“This album feels more true to me than anything I’ve done yet,” mulled Austin’s JM Stevens of his sophomore full-length, Nowhere to Land (due out April 12th). “It just feels right in my heart.”
An acclaimed Americana and roots rock/pop singer, songwriter, and producer, Stevens returns three years after his well-received solo debut, Invisible Lines. The new collection, the 10-song Nowhere to Land is an overall mellower, more vulnerable record than its predecessor, though still speckled with some up-tempo rockers. It’s a thoughtful album further set apart by Stevens’ nuanced songcraft, intimate vocals, and organic production.
Tracking with a trusted band of local ringers and producing/mixing himself, Stevens retained a rare visceral energy on Nowhere to Land. Players include Uncle Lucius luminaries Jonny “Keys” Grossman (keyboards) and Doug Strahan (guitars); drummer George Duron (Jon Dee Graham, Roky Erickson) and bassist-about-town Dave Wesselowski. Throughout, exquisite harmonizing from lauded Austin folk singer BettySoo underlines the poignancy of key lines, with further cultured contributions from Shinyribs member and longtime Robert Earl Keen bandmate Marty Muse (resonator, pedal steel) and a guest spot on the darkly wistful “Cobwebs” from fiddler/vocalist Beth Chrisman (The Carper Family, Lost Patterns).
Pangs of love, loss and loneliness punctuate Nowhere to Land’s bouts of doubt, jealousy, and recurring hope.
Today Glide is excited to premiere the standout track “Cherry Sunburst,” which finds Stevens translating his experience of doing whatever it took to acquire a coveted guitar as a metaphor for losing our senses in all manner of other situations. If the song title doesn’t give it away, “Cherry Sunburst” is a guitar-driven country rocker that feels upbeat and swinging with a hopeful chorus. Laced with a healthy dose of organ and bright background harmonies, the song finds Stevens and his band layering in soulful textures to make for the kind of well-rounded song that feels primed to be a hit on Americana radio. Of course, this being a song that is more or less about a guitar, there are a few tasteful rock and roll solos peppered throughout. While Stevens is surely known to Texas audiences for his work in the Moonlight Towers, this tune offers further proof that he is well-suited for the solo life.
Stevens describes the inspiration behind the tune:
There was a music store I hung around as a kid in West Point, Mississippi called Wilson’s Music. The owner, Harold Wilson, had a cherry sunburst colored guitar and I thought it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. It had an extra hole in it and word was it was a bullet hole. All I remember wanting to do was spend time in that store and I pretty much became obsessed with learning how to play. Fast forward way ahead, I was in a shop out here in Austin and saw a guitar hanging on the wall that looked just like that one from back then and it took me right back to that feeling that maybe gets lost a bit over the years. I knew I was in trouble and couldn’t stop dreaming on it, but I also knew I wasn’t in any position to get too attached. Anyway, it’s a battle I ended up losing, so I’d say this song is a metaphor for falling hard for somebody or something that maybe isn’t the best decision but going for it anyway, damn the torpedoes. My old man woulda said “son, you ain’t doing nothing but stirring up wants”. This is the first song I wrote on that guitar.
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One Response
Great article and great song!