“Still Life” is the title track from my upcoming record, due in April 2023. It’s sort of an unconventional love song. This song and most of the upcoming album was written in isolation in 2020-21, and explores the challenges of relationships, especially platonic relationships, in the face of isolation, social media, and the inevitable march of time.
“Still Life” is streaming on all platforms today!
Find it on Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, and others!
““Two Cars” is a lush, acoustic-driven ballad that sways with a palpable melancholy. On the other end of this dance is Wicke’s keen storytelling and sense of romanticism, both in content and literary sensibilities. There is an overwhelming airiness to the song, like laundry drying in a light wind, and its loose, natural feeling makes it seem as if Wicke and his bandmates simply picked up their instruments one evening, hit record, and dumped out this brief bit of magic.” — Tyrel Kessinger
In 2016 I released what I’d ultimately decide was finally my first album, Doxology. I’d recorded a million songs by then, but Doxology was the first album I didn’t eventually outgrow and remove from Bandcamp in embarrassment.
The album was recorded with a “trio of trios”, three distinct band lineups of three musicians, meant to be some Trinitarian symbol on this album about faith and love. It’s a little over the top, but that’s what being 20 is all about (and besides, a couple tracks ended up as a quartet by the end).
Anyway, Doxology is uniquely sentimental for me, being the first album I ever got to play with a band. The original mix, I think, did it injustice, mixed on headphones in a Chicago hostel by a 20-year-old who had no idea how compression worked. So I took another stab at it.
On its sixth anniversary, I think it finally sounds like the album I meant to make.
“All in all, Stuart Wicke does an amazing job blending the poetry of his lyrics with what he’s feeling musically. This harmony creates folk music for the future. While having obvious influences from the past, We Never Had Tomorrow Anyway still manages to stand completely on its own.”
Earlier this year I was a guest on the Top Hill Recording podcast. Brad Weston and Neil Johnstone, who host the podcast, also host a video series called “One Shot, One Mic, One Song”, for which I recorded a few videos as well.
The songs were recorded in one take each, with just one microphone, after one shot (or maybe a few) of David Nicholson 1843. You can hear the podcast interview here, and find all four songs in the video playlist below.
The new album “We Never Had Tomorrow Anyway” is available now, everywhere you can stream music!
On Spotify
On Apple Music
On Bandcamp
All songs written by Stuart Wicke with the exception of “Fling Wide the Gates”, written by Stuart Wicke using music and lyrics from “The Crucifixion” by John Stainer and WJ Sparrow Simpson.
All songs (c) 2022
Recorded by Stuart Wicke (p) 2022
Mastered by Zack Stefanski
The new album is finally on its way! April 29 the band will be at the Chapel of St. Philip Neri in Old Louisville to celebrate the release. If you’ve never been to the Chapel, it’s a unique and extraordinary place to hear live music. The show will be in the sanctuary of a decommissioned church.
We’ll be joined by Film Delay and Elk Hound. The show starts at 7:30 and costs only $10.
(above) “2020” live from our last show
at the Flamingo Lounge, April 8 2022
SWB + Film Delay + Elk Hound
April 29 / 7:30pm / $10 / All ages
Food and drink allowed (BYO).
Come celebrate with us! This album has been a part of my life for three years, and it’s so exciting to finally share it.
Stuart Wicke 