New Tommy Stinson Album Dropping in June "Wronger"

[Dean]

The new Cowboys in the Campfire album has been in the works for years. Tommy dropped this single on his socials. It sounds tremendous. Tommy hasn't put out a bad record so it'll be essential listening. 

Former Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson’s latest venture is called Cowboys in the Campfire — a duo with good pal Chip Roberts — and its debut album, WRONGER, (due out June 2) is perhaps the most American album the singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer has ever made.

WRONGER’s 10 tracks ride a giddy trail of twang and grit, melody and (mostly lyrical) mayhem. The very first song, “Here We Go Again,” sets the tone; Stinson on ukulele, singing about the ardors of creativity, while horns swell and there’s not a hint of percussion other than the perceptible tapping of feet by the musicians in the room. It’s stark and immediate, like sitting right in the middle of the maelstrom. From there we encounter a broad and passionate range of feels, from the rough ‘n’ tumble rockabilly of “That’s It” to “We Ain’t,” a shuffle straight out of Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison. Stinson and Roberts take us from Nashville to Bakersfield on songs such as “Mr. Wrong” and “Fall Apart Together,” while “Schemes,” “Souls” and “Dream” are showcases of an ace pop songwriter.

“I’m not one to be pigeonholed — but I’m not putting a lot of thought into it that I DON’T want to be pigeonholed,” Stinson, who now resides in the out-of-the-way environs of Hudson, N.Y., says with a laugh. “For me it’s always been that the songs pretty much tell you what they’re going to do. I can sit there and work a song into the ground, forcing my will on it, or you can listen to the song and go, ‘What does this want?’ and do that. I’ve always done it that way. Ultimately it’s more about, ‘Let’s try and get the best 10 and take what we’ve got and make them the best they can be.'”

Cowboys in the Campfire was “a joke at first,” according to Stinson, dating back more than a decade. Roberts is the uncle of Stinson’s second ex-wife; he hails from the Philadelphia rock scene, where he was a gun-for-hire guitar slinger for visiting musicians who needed accompaniment. “We’ve been really good friends and writing partners pretty much since we met each other,” Stinson says. “We were writing rock tunes to ballads or country or Americana, but we’ve both come from that sort of singer-songwriter thing.” Neither man expected their association to become an ongoing musical concern, especially as Stinson had plenty on his plate.

But the collaboration had legs, and about seven years ago, during a Guns N' Roses hiatus and before Stinson ventured into Replacements and Bash & Pop reunions, he and Roberts got a little more serious. "It was spring, and neither one of us had something to do that summer," Stinson recalls. "So we said, 'Let's go play some shows. Let's f*** around.' That's what we did. I took some songs he and I had written together, some of my solo stuff, some covers, some other stuff of mine he plays. We'd ad lib on stuff. We started playing shows in the South and stuff." One of the duo's songs, "Anything Could Happen," became the title track of Bash & Pop's 2017 release, which Roberts also played on. But they still felt that Cowboys in the Campfire -- which takes its name from a couple of Roberts' paintings -- might have its own trail. "The running joke was, 'That's what our band would be called if we had one," Stinson recalls. "Finally we were like, 'We've got 10 songs here. Let's make a record'. It was almost as off the cuff as that. Almost."

WRONGER began life five or six years ago, when Stinson and Roberts were on tour in Texas. They went into a studio there with a friend, Christine Smith, producing and recording five songs; X's John Doe was around, too, and played bass and sang backup on four of the tracks. The rest of the album was made at Stinson's home studio in Hudson, adding occasional contributions from friends where needed -- including a string quartet on the track "Hey Man." Drums, meanwhile, were considered optional and are only used on a few of WRONGER's tracks, hearkening back to Stinson's philosophy to give the tunes what they called for.

The songs themselves came from a variety of inspirations. "Karma's Bitch," for instance, is a real-life story from a Maryland beach community where a friend pointed out a man who divorced his alcoholic wife to start dating her equally addled daughter -- both of whom ultimately died. "It became the basis of that song, as grim as it is," Stinson acknowledges. A couple of WRONGER's songs, particularly "Hey Man," touch lightly on socio-political topics "without getting too far into it," Stinson says -- just enough to be provocative and open to interpretation. And he cheerfully fesses up to "somewhat channeling" an assortment of influences, including Conway Twitty and Tanya Tucker, whose music was favored by Stinson's mother.

"It's an experimental record in a lot of ways," says Stinson, who turned to Twin/Tone Records co-founder Peter Jesperon and his son Autry to help with the sequencing and overall encouragement. "I don't know that Chip's ever made a record as experimental as this one. There's always been a country/folky element to what I've done, even early on, but this takes it into a whole other direction. In the grand scheme of things it all kind of goes together in kind of a blur."

The goal now for Stinson and Roberts is to keep Cowboys in the Campfire on the road and playing as much as possible. Stinson still has other endeavors in mind, but the duo is undeniably an active concern and one he's confident we'll be hearing from on a regular basis. "Chip and I are going to make a real run for it with this record," Stinson says. "And I'm feeling like I'm probably about to head back in the studio. I've got some ideas; they're just in my head at the moment and in my fingers. I don't know what they'll be yet, but I'm in a place now where I can do that and make music on my own terms. It's a nice place to be."

