Pre-Summer Update

Yoooooo!

Just finished up the mix and master of the upcoming Jason Spooner Band Live At Stone Mountain album and it sounds sooooo gooooood! Keep an ear out for that. I’ve been continuing working with Eric Green and Ryan Curless on the upcoming Eric Green record, which is gonna be great. The drummer Charlie Sitcherman has been coming up occasionally for sessions, which we’ll be releasing some music from those real soon. Dan Boyden has been picking away at a couple projects, notably the EP from his sister Sarah, who’s voice is smokey and velvety enough to make Barry White come back from the dead haha! I’ve been in frequent collaboration with Joel Thetford and Ryan Ordway at The Studio in Portland and we’ve been systematically releasing Joel’s music and writing new stuff consistently. I’m super stoked about an upcoming session in June with my friend Jon Wyman, who I learn immeasurable amounts from every time we work together. I’m in talks with Nigel Hall about mixing one of his records and coming to NOLA to work on new material.

I just posted a bunch of upcoming shows, so if you’re around and dig what I do, come through and high five the Stu! Love y’all and hope you’re as stoked about upcoming music as I am!!!!!

Happy Spring And Apparent Annual Blog!

Hello friends! It has been one year to the day since my last blog. Let me just admit right now i’m the worst at keeping my blog up-to-date, but here I am writing to you, whoever/wherever you are.

So what’s been going on with me personally/musically? The biggest news personally is my wife and I had a baby in late May, which has been the single most joyful experience of my life. Parenting is as exhaustive as everyone warned me, but it is such a small inconvenience compared to the love I experience everyday. It seems to compound exponentially every day. I love it! That being said, he is one of the reasons I really fell off the blog front lol!

Musically, the first thing I’m excited about is I have renovated a room in my house into a new studio. I did some more recordings down in the boathouse this past summer and when the weather was too cold/wet, I made the move up here. I filled it with some AMAZING gear including a couple Distressors, UAD 6176, UAD LA610, Eventide H3000B, Neuman U87, some new keyboards, and a bunch of other stuff I’ll be listing in the gear portion of my site. The room has been acoustically treated and sounds fantastic! Lots of good music is coming outta here for sure…keep an ear peeled!

The Keyna Hall EP was put on hold after the pandemic really hit. Likewise with some other projects, which is understandable. Some things to look forward to are Joshua Eden’s full length album, which I mixed, Modern Clarion full length and the Joel Thetford LP, both of which I played bass on, Mike Schools full length which I played on, produced, mixed, and will mostly likely do a mastering job on, Dan Boyden’s Mix Tape, which I will be mastering, and some other secrets I have yet to reveal because they are so dope I have to wait for the ok from the management…:)

I put my creative work off to the side for a minute while I navigate/manage being a new dad and getting my studio in a working place. That being said I am excited and eager to explore my own material now that I have this studio and things with kiddo are settling into a more manageable place. I’ll be playing out A TON this summer. My calendar is nearly full already and that excites me to no end. I think people are really hungry for live performances as well. I played a fair amount last summer at outside venues, which was super fun, but exhaustive because I would end up wearing my mask like 8-10 hours a day in the summer. Sweat-face…eew. Hopefully everyone will be vaccinated this summer and we can do away with the masks.

Well that about sums up a year. I could go further in to the details, but I’ll save you from that. Thanks so much for checking in to see what i’m up to. Super stoked and positive on this end. Contact me if you have questions, concerns, would like lessons, or would just like to say hi. Stay safe, healthy and smart out there!

Happy Holidays!

Hey there! I hope you had an excellent holiday. I did. I spent a lot of time with family, caught up on a little rest, and generally enjoyed the merriment of the season. Here’s what’s up music-wise.

The digital versions of ‘City Of My Mind’ have been released on youtube. You can find them in my videos section here on the website, find me on youtube, or type in the name of the song with ‘North Blood’ (the project name) and it will come up. The songs will be released on all streaming platforms in the next few days, so I’m just waiting for the ok before I publicize that.

The 45s should be done at the end of January/early February. There was a SNAFU in the art department, so the pressings got held back a little bit. No worries though, they sound FANTASTIC! I am really excited to have them in your hands and ears.

The Kenya Hall album is underway. We have about 30 demos circulating with more to come. We will be going through all of the demos to lock down the best 10-12 and record the basics down. Super stoked!

