North Carolina songwriter / vocalist / guitarist / producer Chris Stamey has announced new upcoming album Modernism. Conceived as a companion piece to 2025’s Anything Is Possible, the new album is a further “love letter” to the variety of music heard on AM and free-form FM radio in the 1960s and early 70s.
The album features many of Stamey’s favorite songs from that era, and the title is a nod to the fact that it was made primarily at Modern Recording (Chapel Hill, NC). Modernism is being released by Flatiron Recordings on 12” LP vinyl, CD, digital download and streaming services on June 19, 2026.
The album features new versions of classic songs such as the Beatles’ “Hey Bulldog” (with Big Star’s Jody Stephens on drums), the Kinks’ “Waterloo Sunset” (with the dB’s), and Sly and the Family Stone’s “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” (featuring the Uptown Horns, Brian Dennis [DAG], and Jon Wurster [Mountain Goats, Superchunk]).
There are also deep cuts, including “Shadows Breaking Over My Head” by the Left Banke (with Brian Wilson Band alums Probyn Gregory and Nelson Bragg), “Hernando’s Hideaway” (from The Pajama Game, and a 1954 hit for Everly Bros. producer Archie Bleyer), “At Last” (by Harry Warren), as well as three new interpretations of his own earlier tunes.
There’s also a closer of the Rolling Stones’ “Ruby Tuesday,” a version produced by Alex Chilton in 1977. The original mix is now lost, but an instrumental rough mix on an old reel-to-reel analog tape (Alex on drums and guitar) was recently discovered, and Chris and Pat Sansone (Wilco, Autumn Defense) were able to replace the missing vocals and (with Don Dixon’s bowed bass and Rachel Kiel’s alto recorder) bring the track to life.
Chris Stamey relates:
This record was a blast to make. I had come back from touring with renewed confidence in my own playing, and realized I’d been relying on some of my friends’ vast chops for so long in the studio that I’d forgotten how much fun it was to groove along on guitar and bass myself.
Although there are a number of experienced drummers on the album, including Jody Stephens, Jon Wurster, Mitch Easter, Alex Chilton, and Will Rigby, more than half of the tracks were cut with session drummer Rob Ladd (Alanis Morrisette, the Connells).
Stamey says:
I’ve been the beneficiary of Rob Ladd’s drumming expertise during many live gigs over the last decade. We met up one October day to revisit some of these live arrangements—in hopes of finding ‘a few’ to add to a deluxe version of ‘Waterloo Sunset’ that the dB’s had cut with me a while back. Of course there are so many great songs out there: on a different day, it might have been a totally different record.
Chris is a staple of Indie-Rock icon with a history that’s encompassed co-founding Pop band the dBs, playing with Alex Chilton in the 70s and more recently with Jody Stephens’s Big Star Quintet, and the all-star international outfit, the Salt Collective.
Modernism is being released on 12” LP vinyl, CD, digital download, and streaming platforms, but will be preceded on April 18 by a 7” colored-vinyl 45 of “Waterloo Sunset,” with a nonalbum B Side of a song by Paul McCartney, “Goodbye,” first recorded by Mary Hopkin.
