Posted on

The Dream Syndicate’s Steve Wynn to present night of music and stories at Rise@Bluebird Bakery on Saturday

“I don’t see this show as a stodgy reading or as a random selection of songs but, rather, a tiny play of sorts,” says Los Angelean musician and author Steve Wynn. Picture: Guy Kokken

ON his first UK solo tour in more than a decade, The Dream Syndicate founder and leader Steve Wynn visits Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, on Saturday night.

The Paisley Underground legend will be promoting his first solo album since 2010, Make It Right (Fire Records), along with his new memoir, I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True (Jawbone Press), both released on August 30.

Wynn’s one-man show blends songs from and inspired by the book with a narrative structure of readings and storytelling. Expect evergreens and rarities from The Dream Syndicate’s 1980s’ catalogue, coupled with illuminating covers and reflective numbers from the new record, adding up to a show of a past revisited.

His debut book details the winding path from growing up as music fan and pre-teen bandleader in Los Angeles, through the formation and ultimate dissolution of The Dream Syndicate at the end of their first era in 1988.

Stops along the way make room for tales of cross-country Greyhound trips to track down Alex Chilton to wild, off-the-rails tours with U2 and R.E.M. and the epic heart-of-darkness making of his Californian indie-rock band’s controversial second album, Medicine Show, and plenty more.

The new album is a similarly reflective and intimately revealing collection, written and recorded in tandem with the writing of I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True, featuring contributions from R.E.M.’s Mike Mills, The Bangles’ Vicki Peterson, Psychic Temple’s Chris Schlarb, Serena Maneesh’s Emil Nikolaisen, The Baseball Project’s Linda Pitmon and a cast of dozens.

Wynn says: “I don’t see this show as a stodgy reading or as a random selection of songs but, rather, a tiny play of sorts, a way of giving a flesh-and-blood companion to the book. I’m looking for that magic place where, say, Lenny Bruce and Spalding Grey and Ray Davies and Bob Dylan and maybe Hedwig might meet in a dimly lit cabernet on the back streets of Hollywood. I’ve never done this kind of show before but if I can hit all those markers, I’ll be happy.”

Steve Wynn, I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True, A Night Of Songs And Stories, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, September 21, 7.30pm. Box office: Box office: bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise. Wynn will be selling and signing copies of I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True (book) and Make It Right (CD/LP) after the show. Further Yorkshire gig on Wynn’s eight-date tour at The Greystones, Sheffield, September 18, 8pm.

The poster for Steve Wynn’s show at The Greystones, Sheffield

Steve Wynn: the back story

Founder, singer and guitarist of The Dream Syndicate, revered 1980s’ Los Angeles indie-rock band. 1982 debut The Days Of Wine And Roses is regarded as cornerstone of indie/alternative rock scene.

Prolific solo career, touring the world and recording on regular basis and touring/performing in indie supergroup Gutterball, Danny And Dusty and The Baseball Project (also featuring R.E.M. founders Mike Mills and Peter Buck).

Wrote scores for two hit Norwegian TV shows, Dag and Exit.

His songs have been covered by Luna, Yo La Tengo and Concrete Blonde among others

Lives in New York City.

I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True in a nutshell:

A TALE of writing songs and playing in bands as a conduit to a world its author could once have barely imagine: a world of major labels, luxury tour buses and sold-out theatres, but also oneof alcohol, drugs and a low-level rock’n’roll Babylon. Ultimately, a tale of redemption, with music as a vehicle for artistic and personal transformation and transcendence.

Steve Wynn on Make It Right

The artwork for Steve Wynn’s new album, Make It Right

“I WROTE and recorded these songs in tandem with working on I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True, my memoir, which comes out on Jawbone Press the same week as Make It Right, my first solo album since 2010.

“With each chapter, I would get ideas for songs inspired by the deep dive into my past and vice versa. The reflections became intertwined after a while, a mutual commentary between literal and metaphorical ruminating.

“The songs here aren’t directly autobiographical although the album does start with Santa Monica, the city and boulevard where I was born, and concludes with Roosevelt Avenue, the main thoroughfare of the Queens neighbourhood in New York City that I call home today.

“You write what you know – even when you’re not aware it’s what you’re writing about at the time.