The Sam Whitman Trio album is underway! Sam and drummer Ryan Benoit have been coming up to the studio for writing sessions regularly and we have a nice amount of material building up for his album, which we are hoping to release in the fall. Stay tuned for updates there.

More of my own stuff! I have also been writing/recording more of my own material. Once I got ‘City Of My Mind’ out and running, I got stoked to release more of my own music. I’m not sure if I’ll continue down the singles/ep route or do a full length. Maybe both. Regardless, more Stu music is coming at ya soon.

Thanks so much for reading this and keeping up. You’ll see more shows being posted, so please come to one and say hello. It’s always nice to meet new people or familiar faces at shows. Lots of love to y’all!

Fall Back Into It

I’ll keep this short and sweet. I am happy to report the 45 for ‘City Of My Mind’ and the dub version are off to the presses! It’s been a hugely educational process releasing this; I haven’t released my own vinyl anything before and I learned a ton. The next one will take much less time.

I took the summer to reflect on my life in music, which was a beautiful and revealing time. I listened to tons of new music, revisited all of my favorites, wrote a little bit, played some, and everything I did, I did with positivity. I also worked four jobs to fund my 45 release and the traveling I have planned later this fall and winter time. If anyone reading this is ever feeling in a slump, I highly recommend taking some time to reflect on what’s working/not working. There’s no shame in taking a step back to reapproach whatever is obstructing your forward momentum.

There are many fun shows and recording projects on the horizon that I am excited to share with you, so keep posted and we’ll see ya out there sometime! As always, don’t hesitate to hit me up with questions or to extend a friendly hello. Keep it chill!

Projects and thoughts

Hey there universe, been a moment, but I’m glad you’re still out there. I’ve had quite a run these last couple months and parts of it I’m excited to reveal while others are depressing at best. I guess the depressing part first.

My good friend, collaborator, colleague, and confidante, Dave Noyes, passed away on March 7th from what I presume to be a heart attack. He was 45 years young and is survived by his loving wife and two sons, one of which has yet to be born. It is a tremendous loss for our little music community up here, but things are slowly getting normal again. Dave was maybe the kindest person I have ever met. His willingness to ‘go get it’ and make a situation better was contagious. I am very happy to have known and worked with him and even happier to have his friendship as long as I did. He is missed, but would want us to move forward with a smile.

I have been writing a lot lately and practicing a ton in lieu of the winter doldrums and ‘lighter’ schedule. It is spring time now and everything is waking up, including my schedule. Check out my shows page for some great events coming up that you should definitely check out!

I am happy to report I have a reggae 45 completely mixed and ready for mastering and duplication. Be on the lookout for that. I am proud of it and happy to have it done so I can move forward on some new stuff.

I have finished mixing The Gainers’ EP which has been mastered and is off for duplication as I write this. I am super excited for these fellas. Their songs are fun and they perform them well. I wish them all the best and hope you have an opportunity to hear their stuff.

The Tristones album is now fully tracked and we will be stepping into the editing phase sometime in the next few weeks. This is the full-length album I had the pleasure of producing in the fall time with my friend Tristan Clark. The guitar tones we achieved on this are mind bending.

My friend Andrew Bailie’s new album is about to be released. Andrew lived up here in Maine, but now lives in Omaha. We enjoyed playing up here for the year that we overlapped. His album is spectacular and I am humbled he asked me to tour with him in support of it. Congrats Andrew!

I enjoyed playing a show with my friend Nikhil Yerawadekar at City Winery earlier this month. His band is killing and I always love heading to New York to play with that crew. I hope he asks me to play more shows!

That’s pretty much it as of right now. I have some other things I can’t really release any info on right now, but if they lock in, are very exciting. Thank you for reading this and keeping up. I’ve said it before, but I’ll do a better job of regular blogging and keeping my shows updated.

Long time!

I really got be better about blogging on the reg. My last blog was in July and so much has happened between then and now. I’ll do my best to recap.

The summertime saw lots of inspiring moments, shows, hangs with friends, books read, guests came and went, songs written, and music recorded. I took a fair amount of time to work on my house while weather and time was on my side. My Tuesday Night Hangs with The Nightshades (the New Orleans band) have been gaining great momentum and it’s been fun being a part of the growth of a regular Tuesday night hang. I’ve met some really nice people and have enjoyed seeing many familiar faces.

