Here’s the tuneful new single from North Carolina singer-songwriter and producer Chris Stamey. ‘Anything Is Possible’ chugs along on a pulsing beat, underpinned by Mitch Easter’s powerful drums. Stamey delivers a clear, pure vocal performance, enhanced by harmonies from The Lemon Twigs, Pat Sansone and Wes Lachot. His voice follows a catchy, memorable melody at the heart of the song’s dreamy feel. However, the multi-instrumentalist also impresses by providing all guitars, keys and basses for the song. Lyrically, Stamey explores the wonders of science and technological advances.
Stamey says of ‘Anything is Possible’: “For a moment in 2023, it seemed as if room-temperature cold fusion power was within our reach. Alas, not yet! But still . . . sometimes science makes a leap and everything gets better (cars that don’t burn fossil fuels, cell phones)… or worse (cell phones?). Not sure where finding life on Mars would fall, though. But as we lurch toward a new Dark Ages, I have to remind myself: trust the science. And live in hope…. I was already deep into the writing of this record in 2023 when I did a short Sneakers tour with Mitch Easter (Let’s Active, R.E.M.’s first producer). And it reminded me of the fun he and I used to have recording in the basement in high school on an analog four-track, playing all the parts. When this song showed up—in its electric heaviness, an outlier from the rest—we cut it like that: Mitch (known for his guitar playing) played bombastic drums, I played the guitars and bass, and I kept it simple. Back then, we’d loved the British band the Move, with Roy Wood’s great songwriting and Bev Bevan’s swaggering, carefree drumming. (Bev and the better-known John Bonham were cut from the same Birmingham, UK, cloth, FYI.) So there are a few tips o’ the hat to the Move in this song. What really gave it liftoff, however, was when the Lemon Twigs, Pat Sansone (Wilco) and Wes Lachot added their soaring voices on the harmonies: thanks, gents!”
American film director and producer Norwood Cheek creating the accompanying visual. In the video, the Wassily Kandinsky-style images were created using the original album art by Faye Hunter, who was the bassist for Let’s Active. Interspersed with other images, footage from Méliès’s classic 1906 film ‘The Mysterious Retort’ and an on-stage performance, we even have Stamey appearing as a wizard, showing that anything really is possible.
Back in the 1970s, Stamey played with Mitch Easter in the band Sneakers, before co-founding the avant-pop band The dBs. As a producer, his notable work includes various Whiskeytown albums. After decades in the music industry, Stamey shows that he remains a fine instrumentalist and songwriter with his latest solo record. This is the title track for Stamey’s brand new album, “Anything is Possible”, which arrived in the summer of 2025 via Label 51 Recordings. Stamey says: “This album is a love letter to the kind of harmonically rich yet often lyrically innocent pop music I heard, on the family turntable and especially on AM radio, growing up in the late 50s and mid-60s in the American South. I have since come to understand more about the nuts and bolts of those songs, but the magic of those first encounters remains.” It’s all about the tunes and harmonies and songcraft – check it out.
