THE BEAT GOES ON
NEW YORK—“Don’t make me out too solemn,” warns Chris Stamey in his twangy southern accent. And to prove his point, he suggests a couple of jokes for the photograph that’ll illustrate the article. “On the other hand...” he cracks, “or: And behind door number three...”
THE BEAT GOES ON
Chris Stamey’s Wonderful Life
NEW YORK—“Don’t make me out too solemn,” warns Chris Stamey in his twangy southern accent. And to prove his point, he suggests a couple of jokes for the photograph that’ll illustrate the article. “On the other hand...” he cracks, “or: And behind door number three...” But a person might be excused for taking Chris seriously; as coleader of quite possibly the best pop group working today, the dB’s, he’s done more to push the limits of the song then 15 Culture Clubs. Songs like “Cycles Per Second,” “I Feel Good (Today),” and “Ask For Jill” are as explicitly about music’s capacity to absorb change and remain constant as was the Beatles’ Revolver. Commercial differences notwithstanding.
And now on his first solo album, It’s A Wonderful Life, he has made an artistic statement miles away from the dB’s’ uneasy listening—yet still provocative enough to pay repeated plays with deep pleasure. A chance encounter with fellow dB Peter Holsapple lead Pete to inform me: “Now I understand how our fans feel when they buy our albums.”