I took on three production endeavors this fall. Zesty!, a band from my hometown asked me to produce 2 of their singles. The fellas are young and hungry and write great music. It’s nice to see some great talent come out of that little town! In addition to Zesty!, The Gainers asked me to produce their full length record, who are also from the midcoast Maine area. We are currently in the middle of tracking that record. They came super prepared and we tracked 8 of their songs in one day, which was fantastic. Finally, my friend Tristan Clark brought his band The Tristones up from NYC and we recorded his full length at the Rustic Overtones space with my good friend Jon Roods engineering. So much talent and great music coming out soon and I am humbled to be helping sculpt the sound of these bands and bring them to the public. Keep an ear out!

This was the first year Jenny and I hosted a Thanksgiving. We enjoyed the company of our roommates, so friends from town, and the Marcus King Band and crew. It was fun bringing those fellas up to our home and cooking food for everyone. We had a 25lb bird!!! After the mega feast, I made a turkey soup that reached 4 gallons…needless to say we’ll be eating that all winter. (I froze most of it:)

I played at the Blue Note with my friend Maurice Brown in early November. It was one of the best shows I’ve played all year. I play really well the Maurice and his usual band; Joe Blaxx on drums, Marcus Machado on guitar, Chelsea Baratz on tenor, and this fella I had never played with, Taka (sp?) rounded out the group on keys. The music was so free flowing, intense, delicate at times, and GROOVY AF! We played the same day that Maurice’s mentor and trumpet phenom Roy Hargrove passed away. The show was dedicated to Roy and Maurice brought his brother in brass, Keyon Harold, on stage to pay respects and play with us. It was a beautiful albeit mournful night.

That pretty much generalizes my last 5 months or so. Lots of music, working on the house, and other life stuff. I appreciate anyone who reads this blog post and as always, if you have an questions or want to drop me a line, please do. Take care of yourselves out there!

Progress Report

How's it going y'all!  I'm currently enjoying a ginger-turmeric tea with plenty of honey, giving my immune system all it needs to fight off these damn allergies.  I have some exciting news and updates for ya!

This last month has seen some great progress with all of my projects.  The currently unnamed Nola Night Band (Emmett Harrity on keys, Ryan Curless on drums, and Max Cantlin on guitar) has been rehearsing and is tightening up nicely.  We're going to be hosting a New Orleans vibe night somewhere in Portland, probably Local 188, so keep on the lookout for that if you live close to there or are in the area.  

The single 'City of My Mind' has its final vocal performance DONE by Dave Gagne!!!  I am so stoked for y'all to hear this...Royal Hammer crew on rhythm section and Gagne on vocals makes for some serious heat!

Bence/Redman/Mahan has our first performance booked!  We are playing at the Apohadion Theater on July 8.  We've been working on getting our ears sharpened up for this and we are talking about releasing some recorded material that night as a celebration for the new project.  

I traveled to NYC recently to record on Bonehart Flannigan's new album, which was really fun.  Bonehart (Jon Dell) is a great songwriter from Lincoln, Nebraska and he got a stellar band to cut his new record.  Be on the lookout for that gem!

Binky Griptite throws a blues jam hang on Sunday's in BK, so I went after my session and sat in.  Somehow, the next day I found myself working on Binky's new album at Electric Ladyland Studios in the A room!  The other bass player couldn't make it, so Binky asked if I could come in and dial in sounds and such.  I humbly accepted.  Thanks Binky!

I play guitar in Kenya Hall's band and I've been shedding a fair amount to keep sharp.  I played my first guitar solo in a performance setting and got a ton of positive feedback, so I must be doing something right.  While guitar is similar to bass, the role of the guitar is different and I love exploring new territory on different instruments, it makes me approach music from a different headspace.  For instance, I've been singing a lot lately and I feel like my bass playing has gotten much stronger as a result.  I'm fully intrigued now and can't wait to dig deeper into instruments I am unfamiliar with.  

Well, you're up to speed.  Keep on the look out for new music, more performances, and other happenings as they come up.  I'm still trying to figure out how to get more past recorded music up on my audio page, sorry for the delay!

Stay well out there everyone!  These beautiful summer months are upon us and there's a lot of positivity floating in the air :)