“If the book recounted a tale of trepidation and dread and questionable choices, then that tale would turn into a song of similar intent like What Were You Expecting. A step back for perspective and positivity, in turn, found its way into a song like You’re Halfway There.

“The cataclysmic ‘one big open drain’ of Simpler Than The Rain was resolved by the resolute ‘I’m just trying to make it right’ on the title track. A gauzy and melancholy where-did-it-go-wrong Southern California flashback on the Long Beach-inspired Cherry Avenue would steer me towards a steelier determination and reset on Making Good On My Promises.

“It was a dialogue between the memoirist and the musician, a one-man Q&A, a gentle volley in the tennis court of my mind. 40-love, game, set and match.

“As I’ve found the melodies and words to stir and simmer with the stories I told in the book, I’ve simultaneously brought friends and collaborators from my recent and distant past to help flesh them out on the record. The likes of Vicki Peterson, Mike Mills, Stephen McCarthy, Scott McCaughey, Jason Victor, Dennis Duck and Mark Walton and my wife Linda Pitmon are all in the book and – look! – there they are on the record as well!

“And much like life itself, new faces and hit-and-run collaborators would pass my radar during the sessions and provide new light as well. Chris Schlarb, from California dream pop ensemble Psychic Temple, added his cinematic touch; Emil Nikolaisen, of Norway psych-grunge combo Serena Maneesh, chimed in with his trademark sonic anarchy and then Eric “Roscoe” Ambel (Del Lords, Joan Jett) used his studio savvy producer chops to tie it all together at the end.

“It feels perfect and very appropriate that the book and record came out in the same week. Not that one is needed to understand the other. Hey, you can just put on Make It Right and use it as the catalyst to create your own life story, dig into your own past. It belongs to you now. Let it tell your own tale while I tell mine. We’re all just trying to make it right.”

Make It Right track listing:

1. Santa Monica. 2. Make It Right. 3. What Were You Expecting. 4. You’re Halfway There. 5. Making Good On My Promises. 6. Cherry Avenue. 7. Then Again. 8. Madly. 9. Simpler Than The Rain. 10. Roosevelt Avenue.

Posted on

‘No-one sings like Stella Prince’, as Nashville’s Americana & folk teenager books Nov dates in York and Filey cafés

Stella Prince: Nashville folk/Americana/roots teen talent on her way to York, Filey and Sheffield

NASHVILLE singer-songwriter Stella Prince will play FortyFive Vinyl Café, Micklegate, York, on November 3 and Thirty Café & Eatery, Belle Vue Street, Filey, on November 6 on her 12-date autumn tour.

Still in her teens in and seeking to progress her career in the UK as well as the USA, she has booked these tour dates herself, including a third Yorkshire gig at The Greystones, Sheffield, on November 2.

Born and raised in Woodstock, New York, Stella is now based in Nashville, Tennessee, where she hosts a monthly all-female Americana/folk showcase at The Underdog; the only one of its kind in Nashville. 

Founded in May 2023 with the aim of creating a space for women in music to perform and meet other performers, specifically in the Americana and folk field, each bill features four or five women, Stella included, singing up to three songs each and introducing themselves. The events are sponsored by the legendary organisation changetheconvo.net

Stella is the only child of creative parents – a painter/photographer and a writer – and was immersed in music from an early age, thanks to her parents’ extensive, all-genre CD collection and her frequent attendance at concerts, where she first encountered Levon Helm, Amy Helm, Pete Seeger, Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul And Mary fame), Tracy Bonham and Natalie Merchant.

Growing up, Stella was influenced by pop and oldies music too. She began taking voice lessons at the age of four, piano lessons at six, guitar lessons at nine, and wrote her first song aged ten. From 12 to 14, she hosted her own 1930s–1940s’ oldies radio show.

She graduated from high school at 15 (during the early months of the pandemic in 2020) and earned her two-year associates degree – with a focus on music – at 16.

The pandemic pushed her into deciding to focus on a career in music. In 2021, she began to release songs and play live, travelling to Nashville and Los Angeles. Four singles emerged that year: The Rain Might Fall, Scared, Before You Leave and Alone For The Holidays

2022 was groundbreaking, marked by Stella’s first international run in the UK and an 18-city tour of the American Southwest. Her first single to be aired on the radio, Crying On A Saturday Night, charted on the Americana Singles Chart; her July follow up, Eighteen, debuted on the Folk Alliance International Charts and the Alternative Country Charts.

