One of the great things about rock & roll is that you never know where the next big thing will come from, or what form it will take. On the stunningly accomplished debut album Apparition, the Steve Palmer Band emerges fully formed to carry on the proud tradition of Creedence Clearwater Revival, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and other genre-transcending trailblazers of rock’s golden age. At the same time, the Nashville-based quintet possesses the knockout punch of modern-day heavyweights like Pearl Jam and 3 Doors Down, as well as the fluid improvisational virtuosity of the Dave Matthews Band. From one track to the next, SPB applies power, precision and nuanced open-endedness to a batch of Palmer-penned songs that are at once timeless and resonant with the details of contemporary existence.
Co-produced by SPB and David Huff (a former member of Giant and a busy drummer, producer and writer), Apparition (released April 20, 2010, on Palmer’s own Arythmia Records through Caroline, EMI’s indie distribution unit) introduces a new band with immense promise and breathtaking firepower. Recorded live off the floor with minimal overdubs at Nashville’s world-class Blackbird Studios, and mixed by the in-demand veteran Jim Ebert (Butch Walker, Jason Falkner, Cowboy Mouth, SR 71), the album is likely to surprise and delight aficionados of intelligent, big-hearted, hook-filled American music. The LP is teeming with instant classics like “Livin’ on the Streets” (the first single and video), “Never Gonna See Her Again,” the title track and “Nothin’ to Do,” which Steve co-wrote during his senior year in high school at Blundell’s Academy in England. Remarkably, the latter song’s lyric is as relevant to today’s tumultuous socio-economic climate as it was during the Thatcher era, when it was written.
Palmer’s songs are delivered with a combination of lock-down tightness and exploratory open-endedness by the high-octane SPB lineup—lead vocalist/guitarist Palmer, bassist and musical director Anthony Setola, guitarist Bryan Ewald, drummer Tony Morro and B-3 player/pianist Larry Hall, along with backing vocalists Vicki Hampton and Cindy Walker. While the group is just a few months into its existence, the players who comprise SPB have collectively logged more than a century of intensive experience, recording and/or touring with the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Grand Funk Railroad’s Mark Farner, the Smithereens’ Pat DiNizio, the Del Fuegos’ Warren Zanes, the Iron City Houserockers’ Joe Grushecky and renowned songwriter Diane Warren, as well as country staples Randy Travis, Little Big Town, Restless Heart, SheDaisy, Ronnie Milsap, Lari White and Ray Price.
Palmer’s own background is atypical, to say the least. Although he’s been writing, playing and recording since he was big enough to hold a guitar, the Denver-born Northeast-raised Palmer spent a decade and a half as a working stiff in the Washington, D.C., area. During those years, he was pulled in two antithetical directions, his left brain focused on his profession while his right brain remained engaged in the creative process.
“There’s always been this duality in my life between the hard-driving professional and the laid-back, good-natured artist—and the two sides of me were constantly butting heads,” he ruefully recalls. “Music was always what drove me through life.” So Palmer did what the vast majority of unfulfilled people only dream about—supported by his family, he walked away from his nine-to-five job a few years back to devote himself fulltime to his lifelong passion, and he hasn’t looked back since, having found his true calling as a writer/artist/bandleader.
When he’d accumulated enough first-rate material, this aspiring but thoroughly prepared singer/songwriter/guitarist started performing solo. This was no big deal for Palmer, who’d been totally comfortable in front of crowds since his very first performance for his sixth grade class. In 2007, he put together the initial lineup of SPB with Setola in order to give the songs that were pouring out of him added dimension in the live setting. The group’s final configuration is the product of several years of intensive woodshedding on Palmer’s part, as he continued to upgrade the instrumental lineup in order to capture the sounds he was hearing in his head. Since Palmer completed the lineup with the crucial additions of the Nashville-based Morro and Hall, the group has further enlivened a thriving Music City rock scene that includes such fellow Blackbird habitués as Jack White and Kings of Leon.
The band went into Blackbird in November and proceeded to nail four tracks in the first three hours. At that point, Steve knew that he’d made the ideal choices in handpicking his players, as well as tapping the best possible studio talents in Huff and Jim Ebert. It was dramatically apparent that everyone involved were bringing every iota of their skill, experience and dedication to the project. The Apparition sessions went so well that the band returned to Blackbird in mid-December to cut a second album, the country-rock-leaning Stuck in a U-Haul, which will be released later in 2010. And in terms of the long haul, the band has leased space in Nashville’s Marathon Village, where they’re setting up a rehearsal studio that will double as a tracking facility. The band will launch an extensive tour behind the Apparition’srelease, bringing Palmer’s songs to vibrant life on club stages around the country.
Everything in each of the principals’ extensive careers has led up to this defining moment, as the Steve Palmer Band brings the most resonant elements of rock’s storied past and wide-open present into the second decade of the 21st century, its future as bright as the Nashville skyline.
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…shrink me down again