Courtesy of our friends at SPYDERPOP RECORDS, we at BIG STIR RECORDS are proud to present a pair of exclusive tracks teasing the forthcoming – and keenly awaited – album from Texas guitar pop legend LANNIE FLOWERS, entitled HOME. “My Street (North Florida Version)” b/w “Summer Blue” are out Friday, November 22, and up for preorder now at www.bigstirrecords.com/big-stir-digital-singles as always. Both tracks are unique to this release: “My Street” will appear in a different version on Home and “Summer Blue” is a currently-unavailable track which debuted as part of Lannie's celebrated March To Home monthly singles series, each installment of which was available for one month only at the SpyderPop website.

Lannie Flowers has been a standard bearer for power pop, beginning in the '70's with The Pengwins and continuing through a “story arc” of critically-acclaimed LPs in the new century. Commencing with Same Old Story in 2008 and continued by Circles (winner of LA Music Awards 2013 Record of the Year honor), the cycle reaches its conclusion on Home, to be released in December on SpyderPop.

Where Same Old Story tells the tale of teenage romance and Circles describes the feelings coursing through a young musician on the road, the poignant and decidedly not power pop Home recounts the emotions of an aging rock and roller contemplating life after the road. Featuring Lannie’s most accomplished songwriting and arrangements to date, and advance notices for the album are nothing short of rapturous. It's being called “a musical tour-de-force and a revealing look into a songwriter that understands the human condition” (Stephen Schnee, Disussions Magazine), “a masterpiece” (Mike Lidskin, Twirl Radio) and “the aural equivalent of a box of chocolate” (George Gimarc, Texas Radio Hall Of Fame).

John Borack of Goldmine Magazine, whose book Shake Some Action 2.0 enshrines a live album by Flowers amongst the Top 200 power pop records from 1970-2017, sums the record up thusly: “Lyrically thoughtful, nuanced, passionate and always melodically stimulating, Lannie Flowers continues his string of top-notch releases with the fabulous Home."

This single's exclusive version of live favorite “My Street” is dubbed the “North Florida Version” to differentiate it from the track as it will appear on Home. SpyderPop's Victor Erwin describes how it came to be:

Discussion with Pat Buchannan, a mainstay of the Nashville music scene. His prodigious guitar talents have been used live and in the studio by Hall & Oates, Cyndi Lauper, Don Henley, Amy Grant, Vince Gill, Faith Hill, Alice Cooper, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Marshall Crenshaw, Darius Rucker and numerous other noteworthy musicians. He received the Academy of Country Music award for Guitarist of the Year in 2005.

Vic: Lannie and I really liked what you did with “My Street” – the dobro was inspired. We’d like you to take another run at it, however. Pat: Yeah, I was going for an Eagles-thing but didn’t quite get there. What do you guys have in mind? Vic: Some Mike Campbell (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers) type guitar. Pat: Cool – I’ll get it done by tomorrow.

10 minutes later…

Pat: Hey Vic – what era Mike Campbell? Vic: Oh heck, I don’t know what Lannie wants but I like the fourth album – Pat: Hard Promises? Vic: Yeah, or Wildflowers. Pat: Got it! Vic: Wait – are you some kind of savant or something? Pat: Naw, man. I’m just a North Florida redneck. I grew up with those guys.

Hence, “My Street (North Florida Version)”. He chose Wildflowers.

The Big Stir Single's B-side “Summer Blue” was the March 2019 installment of Lannie's remarkable, innovative and widely hailed monthly March To Home Singles series. Each track was available for free for one month on the SpyderPop website and then retired to be anthologized at a future date after the album release. We're thrilled to bring this soaring tour favorite, its title inspired by the name of a DJ on Hawaii's beloved The Time Machine radio show, back for another run as the perfect complement to the A-side.

More about the impending release of Lannie Flowers' Home and the many other fine releases on SpyderPop Records can be found at their website:

www.spyderpop.com

Expected release: November 22, 2019

Hot on the heels of our FUTUREMAN RECORDS partners' release of the much-anticipated new album from Sweden's THE TOR GUIDES, Big Stir Records is thrilled to feature the band in our ongoing Singles Series at www.bigstirrecords.com/big-stir-digital-singles with the lead single from their Backwards In Reverse album! “Just A Smile” (a cover of a Pilot tune, no less!) is backed with an exclusive non-album B-side “Make You Mine” and bedecked with exclusive artwork from Ridley Broome. It's out Friday, November 15 and up for pre-order now!

THE TOR GUIDES is the nom de guerre of Torbjorn Pettersson – now what kind of name is that? Tobbe (as he's also known) released his first single in 1982, heavily influenced by the new wave of the time. Many years later in 2007, never having ceased writing or home recording, he would release his first full length album, Honeybees and Tangerines. The record was attributed to the fictitious “group” The Tor Guides, a name to which Pettersson has returned ever since. The song “You (And Everything You Do)” eventually found its way to Justin Fielding´s excellent indie movie Inventory, where it kicked off the end credits. The second Tor Guides album Strawberries and Chocolates appeared in 2012 to critical acclaim, with International Pop Overthrow impresario David Bash deeming it the year´s fourth best album. The last album under the Tor Guides 2013's Lots of the Pops, was released was similarly lauded.