Closing Doors, produced by Professor Louie (who did likewise for three albums by The Band), was released in November 2022, debuting at number 15 on the North American College & Community Radio Chart. The accompanying video has received more than 118,000 views on YouTube since its launch in May 2023.

The artwork for Stella Prince’s latest single, Two Faced

In February, Stella was awarded a First Timers Scholarship at Folk Alliance. She has  been performing around Nashville since her move there and has a busy autumn diary ahead.

For her latest single, Two Faced, out now, she had the pleasure of working with Steve Fishell, Nashville pedal steel guitarist, Grammy-winning record producer and educator, whose stellar credits include Dolly Parton, John Prine, Mavis Staples and Emmylou Harris. “No-one sings like Stella Prince,” he says. “I was transported the first time I heard her and I bet you will be too.”

Accentuated by Fishell’s pedal steel, the song opens with the harrowing lines: “You got her right where you wanted… Lonely enough so she’d take the bait… Blinded by words that were only an empty promise… Desperation paves way for mistakes.”

The chorus asserts: “There’s all kinds of empty… but the hardest one to take… is lies that seem tempting… Loneliness is two faced.”

Stella says:“My big goal is for someone to play my song and think, ‘That’s exactly how I feeI’. I want my songs to resonate with everyone, every generation, every issue: loneliness, fear, all of that.”

Self-produced, Two Faced was recorded at the legendary Sound Stage Studios on Music Row in Nashville, where the likes of Johnny Cash, George Strait, Miranda Lambert and Buddy Guy have held recording sessions.

“It was an amazing experience: my first time ever recording with a full band”, says Stella. “Actually, this song specifically is the first ever song I recorded with more than just me. It was wild and incredible.”

Joining her at SoundStage, along with Fishell, were Nashville players Ben Garrett (keys, guitar), PJ Schreiner (drums), Mike Dunton (electric guitar) and Father Phillip (bass).

Should you be wondering, Stella names her era-spanning influences as Judy Garland, Karen Carpenter, Patsy Cline, Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton and Taylor Swift.

Box office: York, fortyfiveuk.com/whatson; Filey, wegottickets.com/event/590339; Sheffield, wegottickets.com/event/589263

Posted on

Sarabeth Tucek returns with SBT sobriquet, May double album and Selby Town Hall gig

Sarabeth Tucek: Re-emerging as SBT

SARABETH Tucek is emerging from a “decade-long hibernation” with a double album, tour and new moniker, SBT.

The New Jersey actress-turned-singer-songwriter will follow up the May 19 release of Joan Of All on her own Ocean Omen label with an 18-date itinerary that takes in Yorkshire gigs at Selby Town Hall on May 20 and The Greystones, Sheffield, on May 25.

Here, CharlesHutchPress discusses hibernation, the song-writing craft, a change of name, her album title, Bob Dylan, Brian Jonestown Massacre and past Yorkshire encounters with Sarabeth.

Had you ever envisaged such a long hiatus between albums since 2011’s Get Well Soon? 

“No, I had not. Honestly, I had not envisaged a lot of things that have happened in my life but here I am. I think if I needed to have my life take the turns it did in order to arrive at this new record then so be it. It’s my favourite creation.”

Did you ever doubt you would return to the recording studio?

“No, I knew I would return. I just wasn’t sure when that would be. I think I make records because I need to hear myself say something to myself. Aloud. I can look for another artist to say it to me but less and less I hear what I need to hear and so that has been a motivating factor.”

Did you consider it to be a “decade in hibernation”?

“In some ways. I think parts of my mind went into hibernation. I think I needed to understand some things that happened in my life. But I dunno. I just think of a bear or an animal in a cave when I hear the word hibernation.

“I am maybe more like a squirrel that buried some nuts in the ground with the knowledge I would come back to them someday for sustenance.” 

How have you changed as a songwriter over the past 12 years?

