Chris Stamey – From The Word Go

Chris Stamey formed the power pop band The dB’s with Peter Holsapple in 1978. A band that admired Big Star and followed their footsteps in releasing some critically acclaimed albums that did not sell. Chris Stamey even played bass for Alex Chilton in 1977.

The dB’s were a great unknown power pop band…who would influence many bands but not sell many records. They were from Winston-Salem, North Carolina but the group was formed in New York City in 1978. The members were  Peter Holsapple, Chris Stamey, Will Rigby, and Gene Holder.

Stamey left the dB’s for a while in the 80s to pursue a solo career. He formed a record company in New York in 1978 called Cars Records and managed to release Chris Bell’s (Big Star guitarist, singer, and songwriter) single I Am The Cosmos.

From The Word Go was on Stamey’s second solo album It’s Alright. It was released in 1987 and is the only solo album of his to be released on a major label A&M/Universal. He has released 8 solo albums over a career that is still going now. The dB’s released an album in 2012.

Chris Stamey on Big Star:“They were my favorite, and as far as I knew they were popular all the way across America. At least for that moment, I forgot about Emerson, Lake, and Palmer.”

Sorry…I could not find the lyrics

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

29 thoughts on “Chris Stamey – From The Word Go”

  2. I’ve heard his name before but that’s all my knowledge of him. This song -by no means bad and it has a lot of good elements- voice is decent, bits of nice harmony, nice kind of jangle to the tune…but it doesn’t ‘grab me by the ears’ as Obbverse would say. Though one song heard once is by no means a fair way to evaluate a whole album let alone an artist, if this came out in ’87, while there wree worse things around by far, I can see why it didn’t take off on radio – there were others on both sides of the Atlantic doing jangle rock a bit better.

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    1. Well it probably didn’t have a chance to begin with…along with many power pop acts…radio would not play songs that jangle much…like REM at the time…only on alternative…
      I love the dB’s though.

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      1. that’s true for mainstream radio then, and I think largely for MTV too from what I’m told – those videos probably only played on a specific new wave/alt rock program on there then. Unless they filmed the video in that club Jim went to in Winston perhaps!

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      2. It was on the “Coyote” label… what sucks is the album got 4.5 stars out of 5 from Allmusic and the same across the board.
        Yea they had no chance back then. I guess me liking the Byrds also made me like this music.

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      4. I liked the Jones album…congrats…no disrespect to Jones but I never would have thought I would have listened to one of his albums…and it’s great.

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      2. Lisa. An Australian band that fits your “dreamy” quote. Check out the album Starfish’. I dont think you’ll be disappointed. I never got around to doing a take on it but it certainly is one I would of. I like it a lot. You’ll probably recognize a few cuts ‘Under The Milky Way’ for one.

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      5. I’ve mentioned The Church recently, earlier rockier stuff works for me. ‘Chrome Injury’ Unguarded Moment’ then the slower ‘Electric Lash,’ some of the slower ones work too, like ‘Don’t Open The Door To Strangers.’
        CB, sounds like you know them, Lisa, well worth a listen.

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