Singer/songwriter Chris Stamey ranks among the central architects of the Southern jangle pop movement through his stints in the Sneakers and the dB's along with his later solo output, yet those accomplishments mark merely one facet of his abilities. He joined Big Star sensibilities to new wave pop inside the dB's framework on their 1982 album Repercussion, then paired angular lines with buoyant tunefulness for the 1987 solo album It's Alright. Reuniting with former dB's colleague Peter Holsapple, Stamey turned toward reflective, partly acoustic material on 1991's Mavericks, before adopting the idioms of earlier pop songcraft through the period-styled arrangements of 2019's New Songs for the 20th Century. The 2023 release The Great Escape marked another departure, layering country touches onto pieces that evoked his earlier jangle pop era. In any setting, Stamey recognizes melody's foundational value and reveals how its character can shift according to context.
Born December 6, 1954 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Stamey grew up near Winston-Salem and, together with longtime associate Peter Holsapple, first appeared in 1972 with the short-lived Rittenhouse Square, whose only LP followed the next year. While studying at the University of North Carolina in 1975, Stamey formed the cult power pop group Sneakers with drummer Will Rigby; guitarist Mitch Easter, later the frontman of Let's Active and a leading producer of the period, joined shortly afterward. The band reached New York City for a 1976 performance at Max's Kansas City before breaking up, prompting Stamey to remain in the city and launch his own imprint, Car Records.
Besides releasing the posthumous Sneakers anthology In the Red in 1978, Car also put out the sole solo single by ex-Big Star leader Chris Bell, the landmark "I Am the Cosmos"; at the same time Stamey performed live with Bell's former Big Star partner Alex Chilton and issued his own 1977 single, "The Summer Sun." Once Rigby and bassist Gene Holder moved to New York, Stamey completed the lineup as the dB's, delivering the 1978 single "If and When" before expanding to a quartet with Holsapple's arrival. The dB's' eccentric yet melodic style foreshadowed the Southern jangle pop wave and influenced bands such as R.E.M., although the group initially secured no domestic contract and saw their first two albums, the widely praised 1981 releases Stands for Decibels and Repercussion, issued solely in Britain.
Stamey exited the dB's in 1983 and delivered the solo LP It's a Wonderful Life that same year; after the 1984 Instant Excitement EP he recorded and toured with the Golden Palominos while also fitting in the 1986 Christmas Time mini-album. The following year he joined A&M for his major-label debut, the acclaimed It's Alright; strong reviews notwithstanding, the album sold modestly, leading Stamey into several years of production and session work that included an album A&M declined to release. The project surfaced on Rhino in 1991 as Fireworks; that same year he rejoined Holsapple for the semi-acoustic Mavericks.
Stamey made a sharp break from pop conventions on 1995's The Robust Beauty of Improper Models in Decision Making by collaborating with cornetist/guitarist Kirk Ross on a set of free improvisation. He devoted the rest of the decade to producing other artists at his Modern Recording studio in Chapel Hill before resuming his own recording with 2004's Travels in the South. Less than twelve months later another album appeared, the Chris Stamey Experience's A Question of Temperature (2005), which featured Yo La Tengo and Tyson Rogers.
Several years later Stamey again teamed with Peter Holsapple for 2009's Here and Now and its supporting tour. He next served as musical director for live presentations of Big Star's third album, 3rd (also known as Sister Lovers), assembling star-studded concerts that began at Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, North Carolina in December 2010 and later reached London and 2012's South by Southwest. A 2016 performance in Glendale, California was documented on the live album Thank You, Friends: Big Star's Third Live... And More. That year also brought a dB's reunion for live dates and the new album Falling Off the Sky.
Stamey maintained his pace with the release of the atmospheric solo album Lovesick Blues in early 2013. Two years afterward came Euphoria, a record that revisited many of his pop preoccupations. In 2019 he unveiled the expansive New Songs for the 20th Century, writing and arranging twenty-six songs modeled on mid-century pre-rock styles and enlisting numerous guest vocalists and players. The similarly oriented 2020 follow-up A Brand New Shade of Blue placed greater weight on cool '50s vocal jazz and featured vocals from Brett Harris. Stamey and Holsapple reunited once more for 2021's Our Back Pages, offering fresh readings of songs from their shared catalog.
Also in 2021 Stamey helped oversee I Thought You Wanted to Know: 1978-1981, a compilation of early dB's demos and live recordings. The modern jangle pop band Those Pretty Wrongs, whose lineup includes Big Star drummer Jody Stephens, enlisted Stamey to engineer and supply string and horn arrangements for their third studio album, 2023's Holiday Camp. Stepping back from other obligations, Stamey resumed his solo work with 2023's The Great Escape, which merged his pop instincts with a subtle country inflection supplied by pedal steel guitarist Eric Heywood together with John Teer and Dave Wilson of the bluegrass group Chatham County Line. The album also included appearances by fellow dB's members Peter Holsapple and Will Rigby and featured a cover of the rare Alex Chilton song "She Might Look My Way."
