West Coast Greetings

Much to my astonishment, people seem to be continuing to look in on this thing while I'm gone -- not a huge amount of traffic, but a steady trickle. In hope of enticing at least a few to come back later, I thought I'd drop one quick up date while I'm on the road (currently in San Francisco -- what a beautiful day!).

Chris Stamey is a key figure in the Triangle music scene, partly as a musician, partly as producer for a wide range of acts. He started out working with a young Mitch Easter in Winston-Salem, then was a member of the dB's, perhaps the classic almost-made-it-big NC band. In addition to a post-dBs solo musical career, he's produced records by national acts including Yo La Tengo and Alejandro Escovedo, as well as producing and mentoring many local bands, including the Caitlin Cary album I'm Staying Out which I've mentioned a few times (full post on Caitlin coming eventually), Whiskeytown, Thad Cockerell, and Chatham County Line.

MP3: "The Sound You Hear"
(from Travels in the South, Yep Roc 2004. Buy or download)
Well, dammit, I only discovered just now that Yep Roc has changed the sample MP3 they have up for this album. I had hoped to point you to "14 Shades of Green," which was the first thing I heard from this album, and is still the clear standout for me. The other songs are OK, they just tend to be a bit more pure pop, like this one, whereas "Shades of Green" has a little more edge and energy to it. Seek it out, even if this isn't quite your thing.

I don't mean to dog this track too much, I'm just disappointed the other one's not available. To make it up to you, here's a little live dB's from back in the day.

MP3: "pH Factor"
(Live at the Metro, Chicago, December 1984)
A nifty surfy instrumental number.

This has taken way longer than I'd intended (the things I do for nearly 10 readers a day...), but let me quickly thank Last Sound of Summer for blogrolling me. I've added that fairly eclectic music blog to my links list, as well as Big Rock Candy Mountain, a fine Chicago-based blog that's been working the twang angle somewhat lately. (Confidential to the proprietor of that blog -- if you want to link to me, you don't even have to ask...)

Gotta go now. See y'all next week.