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"I'm in good shape," the age-less looking Stamey says. "I'm in better health now than I was in my 20s, anyway you look at it."
Although Stamey seems able to stop the clock physically (he's like Dick Clark) and in his performances, he can not erase the technological advances that have occurred on tour while he concentrated on his studio (which happens to pride itself on vintage equipment). His production work included Whiskeytown, Le Tigre, Alejandro Escovedo, Ben Folds and Tift Merritt, among many others.
"Cell phones have revolutionized the process," he says, citing our impromptu interview. "I started playing in the 60s, and the idea that they would've had anything beyond the public address system was almost unthinkable back then... . (but) even at the club level, it's a shock to me every night that things are processed on time. But it's still a very simple equation: just an audience and the artist."
Though this tour is billed as a follow-up to A Question of Temperature, Stamey and band — which includes drummer Anton Fier (Golden Palominos, the Feelies), jazz keyboard wiz wizard Tyson Rogers and bassit John Chumbris — are mixing up the setlist to the extent that songs from the dB's as-yet-unreleased comeback turn up in sets. And as far as Stamey is concerned, the songs on Temperature — half of which are covers — were meant to be played with Yo La Tengo, especially "McCauley Street," a lO-minute-plus epic which he wrote specifically for the Hoboken-based band. But the experience of recording the record over just a three-day stretch provided evidence for what Stamey intuitively knew.
"It's become a Pink Floyd, Sgt. Pepper's world, where everyone wants to write a novel while most people like to read magazines," Stamey says, adding that the sessions for Temperature were "a blast and a shock. We were all surprised that kismet was with us in such quantities." For the brief recording session, Stamey returned to Hoboken, where he and Yo La Tengo's Ira Kaplan had once been housemates. Time was booked at the Englewood Cliffs studio where Rudy Van Gelder had recorded the jazz label Blue Note's masterworks. "It was approached like a session," Stamey says, "and the idea was to make it like a Rudy Van Gelder date; you bring the woody (station wagon) up to the door of the garage, unload your gear, play for a while, then load your gear back up and go. It's a great paradigm, very relaxing and suprisingly pressure free." For the tour, though, Stamey knew some of the songs wouldn't make the transition very well, nor did he feel like playing cover songs every night, so it's not likely you'll be seeing any lO-minute, feedback drenched marathons. And at the Evening Muse show Saturday, Stamey has decided on an all acoustic set, leaving drummer Fier to find his own diversions that night. "We've been rocking out pretty much for the past year-and-a-half," he says, "so it's a treat to do an acoustic show. Well, it'll be special for me, at least." And one doubts he'll be alone in that sentiment.
Chris Stamey plays the Evening Muse Saturday.
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