Tracklisting:

1. Here We Go Again
2. That’s It
3. Mr. Wrong
4. Schemes
5. Fall Apart Together
6. Hey Man
7. We Ain’t
8. Karma’s Bitch
9. Souls
10. Dream

https://www.antimusic.com/news/tommy_stinsons_cowboys_in_the_campfire_share_dream_video-032223/

Edited March 24, 2023 by Dean

[username]

First single sounds good! I'm excited for this! 

[Sweersa]

It's a bummer Axl/GN'R/UMG doesn't let him release Ten Percenter and Going Down

[Dean]

20 minutes ago, Sweersa said:

It's a bummer Axl/GN'R/UMG doesn't let him release Ten Percenter and Going Down

The last I heard, he was working toward getting them back.

[Sweersa]

44 minutes ago, Dean said:

The last I heard, he was working toward getting them back.

I think that would be a good move by Guns, unless of course they intend to release them with Tommy's parts intact, which would be cool.

If they do give them to Tommy, I wonder if he will keep Axl's parts. I assume he would, if allowed. It would be a great selling point. 

[Dean]

13 minutes ago, Sweersa said:

I think that would be a good move by Guns, unless of course they intend to release them with Tommy's parts intact, which would be cool.

If they do give them to Tommy, I wonder if he will keep Axl's parts. I assume he would, if allowed. It would be a great selling point. 

I believe Rick mentioned that he prefers the stripped back original version that appeared on the Village Sessions, but you’re right, it would indeed be a great selling point. Axl sounds absolutely phenomenal on the 2013 leaked version.

[Sweersa]

39 minutes ago, Dean said:

I believe Rick mentioned that he prefers the stripped back original version that appeared on the Village Sessions, but you’re right, it would indeed be a great selling point. Axl sounds absolutely phenomenal on the 2013 leaked version.

I wonder if Axl recorded vocals for Ten Percenter. The Villages versions with guitar solos added and Axl would be great.

I seem to recall a rumor about a version with Axl on leads for Going Down exists. Who knows if that's legit. 

[Dean]

12 minutes ago, Sweersa said:

I wonder if Axl recorded vocals for Ten Percenter. The Villages versions with guitar solos added and Axl would be great.

I seem to recall a rumor about a version with Axl on leads for Going Down exists. Who knows if that's legit. 

I really hope Axl did do a lead vocal for Going Down. It’s the sort of tune that would’ve showcased his range perfectly. I think it did end up getting proved to be a BS rumour from a fan from Brazil, as I believe it was supposedly confirmed by Beta on Insta but no proof ever surfaced.

It ended up on the set list around the 2011 run and then dropped off again. I think it was Bumble who mentioned that it’s a hard song to sing and specifically mentioned Tommy. 

[Spaghetti4twenty]

Man I’d love to hear him put out Going Down. Sounds like it could’ve been on Village Gorilla Head 

Edited March 24, 2023 by Spaghetti4twenty
Typo

[Sweersa]

2 hours ago, Dean said:

I really hope Axl did do a lead vocal for Going Down. It’s the sort of tune that would’ve showcased his range perfectly. I think it did end up getting proved to be a BS rumour from a fan from Brazil, as I believe it was supposedly confirmed by Beta on Insta but no proof ever surfaced.

It ended up on the set list around the 2011 run and then dropped off again. I think it was Bumble who mentioned that it’s a hard song to sing and specifically mentioned Tommy. 

I believe that's the same rumor I heard, involving Beta.

I remember Bumblefoot saying he played the solo we heard (which makes sense since it has the same odd mixing with vocals in one channel, and lead guitar in the other like with Oh My God and Silkworms) and also that Buckethead plays some of the outro. I'd love to hear the full Bucket mix, and that of course goes for all GN'R material he has touched.

[Spaghetti4twenty]

I always wonder If Going Down and Hard School made CD, would the album have done better? With the exception of Better and CD, the record lacked radio friendly songs. 

[Dean]

Pre-Order's for the album now live on multiple sites.

Tommy's official store:

Cowboys In The Campfire's Wronger - CD

Cowboys In The Campfire's Wronger - Vinyl

Amazon:

Wronger: Amazon.co.uk: CDs & Vinyl

[Dean]

On 3/25/2023 at 1:59 AM, Spaghetti4twenty said:

I always wonder If Going Down and Hard School made CD, would the album have done better? With the exception of Better and CD, the record lacked radio friendly songs. 

I think the biggest issue regarding Chinese was the lack of promotion. It still sold well despite all the shenanigans surrounding it's release, but it fell below the industry's expectations on the impact that it could have had. No promotional videos and no touring til over a year of it's release. It deserved a lot more effort from all parties, as the quality of material was incredibly high IMO.

Going Down is a great tune and I hope it rears it's head at some point in an official capacity, whether it be from Tommy or GNR.

[Dean]

 

[Dean]

Thoughts on this? Another Tam classic to my ears. The studio version of Karma's Bitch is everything I'd hoped it be when I first heard Tommy play it live several years ago.