Stereo Six: Wesley Stace Sums Up Six of His Favourite Albums

For anyone who has followed Wesley Stace’s career, you would know that he is a man never short on ideas. He’s gearing up to release his latest record, One Last Heist, via Pravda Records on September 2nd. Never too focused on any one narrative, the songs jump around across the wide range of the singer-songwriter’s unique interests. There are songs about death, personal advice to would-be entertainers, contemplations on mythology, and certainly some protest songs. It’s a reflection of who Stace is as a songwriter. Someone who can derive inspiration from a lot of different places, not afraid to deal with heady issues with a head-on approach. It’s an ambitious record from a songwriter always seeking out unique artistic challenges.

You might know Wesley Stace from his previous and still occasional moniker John Wesley Harding. Originally from Hastings, Sussex, he was educated in the UK before moving to America in 1991. Outside of songwriting, he is also an academic and a writer. He has written four highly lauded novels and has twice taught a songwriting course at Princeton University along with poet Paul Muldoon. He has also taught creative writing at Swarthmore and Fairleigh Dickinson University. Under the name John Wesley Harding, he released 17 studio albums. For his more recent recordings, he switched back to his birth name, Wesley Stace.

To gain a better understanding of the inspirations for One Last Heist, Stace joins us today for a Stereo Six, breaking down six records that were influential to him.

1. Jim Hall – Concierto (1975, CTI)

“The incredible thing about the CTI records that I collect, and which have been such an influence on my thinking about music for the last few years, is how interchangeable the bands are. Sure, Freddie Hubbard might be the name on the cover, or George Benson, or Hubert Laws, Airto, Ron Carter, but those very same people will be in the backing band on each other’s records. Once you crack that, you just want to hear all of them. It’s a beautiful concept.

“So many of the albums governed by Creed Taylor’s tasteful, pragmatic aesthetic and the beautiful photography of Pete Turner sound so great, look so great, and are so great, but this Jim Hall record might be the pinnacle (of all pinnacles): Chet Baker (my teen son loves him because of Ted Lasso) on trumpet, Paul “Take Five” Desmond on sax, Ron Carter, the greatest, on upright bass, Steve Gadd on drums, Jim on guitar, and a phenomenal Roland Hanna piano solo, all arranged by the genius Don Sebesky.

“Perhaps at the time it seemed a little redundant after Miles Davis’ famous version of Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, and I know some jazz purists were a little snobby about the pop-leaning CTI, etc, but to me this is an almost perfect recording. What does it have to do, having no lyrics, being one long side on one side of an LP with my music? It’s precisely the record I heard and thought: I want to make music more like that, my thing but in *that* direction…”

2. Gary McFarland – The In Sound (1965, Verve Records)

“I love this witty, soulful record. A fiend pointed out McFarland, a vibes player, to me a few years ago, and I started listening to his arrangements and his own solo records. He wasn’t afraid to sing and vocalize, despite possibly not having the strongest voice of all time, and he makes a lot of that on this record, with his joyful singing on ‘Fried Bananas’ and so forth. Certainly don’t sleep on the version of ‘Satisfaction’ (jazz reveals the Stones to have very malleable melodies), which is an extension of McFarland’s previous Soft Samba success. And it’s the way the tracks lock in with Gabor Szabo’s simple but hooky acoustic lead guitar, particularly on ‘Wine and Bread,’ which is the particular track of influence here, a genuine and excellent protest song set to a killer grooving backing track.

“Brazilian music is often pointedly political, and so it is that our song ‘I Say Lots of Things’ bounces along so happily even beneath its satirical lyrics. There is a really excellent doc about McFarland: This is Gary McFarland (2006). A great cover here too, making sense of the track called ‘Over Easy.’”

3.  Johnny Hammond – Wild Horses Rock Steady (1972, Kudu)

“What we have here is Johnny Hammond Smith, on, yes, the Hammond organ, playing some classics with a fabulous band consisting of George Benson, Billy Cobham, Grover Washington, Airto, Ron Carter, well, I mean, you can list all these incredible names… but it’s the songs that Bob James (the next great arranger after Sebesky) works his magic on here: the Stones’ ‘Wild Horses,’ Aretha’s (Franklin) ‘Rock Steady,’ some Andrew Lloyd Webber, an outrageous version of Cat Stevens’ ‘Peace Train.’ It just gets to the point where I’ve heard ‘Wild Horses’ so many times, too many times, that I would far rather hear a version with no lyrics and no singing, that grooves like crazy, and features a witty arrangement and great solos and no Mick Jagger. (Have fun singing along with that chorus, however, because there is a surprise for you.)

“It makes you think: why not start there with singer-songwriter-type songs rather than with a strummed acoustic guitar? And once I think that, I think of Mose Allison, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon and Lyle Lovett, and all those singer-songwriters who have pushed in those directions…. And Nina Simone singing Randy Newman and Dylan, and Esther Phillips singing Gilbert O’Sullivan… and then I just think: why not?”

4. Gerry Rafferty – Right Down the Line: The Best of Gerry Rafferty (1989, EMI)

“Gerry Rafferty, perhaps best known for ‘Baker Street’ and ‘Stuck in the Middle with You,’ was a fantastic songwriter, and a maker of extremely good records, but perhaps a rather diffident performer not really cut out to be a pop star. That’s only my surmise from watching live clips on YouTube. It might seem odd to pick a CD, but there are three Rafferty songs that are references for my record, and they’re all on different albums that I might want to point you in the direction of.

“‘Penelope’ owes a debt to ‘Right Down the Line,’ because that groove is totally killer, but also there’s a little ‘Baker Street’ in there with Stuart Bogie’s sax. And for ‘Thoughts and Prayers’ there may be a little of Rafferty’s ‘The Right Moment,’ on a later album called Sleepwalking. Rafferty’s best album, in its entirety, is probably City to City – check out ‘The Ark,’ but there are great treasures to be found on all his records, and putting one on the record player always guarantees relaxation. (John Martyn is equally efficacious in that regard.)”

5. Caravan – In the Land of Grey and Pink (1971, Deram)

“I’m not quite sure why this great album comes to mind right now, but I do love Richard Sinclair’s voice, and I view that as the same kind of space and timbre that my voice should occupy and aim at. Someone once described it as ‘rich burgundy,’ and that seems optimal both as a description and a goal. And from the faerie front cover of this record, the viewer/listener knows they are going on a journey inwards and outwards, the lyrics both fabulously mundane and marvellously fabulous, whether we’re heading out onto a golf course with Pat, or out into the land of grey and pink itself.

“There are some surreal narratives and some exquisite song structures. I went to school in Canterbury, England, and ever since I was there, I left when I was 18, this record, and others of the Canterbury scene (a fascinating and enduring subculture of British prog), have been influential. And this is one of the very best.”

6. Robert Wyatt – Rock Bottom (1974, Virgin Records)

“And while we’re on the subject of Canterbury: Rock Bottom, my ‘go-to’ for favourite record of all time, has always been an influence, ever since I first heard it so many years ago. In many ways, it’s diametrically opposed to all the previous music I’ve ever made: it’s progressive (produced by Nick Mason of Pink Floyd), the lyrics only seem to make sense on an unconscious or subconscious level, the music is full of space and calm, experimentalism is to the max, minimalism to the max too!

“But perhaps I’ve internalized it at this point, and I’m finally learning some lessons from Rock Bottom. Because it’s perfect, as an entire thing, and it may seem a funny thing to say, but you never want more of it when it finishes, because you’ve had that whole experience. It’s heartbreakingly beautiful. And Robert Wyatt’s voice…”