“I used to think I only had a musical language for sad thoughts and feelings but now I feel I have access to the other parts of myself as well. Also, I feel differently than I used to. In the world as a person. So that has changed my writing.”

How many years of song-writing span the double album? Did you ever suffer writer’s block?

“I wrote two of the songs several years ago and the rest in a couple of weeks. No, I don’t have writer’s block. I can write when I need to, but my issue is allowing myself the time to go sit in a room with my guitar and make something of the words.

“I don’t understand this problem but sometimes I think it’s some form of self-punishment. Like I am depriving myself of something that has brought me moments of real joy. I deny myself.” 

Explain the choice of album title, Joan Of All…

“Well, I wanted to call it The Middle Ages. That’s the age I am in, and I started thinking about armour and how I have started to feel like in some ways I am losing my armour but in other ways gaining it.

“Around the time I was deciding on a title, Roe v Wade began to come under attack so… middle ages, then women being brave and persecuted… Joan of Arc came to mind and then my mom’s name is Joan! She was a single mom and I am forever in awe of her strength.”

How do you distinguish Sarabeth from SBT?

“People have always called me SBT. Also, no-one can ever pronounce my last name. Every initial meeting with someone I have to hear them struggle with my last name and then I have to correct their pronunciation and then they apologise and I say, ‘no, its OK, no-one can pronounce it’, and it’s just a weird way to meet people.

“Also, I feel like everything about this record is new for me and SBT feels right.” 

“I can write when I need to, but my issue is allowing myself the time to go sit in a room with my guitar and make something of the words,” says Sarabeth. Picture: Paula Bullwinkel

What do you recall of working with Smog’s Bill Callahan? How did that partnership come about? 

“Colin Gagon, who played with Will Oldham, asked me if I wanted to come to his studio to record some of my songs. I had met him at a party in Echo Park where the guitar was being passed around and I sang a couple songs.

“We made some demos and then later Colin was going to record his own record and Bill Callahan was producing it. Colin asked me to come up to San Francisco and sing on his record and contribute a song. I didn’t have a lot of interaction with Bill. He is very quiet and so am I.

“About a year later, Bill reached out and asked if I would come to Chicago, where he lived, to sing on his new record. Of course, I jumped at the chance. I have always been a big Smog fan.

“I remember listening to the demos of the songs on Supper at the studio, so I could figure out my parts, and it was difficult because the songs made me feel so much personally that it was hard to concentrate. I think I cried.

“The lyrics are very moving. That record is brilliantly written and I will always be honoured to have been a part of it. Bill was very kind. We had some good long talks. It was great.”

DiG! is one of the great rockumentaries.  What do you recall of making an appearance in the film and indeed of working with Anton Newcombe’s Brian Jonestown Massacre? 

“Well, I remember the day of his show at the knitting factory, which is in the documentary. The show when Anton kicked that poor guy in the head. He was asking me all day to come and sing because he wasn’t feeling well and wanted some help with singing duties.

“He wanted me to play some songs to lessen his time onstage. I didn’t want to and kept saying no because I could tell he was in a mood. I knew him well enough to predict the times when he might lose his temper.

“Also, I had just started writing songs and didn’t feel ready to perform to a full house. I agreed though and then of course he lost his temper with this guy in the audience. “Anton had introduced me as his sister and the guy after I played said something silly like ‘F*** you, your sister rocks’. He heard it wrong and thought the guy was suggesting he should have sex with me, his sister. I am not related to him by the way.

“This just sounds so dumb to retell and it is. Anyway, a fight ensued and Anton ended up going to jail. Good times!

“My time living/working with the BJM is part tragedy, part comedy. I am actually glad I got to be a part of a world, a rock’n’roll world, that is probably not going to happen again. That whole period of time in Echo Park in the mid-late ’90s. A lot of great musicians and cheap rent.”

Did you meet Bob Dylan when you supported him? 

“Yes, Bob called me over backstage and we had a nice chat. I was told he didn’t talk to his opening acts and so I wasn’t expecting the encounter. I was tremendously nervous.

“I am not religious but for me he is a kind of demi-god. I don’t get excited by celebrity but I was overwhelmed with being in front of someone who is actually a genius and whose music has helped me to understand what it means to be alive.”

Have you played in Selby/York/North Yorkshire previously? 

