Christopher Paul Stelling's "Labor Against Waste" Available Now
Christopher Paul Stelling’s new album Labor Against Waste is now available. The full length Anti- debut from the traveling singer-songwriter and finger-picker is already being heralded in the press, No Depression writing of Stelling,"The energy that this man is able to unleash through his songs and performances is unprecedented. The power and talent he beholds is a rare and beautiful thing” and Rolling Stone proclaiming, ”The record delights at the threshold of polished folk-pop and rustic old folk; and he seems bound to make converts on both sides of that divide.”
Labor Against Waste offers a powerful merging of artistic authenticity, devotion to craft and that most elusive of qualities, something to say. Stelling has spent the last several years on the move with his battered guitar, performing to people as he finds them, in bars, informal get-togethers, festivals and packed theaters. Along the way he has forged friendships, converted fans and accumulated experiences and insights which are skillfully documented in his impassioned new album. Recalling the most impactful troubadours of past eras, from bluesmen to protest singers, outlaw country singers and the classic singer-songwriters of the seventies, Labor Against Waste delivers a topical and potent mix of social commentary, graphic imagery and exhilarating musicianship.
Stelling made his national television debut on CBS Saturday Morning on June 13th with impassioned live performances of Hard Work and Warm Enemy.
Watch Hard Work: http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/saturday-sessions-christopher-paul-stelling-performs-hard-work/ Watch Warm Enemy: http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/saturday-sessions-christopher-paul-stelling-performs-warm-enemy/
Stelling has also debuted a new song called “Horse” and its accompanying video care of TheBlueGrassSituation.com. Watch the video here: http://www.thebluegrasssituation.com/read/watch-christopher-paul-stelling-horse
The track has a rollicking Basement Tapes-like abandon featuring a cast of additional players and friends with Kieran Ledwidge (fiddle), Zach Bruce (mandolin), Michael Harlen (bass), and Aaron Shafer-Haiss (drums). The song was recorded live on the first take.
“Horse was by far the most fun I've ever had recording,” Stelling says. “The song was written fast, in less than an hour. Lyrically, it's a spin on the old "you can drag your horse to water" motif. It's about the regret that always accompanies haste. It's an old western film born in my head.”
The corresponding video, featuring a montage of footage taken from old Western films, creates an appropriate mood of urgency and action. As Stelling explains, “I wanted western. and OLD western... and thanks to the public domain that's what I got. I started digging through library of congress footage from the 20s and 30s for ideas, and they became the idea. I put together some clips, and sent it to film maker Aaron Hymes, who has a soft spot for these old films and is a fantastic editor and he it knocked it out of the park. These old films were shot so beautifully, and there's no way we could have replicated them. I'm glad we could give these ghosts from the past a second chance to tell their stories. I'm honored that they could help me tell mine.”