He doesn’t realize it, but Christopher Paul Stelling (CPS) and I go way back. When I first started Adobe & Teardrops, I thought it might be a cool thing to do to hand out business cards to musicians and tell them they should e-mail me. Stelling was the first and last person I gave a business card to after a show. He and Melaena Cadiz played a show at Glasslands, the most Williamsburg venue. (Fittingly, in a metaphor for hyper-gentrification, the venue shut down soon after when Vice bought the building for its corporate headquarters.) Fast forward to 2019, I told Stelling this story when I interviewed him for The Boot about his gorgeous album Best Of Luck. The album chronicled his first forays into sobriety and was produced by Ben Harper: a stunning and powerful collection of blues and rock and a band that truly loved each other cutting loose.
When he came to New York in support of that album in January 2020 (I think? Who can say), it was one of the last live shows we went to. Stelling was characteristically intense and wild, free from the monkey on his shoulder and joyfully exhilarating in being able to take it all in with a crowd that’s supported him from his first days as a professional musician. And, of course, that came to a halt, so Stelling took the rest of that energy to record album number 6: Forgiving It All, recorded in his grandmother’s home after missing her passing while he wrapped up his tour.
Today, we get to hear the album’s opener, “Die To Know.” It’s a tender ode to innocence, a remembrance of simple joy and sincerity before experience and age dulled our enthusiasm. Stelling may have caught our collective attention with yowls and screams that feel like they could tear they entire world down, but “Die To Know” shows him at his softest, most vulnerable, and even wistful. It’s my hope that 2020 taught Stelling, and the rest of us, how to return to the simple things that give us joy amidst grief.
Christopher Paul Stelling — Official, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Bandcamp, Spotify