“Yes, we played the Band Room on the Yorkshire moors. In Farndale, I believe [Correct, Sarabeth! Low Mill, Farndale, May 2011]. I will never forget the absolute and overwhelming beauty of that area.

“We played York as well, but I can’t recall the venue. [Correct again, Sarabeth! Fibbers in March 2008, it turns out]. I have never played Selby! I am excited to visit and play!”

What form will your concert take: solo or with a band?

“I am bringing a band to try and bring as much as I can from the record to a live stage. We are going to go all out on this tour!”

SBT (Sarabeth Tucek) plays Selby Town Hall, May 20, 8pm, supported by Kiran Leonard and Todmorden guitarist and songsmith dbh. Box office: 01757 708449 or selbytownhall.co.uk. Also: The Greystones, Sheffield, May 25, 8pm; mygreystones.co.uk/may.

The cover artwork for SBT’s album Joan Of All

Sarabeth Tucek back story

Born in Miami, Florida, daughter of a psychiatrist father and psychologist mother. Parents split when she was a child; raised by mother in Manhattan, New York. Graduated from Westfield High School.

Occupation: Actress first, now singer-songwriter.  

Officially broke onto music scene in 2003, performing duets with Bill Callahan on Smog album Supper.

Appeared in Ondi Timoner’s 2004 prize-winning Brian Jonestown Massacre versus The Dandy Warhols documentary DiG!. Contributed to Brian Jonestown Massacre’s 2005 EP We Are The Radio.

Debut single Something For You released in 2006, becoming Steve Lamacq’s Single of the Week on BBC 6 Music.

Self-titled debut album arrived in 2007, produced by Luther Russell and Ethan Johns. Rave reviews led to support slot with idol Bob Dylan.

After troubled Los Angles years of alcohol, car crashes and jail for drink-driving when struggling to handle the disorientating success of her debut album, she found her redemptive footing in New York.

Resulting 2011 sophomore album, Get Well Soon, meditated on “the ferocity of grief “after the loss of her father, who had died more than a decade earlier from a sudden heart attack on a boat on a lake. Title track featured on first season of HBO’s Girls.

After retreating from the record business to concentrate on other creative endeavours, she returns on May 19 with double album Joan Of All, under her sobriquet of SBT, a longtime tag given to her by the many musicians she has worked with throughout her career.

Lead single The Gift has been receiving airplay on Marc Riley’s BBC 6 Music show. She will record a live session for Riley while on tour.

Should you be wondering: Tucek is pronounced two-check.

Joan Of All tracklisting:

Joan Says/Amber Shade; The Living Room; Cathy Says; The Gift; The Box; Work; Make Up Your Mind; 13th St #1; Swings; Happiness; Something/Anything; Sheep; The Tunnel; Unmade/The Dog; Creature Of The Night.

Chris Jones, Selby Town Council arts officer, on bringing Sarabeth Tucek to Selby

“IT’S Sarabeth’s first UK tour in over a decade, supporting her first album since 2011 – a big, sprawling, electric Americana affair called Joan Of All. She’ll be performing here with a full electric band, including some who have played with Jakob (son of Bob) Dylan’s live outfits. This is definitely one of the ‘cooler’ gigs we’ve put on over the last year or so!

“Sarabeth is as talented as she is enigmatic. Her new work mixes the classic sound of East Coast Americana singer-songwriters with bigger hooks, bigger guitars and some considerable musical exploration.”

Posted on

York folk storyteller Joshua Burnell and his band to play The Crescent on October tour

JOSHUA Burnell & Band will play a home-city gig at The Crescent, York, on October 16 on his nine-date autumn tour.

Tickets for this 8pm gig cost £12 in advance from joshuaburnell.co.uk/tour or ticketweb.co.uk. Doors will open at 7.30pm for this “folk-fused baroque’n’roll” UK tour date.

Burnell will perform further Yorkshire gigs at The Greystones, Sheffield, on October 14 and Otley Courthouse on October 22, complemented by shows in Manchester, Glasgow, London (Cecil Sharp House), Brighton, Milton Keynes and Bristol .

