Press release –
“The New Colossus (Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor)” is a new (and very timely) original duet by two North Carolina mainstays: songwriter / vocalist / guitarist / producer Chris Stamey and singer / songwriter Caitlin Cary being released by Flatiron Recordings March 6. It is a musical setting of the famous poem by Emily Lazarus that is proudly emblazoned on the Statue of Liberty, with its memorable lines of invitation for “your tired, your poor / your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free.” Music and additional lyrics are by Stamey, who credits Pete Seeger (whose “Turn! Turn! Turn!” set lines from Ecclesiastes) with the inspiration.
Chris: “It’s important to remember that kindness, and generosity toward strangers in need, has long been at the heart of how we think about our country, itself a country of immigrants. I hear in Emily Lazarus’s words something that is as relevant now as it was in 1883 when she wrote it. And I think it’s worthwhile reminding ourselves of this core American declaration.”
Caitlin: “I believe that we have arrived at a moment in history in which every person with a platform is obliged to raise their voices loudly in protest against lawless cruelty and the erosion of our democratic ideals. I am proud to join my friend Chris Stamey here on his platform to sing out the message enshrined at the base of our Statue of Liberty: that our imperfect country can only remain strong and free when all people are welcomed and entitled to equal protections under just laws.”
Chris is an indie rock icon with a long and illustrious history that’s encompassed co-founding seminal avant-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 smart-pop outfit the Salt Collective. Caitlin first came to our attention when she and Ryan Adams formed alt-country legends Whiskeytown, then went on to make several influential solo albums (Yep Roc) before pacting with Lynn Blakey and Tonya Lamm in Tres Chicas. She is also a respected visual artist based in Raleigh, NC, specializing in distinctive needle prints. The track also features Peter Holsapple (The dB’s) on harmonica. It will be available from Flatiron Recordings, as a digital download and at all streaming platforms, on March 6.
Chris adds, “I like our version of this song very much, it’s such a delight to sing with Caitlin; but I am hoping that others might raise their voices and join with us in singing and even recording it.”
CHRIS BIO
Chris Stamey began writing and playing music in grade school in Winston-Salem, NC, in the mid 1960s, in what is known now as the Combo Corner scene. In 1976, while studying music composition at UNC-Chapel Hill, he self-released Sneakers, one of the very first American “indie” records. The following year, he relocated to Manhattan to play and record with Alex Chilton in the burgeoning CBGB rock scene, then formed The dB’s with fellow Carolinians Will Rigby, Gene Holder, and Peter Holsapple, with whom he made several acclaimed records of original material, including Stands for deciBels (self-produced with Alan Betrock) and Repercussion (produced by Scott Litt).
During the next decade and a half in New York, Stamey worked with a wide variety of musicians. He recorded well-received solo records for A&M and Warners and was a part of Anton Fier’s Golden Palominos project, alongside an international touring cast that included Michael Stipe (R.E.M.), Jack Bruce (Cream), Carla Bley, and Bernie Worrell (Talking Heads, George Clinton). He continued recording and producing upon returning to NC in 1993.
His recent releases include The Great Escape, Lovesick Blues and Euphoria, as well as Falling Off the Sky with The dB’s and A Brand-New Shade of Blue with the Fellow Travelers. As a producer and a featured singer/songwriter with the Paris-based Salt Collective project, he collaborated with Matthew Caws (Nada Surf), Juliana Hatfield, Richard Lloyd (Television), Matthew Sweet, Aimee Mann, Andy Partridge, The Lemon Twigs, Mike Mills, and Lynn Blakey, among others. As a producer, arranger, and mixer, he has worked with over a hundred artists, including Alejandro Escovedo, Kronos Quartet, Flat Duo Jets, Skylar Gudasz, Branford Marsalis, Tift Merritt, Le Tigre, Those Pretty Wrongs, Ryan Adams, and Yo La Tengo.
From 2010-2018, Stamey was orchestrator and musical director for an international series of concert performances of Big Star’s classic album Third, alongside Big Star’s Jody Stephens, Ray Davies, members of the Posies, R.E.M., Teenage Fanclub, Wilco, Kronos Quartet and Yo La Tengo; Thank You, Friends, a concert film of these arrangements, was released by Concord in March 2017. He currently tours as a member of Jody Stephens’s Big Star Quintet, whose line-up includes Mike Mills (R.E.M), Pat Sansone (Wilco), and Jon Auer (Posies). His original radio musical about the early ’60s in Manhattan, Occasional Shivers, premiered nationwide on Christmas Day 2016. A “songwriting memoir,” A Spy in the House of Loud (Univ. of Texas Press), was published in 2018, followed in 2019 by his first printed collection, New Songs for the 20th Century, with a companion two-disc CD (Omnivore Recordings).
yeproc.11spot.com/music/artists-1/chris-stamey.html
CAITLIN BIO
In 1993, while Caitlin Cary was a graduate student in creative writing at NC State University, a young Ryan Adams contacted her and asked her if she would play violin in a band that he was starting. Cary agreed, and they formed the seminal alt country band Whiskeytown. Cary went on to sign to Yep Roc Records as a solo artist and released 3 lauded albums: Waltzie (2000), While You Weren’t Looking (2002), and I’m Staying Out (2003), all produced by Stamey, and featuring guest performances by the likes of Mary Chapin Carpenter, Mitch Easter, and author Lee Smith.
In 2005 she released Begonias, an album of original duets with Thad Cockrell. In 2013 Cary cofounded the North Carolina Music Love Army. The collective of notable North Carolina–based musicians created the We Are Not For Sale: Songs of Protest LP to oppose the regressive actions of the North Carolina General Assembly. Also in the mid-2000s, Caitlin formed the group the Small Ponds, with Matt Douglas (Mountain Goats), and the pair released an EP and a full-length album on the Last Chance label.
Tres Chicas, her NC trio with Tonya Lamm and Lynn Blakey, began singing together in 1999 at an impromptu singalong with Alejandro Escovedo. Their name was bestowed upon them by the owner of the bar after the performance. Stamey heard them and asked the group to release a full album; the result was Sweetwater, their 2004 debut for Yep Roc. Their second album, Bloom, Red & the Ordinary Girl, featuring members of Nick Lowe’s band and a guest appearance by Lowe himself, was released in March 2006, and the three continued to perform occasionally through 2020.
These days Cary works primarily as an accomplished, collectible textile artist whose work has recently been exhibited at the North Carolina Museum of Art. She is married to artist (and former Whiskeytown drummer) Skillet Gilmore, and they live in Raleigh, North Carolina.