Since then Torbjorn´s been busy participating in different collaborations, working in the Theme Music community and with Keith Klingensmith (The Legal Matters), John Borack (Popdudes, The Test Pressings) and Herb Eimerman as The Slapbacks, amongst other one-off covers and originals which have surfaced on such compilations as the excellent This is Rock´n Roll Radio Volume 4 from 2018 (curated by Carl Cafarelli and Dana Bonn and released on Kool Kat Musik).

The new album (and the first release on Futureman to use The Tor Guides moniker) is Backwards in Reverse. It was initially a “write and record album in a month” project that blossomed into a full-blown work of its own. Co-produced and mixed by Joel Boyea, it is in a way a return to Pettersson's roots: for the first time, it includes cover versions, in the spirit of the Theme Music collaborations: Pilot´s “Just a Smile” and Wizzard´s “See My Baby Jive”, both a bit twisted around, in homage to the '70s that in many ways formed Tobbe's musical taste. They're joined by nine original in the pure pop style for which Pettersson by any name has become justly renowned. As the man himself proclaims. “From now on, backwards in reverse is the only way to proceed!”

Our B-side “Make You Mine” is a brand new tune completed after the new LP went to press and appears nowhere else, making this single an essential purchase (and a bargain) for completists. The full Backwards in Reverse LP was released November 8 on Futureman and is available everywhere now!

For Big Stir Digital Single #51, we stay at home here in California with Blaine Campbell with his California sounding new single “Happy Faces.” Which can be found right here at www.bigstirrecords.com/big-stir-digital-singles.

Blaine first got his feet wet in the arts as a child actor. But once he discovered rock and roll, it was clear that the world of music is where he would find his place. Graduating from the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA) and having the opportunity to study with some notable musicians provided a foundation that would give him a place to grow as a musician. As a result, he would develop a sound that invites the listener in and welcomes them to Southern California. Blaine has recorded a few albums and has played in just about every corner of Los Angeles from the eastside all the way to the Pacific Ocean. With a few close friends who are also longtime L.A. musicians, he has formed The California Sound as his band for this new album. And as Blaine Campbell and the California Sound manage to occupy your ears, they will tempt you to dive in and discover what goes on Under the Tidal Wave.

“Happy Faces” b/w Movin’ On” features Blaine being backed by David Cook, Chris Moore and Natalie Fratino (collectively known as the “The California Sound.”) This is a single that fully captures that Beach Boys’ vibe while being able to look forward at the same time. “A musical treasure,” says Michael McCartney host of “The Time Machine” FM radio show. “Blaine Campbell has perfect melodies,” says DJ Vern Shank of Surf 97.3 FM

Big Stir Records happily presents Digital Single #51—“Happy Faces” by Blaine Campbell!!

Here it is!!—THE GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY SINGLE

That’s right! This Friday marks the 50th BIG STIR DIGITAL SINGLE OF THE WEEK!
SINGLE #50 comes all the way from New York via The Stillsouls. The single is fabulously titled “Does My Love For You Come From Shakespeare Too?” and it’s available at www.bigstirrecords.com/big-stir-digital-singles.

The Stillsouls are Cody Melville, John Melville, Joel B Cannon, Jesse Bryson (Son of Raspberries’ guitarist Wally Bryson), and Steve Mostyn. They are a New York-based band, except for Steve who now lives in Los Angeles. Brothers John and Cody have been in bands together on and off for years with some early music in their careers being produced by the great Mick Ronson! John and Joel have also worked together in The Everyothers on the Kill Rock Stars record label and John and Jesse played together in The Robin Electric. Steve plays bass for Alicia Keys and has won a Grammy for producing Miguel. The Stillsouls are a band who are all about songs! They love nothing better than stepping up and singing and playing with style and grace from the drums to the bass.

“Does My Love For You Come From Shakespeare Too?” is a song inspired by the personal journey of a great friend of The Stillsouls who walked away from everything in search of a way to defeat his sorrows, and remains missing today. “Old Guitars Are Ghosts on the Sunset Strip” is a tune born on the heels of the purchase of an old, worn Rickenbacker 330 from a Hollywood guitar store. The idea is that this instrument may be possessed by all the inspired hands that’ve picked it up and played it over the years. It comes with a special nod that states “I’ve got an old 330, Tom Petty played one too!”

Based in both NYC and upstate New York, The Stillsouls’ sound is a blend of rock, soul and glam. It’s a collision of Bowie, Mott, Tom Petty and the melodies of the Motor City. A look back perhaps, but The Stillsouls definitely advance a fresh and contemporary take on their influences.

The Stillsouls were called “The Cody Melville Band” on their 2018 release “Bonds Eye” which was very well received by the press, most notably from American Songwriter and the Huffington Post. Aquarian Magazine declared them one of the top ten bands to see live in New York City in 2019. Their latest album “Half Drunk Preacher”, slated to be released in the near future, features a video of the single “Local Honey.”