As the saying goes, there is a time and a season for everything. Both Brett Ryan Stewart and Amelia White must have had this adage in mind when deciding to finally release “Somebody to Hold,” which they co-wrote seven years ago.
After ten years of getting kicked out of bars in New York, Stuffy Shmitt finally figured out that “his brain was on fire” because he was actually suffering from bipolar disorder. He made the move to Nashville six years ago and, as he points out in his bio, “finally got my head screwed on tight enough to make a new record.”
Stuff Happens is Shmitt’s first in eight years, although he did release two full length albums in 2012!
Stuff Happens came out earlier this month and I wanted to include it before I take a little holiday hiatus from Liner Notes. The eleven song collection runs the gamut from bleak and beautiful ballads, like “Mommy and Daddy” about the realization that your parents are actually old now, an eight and a half minute acoustic guitar/harmonica jam called “The Good Land” to manic rocker, “Sweet Krazy” showing off the mad guitar skills of Aaron Lee Tasjan and Brian Wright.