Burnell has made his mark on the folk scene by winning the Rising Star Awards in the Folking Awards, playing Cambridge, Manchester and Sidmouth folk festivals and receiving multiple plays on Mark Radcliffe’s BBC Radio 2 Folk Show. His psych-trad single The Snow It Melts The Soonest was deemed “outstanding” by Folk Radio UK.  

Although Joshua’s roots are grounded in folk, this multi-instrumentalist singer, songwriter and storyteller is not afraid to push back boundaries to create a sound somehow both retro and artfully contemporary. “Think The War On Drugs meets Seth Lakeman on Ziggy Stardust’s spaceship,” he suggests.

How might Joshua Burnell’s music be summed up? “Think The War On Drugs meets Seth Lakeman on Ziggy Stardust’s spaceship”. Picture: Stewart Baxter

Or, as the Guardian put it: “Burnell adds lashings of Peter Gabriel stylings to the world of trad arrangements”.

Joining Joshua on stage will be globe-trotting violinist Frances Archer; guitarist Nathan Greaves; multi-instrumentalist Oliver Whitehouse; drummer Ed Simpson and vocalist Frances Sladen.

“Frances flits from fiddle tune to one-woman string section with apparent ease,” says Joshua’s publicity machine. “Nathan plays a mysterious instrument of his own invention, known only as PIIönk; Oliver is quietly excellent; drummer Ed brings the thunder like something out of the Seattle Grunge era, and breathtakingly evocative singer Frances surely deserves to be a recognised name in her own right.”

Noted for his arrangements, piano riffs and melodies, Burnell’s songs veer from stomping, acoustic singalongs and Bowie-style music hall epics to alt-pop singles that conjure up imagery akin to the cover of a retro sci-fi pulp-fiction novel.

Tickets for all Joshua’s tour dates are on sale at joshuaburnell.co.uk/tour.

Posted on

The Beautiful South’s Dave Hemingway is back on song with new band Sunbirds

Flight path: Sunbirds will head to York for the first time next February to play The Crescent

ONCE he loved you from the bottom of his pencil case. Now, The Beautiful South co-founder Dave Hemingway is to return with his new band, Sunbirds.  

Joined by drummer Marc Parnell, vocalist and violinist Laura Wilcockson and his erstwhile South cohort, songwriter/guitarist Phil Barton, singer Hemingway will play The Crescent in York on February 4 2022.

Hemingway had retired from the live scene at the back end of 2016, but later set to work with Sunbirds, who released their debut album, Cool To Be Kind, on independent label Nectar Records last November.

Although rooted in England, the band favours a sound predominantly built around traditional American roots music, combined with the occasional outburst of guitar-heavy melody more associated with the grunge capital of Seattle in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

However, the lyrics affirm you can only sing about what you know. “Although a lot of the songs have an Americana feel, they’re still about life in England,” says Hemingway. “You’re going to feel a bit daft singing about pick-up trucks and low-down honky-tonks when you live in Yorkshire.” 

On the road again. Dave Hemingway returns to the stage with new band Sunbirds in 2022

Produced by cult producer Teo Miller, Cool To Be Kind captures truthful, open-hearted, funny and sometimes painfully honest sentiments, turning the page to a new chapter for Hemingway and The Beautiful South story.

The album is the result of a few transitional years in Hemingway and Barton’s personal worlds, telling tales that cover both contemporary themes and age-old matters of the heart and soul, all viewed through the bottom of a recently drained pint glass.  

Phil says: “Now we’re Sunbirds, we’re free to dig a little deeper into ourselves. Having said that, there’s no exact science here, we’re just enjoying ourselves and expressing whatever we want, whether it’s about love, longing, depression or Gary Lineker’s crisp adverts”.

Cool To Be Kind is available on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Amazon UK & Music and will be on sale in all HMV stores, including in Coney Street, York, on reopening.

Tickets for The Crescent gig are can be booked at:  thecrescentyork.seetickets.com/event/sunbirds/the-crescent/1715370 and thecrescentyork.com/events/sunbirds/. The Sunbirds also will play The Greystones, Sheffield, on February 3; box office, seetickets.com/event/sunbirds/the-greystones/1708729. Alternatively, book at: thegigcartel.com.

Why not check out Sunbirds’ debut single, Meet You On The Northside, at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD_xiHG7CGk.