Christopher Paul Stelling – “Labor Against Waste”

A steady thumb and fleeting finger tips. There is an urgency and hesitance to Stelling’s playing and singing. He is a man who has a lot to say and with each breath and pluck endeavors to drive forth as much impact and emotion as he can into his listener’s chest and mind. His style is hard to nail down, there could be said to be traditional folk influences for those that want to pigeonhole a “guy with a guitar” but his playing has hints of flamenco and blues and country. All molded into this wonderful, vibrant sound that moves people. Labor Against Waste encompasses all that I have grown to know (and love) Christopher Paul Stelling for and continue to surprise me in the songwriter’s complexity and fervor.

The opening track ‘Warm Enemy’ is a rapid fire, relax, rapid fire flurry of words…conviction comes to mind. Chris sings and writes in a fashion that forces you to listen. You have faith in the words he is putting forth because of how confident this way in which he presents his songs springs outward into your ears. A steady bass rhythm kept in time with his thumb, while his remaining fingers dance across his fretboard in a beautiful consortium of sound. This boy can play, and play he does.

I have only seen CPS in a solo context in the past. The depths and layers created here with additional instrumentation paints an interesting and new pattern to view his songs in. ‘Revenge’ is an example of this, with eastern influenced sounds, the singing of the fiddle and a female harmony vocal buried there in the mix, adding to the ever interesting sounds that come out of “Labor of Waste”. There is a varied sonic world to breathe in here on this record. ‘Scarecrow’ delves back into Stelling with voice and guitar for the first minute and a half. It is tender and he sounds almost vulnerable as he proclaims: so breathe, breathe it out / breathe through the doubts / never let them get the best, the best of you. The song burns slowly with the entrance of a distant snare tapping and harmonica. This one really burrows deep. Beautiful stuff.

“Horse” is a barn burner of sorts. Variety may be the spice of life, well Christopher seems to be eating well flavored bits of it, if his music is any indication. This one rocks and rolls and tumbles and really gets you moving. The freight train drum beat, the firey fiddle and the songwriter screaming out for mercy…just man. This is what passion sounds like.

“Dear Beast” feels almost like a medieval minstral tune once it comes in. It brings in, again, that vulnerable sound that “Scarecrow” had previously laid out. A yearning of sorts to get out or break free of the demons that can hold us down or back. The song surprises and builds, with the swift finger pick style of Stelling layered on top of strings at breaks, lifting us up, then bring us back down into the verse. This is my favorite track of the bunch…it just gets me in a way that not many songs do.

Dear Beast I know / You keep a watchful eye on me
As well as all your wayward children / as we all yearn to once more be free

I think this is going to be a far more important record that any of us currently realize. Stelling is one of the most impressive and admirable songwriters out there doing what he does today. He is unique, his play style is unrivaled or even attempted and his attitude is brilliant. Where many artists take on a road weary and worn characteristic when they tour as much as Stelling does, he seems to be revitalized by the experiences and the exploration of being a traveling musician. He is a collector of incidence and an observer of the world around him. He is fearless in his art. There is a laying it all out there aspect to his writing the introspective nature of his music. “This is me and you can take it or leave it” seems to be how he goes about it. An artist in its truest form…and for what it’s worth CPS, I’ll take it, man.

This is the best thing I have heard so far in 2015.

(photo by Josh Wool)

http://christopherpaulstelling.com/

***stream the entire record here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJ7QPuvv91Jute_WI8oRfjqe_3XSyrN_i