orchestral’ snare drum and drumkit flourishes. But when the Lemon Twigs came into the picture with all those harmonies, it morphed into something bigger . . . much bigger. Then Probyn Gregory (flugelhorn, trombone) knew just what icing this cake needed. Although this production evokes the summer sixties L.A. sound, it began differently: with my fascination for Jerome Kern’s “All the Things You Are”, a song that winds through ever-shifting key centers but seems melodically inevitable all the while. Originally, as written on piano, it sounded like a song Chet Baker might have sung; sparse, nocturnal and intimate. I learned a lot about The Beach Boys recording style from studio work with Alex Chilton – something else I have to thank him for.”
Another standout is the title track. “I began writing this record while listening regularly to the gentle, whimsical music of Harry Nilsson and Brian Wilson.” recalls Stamey, “It all changed when in 2023, I played some shows with the Twigs. Their electric energy reminded me how much fun it was to plug in a guitar and crank it up. I asked Mitch Easter to play drums like he’d play back in high school, when we listened to ’60’s Brit hitmakers The Move, constantly. It was so much fun for me to play Roy Wood bass riffs once again against his Bev Bevan fills and flams. Once Pat Sansone, Michael and Brian D’Addario, and Wes sang the soaring harmonies, I knew we were into something good.”
Chris envisions “When My Ship Comes In” as “a lullaby in the tradition of songs popular in WWII, such as “I’ll Be Seeing You” – a time when couples were separated by war, by distance, not knowing if their “ships” would ever really return home.”
There’s one non-original tune on Anything Is Possible, “Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder.” Chris reminisces, “This was a very minimal track in Brian Wilson’s original Pet Sounds version, but that ride cymbal mesmerized me in high school. Here, it’s arranged more as if it were a full-on Wrecking Crew adventure, with Jennifer Curtis playing a million string parts. Again it’s Wes and The Lemon Twigs in the choir, singing parts that were arranged and recorded for the original version, but then left on the cutting-room floor during its mixing. Darian Sahanaja, Wilson’s musical director, kindly let me see the concert scores for these original harmonies and for the original string parts as well, and Probyn advised on some crucial details.”
Chris Stamey began writing and playing music in grade school in Winston-Salem, NC, in the mid 1960’s (in what is known now as the Combo Corner scene). After relocated to New York to play and record with Alex Chilton in the burgeoning CBGB rock scene in 1977, he then formed The dB’s with fellow Carolinians Will Rigby, Gene Holder, and Peter Holsapple, with whom he made several acclaimed records of original material, including Stands for deciBels (self-produced with Alan Betrock) and the masterpiece, Repercussion (produced by Scott Litt).
His recent releases include Lovesick Blues, Euphoria and The Great Escape, as well as Falling Off the Sky with The dB’s, New Songs For The 20th Century and A Brand-New Shade of Blue with the Fellow Travelers. From 2010-2018, Stamey was orchestrator and musical director for an international series of concert performances of Big Star’s classic album Third, alongside Big Star’s Jody Stephens, Ray Davies, members of The Posies, R.E.M., Teenage Fanclub, Wilco, and Yo La Tengo; Thank You, Friends, a concert film of these arrangements, was released by Concord in March 2017. He currently tours as a member of Jody Stephens’s Big Star Quintet, whose line-up includes Mike Mills (R.E.M), Pat Sansone (Wilco), and Jon Auer (Posies). His original radio musical about the early ’60’s in Manhattan, “Occasional Shivers”, premiered nationwide on Christmas Day 2016. A “songwriting memoir,” A Spy in the House of Loud (Univ. of Texas Press), was published in 2018.”
The above may be a breakdown on this album, but there’s so much more to dissect. As readers of my previous reviews know, I’ve been a fan and follower of Mr. Stamey’s work for more than 40 years, beginning with his days with The dB’s. And his solo efforts have always been an interesting musical adventure, as each album he’s meticulously crafted, has varied in styles and structures. Every finely-crafted note is a measure of Mr. Stamey’s sense of composition and arrangement; his attention to detail is a nearly lost art in this modern world of what passes for “music”. The title track is a perfect example of how a “pop” song can be both “rock”-ish and nuanced. His cover of Brian Wilson’s “Don’t Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)” takes on a greater sense of poignancy now, in light of Mr. Wilson’s recent passing. This very delicate treatment has that loving touch of orchestral arrangement brings the song to a higher emotional level. The pop sensibilities of “In A Lonely Place” have a wonderful contradictory sense – the radio-friendly arrangement offset by wistful lyrics that resonate and “After All This Time” and “Leaves In The Wind” are modern torch-songs; jazzy pieces that would have fit perfectly on either of his groundbreaking albums, New Songs For The 20th Century and A Brand-New Shade Of Blue. And “I’d Be Lost Without You” – one of the album’s stellar highlights – is unquestionably a page taken from Brian Wilson’s playbook – the perfect song to start the summer; immediately evoking The Beach Boys. It’s impossible to not hear the stylistic similarities – the use of sleigh bells; the keyboards; the bass and the multi-layered harmonies are perfectly executed.
As I’ve said on numerous occasions, I’ve been a fan of Mr. Stamey’s for over 40 years. But more than that, I’m a listener. And I always marvel at what he comes up with on each new release. We’re lucky to have him do what he does so well.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Anything Is Possible will be released on Friday, July 11th, 2025
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