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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!

Move on up!

How's it goin' y'all?!?  It's another beautiful summer day up here in the 207.  Here's what's been going on and what is coming up.  

I had some liberating experiences over the last 6 weeks and I'm excited to share them with you.  My friend Nigel Hall asked me to play with him for a VIP performance benefiting hungry kids.  The show was so fun!  It was essentially Lettuce and me.  Jesus was playing so there were two bass players.  I paid careful attention to not step on any toes and find space for me to add to the music rather than muddy everything up.  Everybody in the band was very kind and encouraging and I am extremely humbled to have shared the stage with those guys.  

Paco Naviera's project Octopus Kid has released the vinyl version of his debut album 'Demonstration', which I co-produced, co-arranged, played bass, wurlitzer, and percussion among various other things.  I love Paco's music so much and am grateful he included me on this project.  I look forward to working with him again and am very excited for people to hear this music.

Aimee Bayles has released the first two singles from her upcoming EP.  We worked diligently on this record over the last year and the results are wonderful.  She'll be playing some shows coming up pretty soon here and the EP will be released in the fall, so be on the look out (ear out?) for everything Aimee Bayles.

Two of my personal projects have bore their first fruits.  Arbelos, the improvisational group, had its first show at Apohadion Theater and my New Orleans funk night kicked off last night at Local 188, both venues in Portland, Maine.  The Arbelos show was interesting, but insanely good and fun.  It was interesting because our guitar player, Zach Bence, broke down on his way back from another show in Vermont, so we asked our friend Kyle Friday to come through.  Kyle brought his keyboard and guitar, created interesting loops and other sonic textures, and filled the space beautifully around Henry and my playing.  It was lightly attended, but the people who came were enthusiastic.   I'm looking forward to seeing how Arbelos evolves.

The Nightshades (NOLA funk/soul) was a large step for me personally in that it was the first band where I sing lead vocals tunes.  It brought me a lot of comfort to have incredible musicians backing me up...Ryan Curless on drums, Max Cantlin on guitar, and Emmett Harrity on keys.  We all sing and do our best to make shit groovy af.  People REALLY dug it!!!  We are doing a residency every Tuesday for July and I am so excited for the next one.

Kenya Hall's band has been picking up some momentum.  We opened for the legendary Roots on 6/29.  Kenya has a talent for uplifting everyone around her wherever she goes and the 500+ people we played for are no exception.  The cheers were as thunderous as her voice and it felt good to be next to her on stage...playing guitar!  

Speaking of playing non-principal instruments, I played keys on a Jaw Gems show in Brooklyn too!  Those guys are so fun to chill with.  I did my absolute best to bring the heat with that crew and it was super fun to approach music from a keyboard perspective vs guitar or bass.  I anticipate more of this in the future :)

'City of My Mind' has taken a back seat while I get these other thing rolling.  It certainly doesn't take away from my love of that song though.  For anyone who reads this and is interested, it will be coming out soon, I promise!!!

I went to NYC to play with my friend Swerling a few weeks back and caught up with a bunch of friends while I was there.  Swerling continues to grow immeasurably as a songwriter and frontman.  I have enjoyed watching his process, it really inspires me.  Stay tuned for all things Swerling as well.  

That's pretty much the long and short of it.  I have some production endeavors on my plate that I can't reveal at this time, but I am stoked about them.  If anyone has any questions or comments, please drop me a line.  In the meantime, keep it greasy!