Stamey, Chris, 1954-

Chapel Hill native Chris Stamey is a white singer, songwriter, and record producer of rock music. He played with American pop rock groups, Rittenhouse Square, the Sneakers, and the dB's, as well as subsequent solo projects.

Born 6 December 1954 in Chapel Hill, N.C., he was raised in the Winston-Salem area. Stamey first surfaced in 1972 in the short-lived Rittenhouse Square, alongside longtime friend and collaborator, Peter Holsapple, and Winston-Salem native, Mitch Easter. While attending the University of North Carolina in 1975, Stamey teamed with drummer Will Rigby to form the power pop combo Sneakers; the group was later joined by guitarist Mitch Easter, the record producer and future Let's Active frontman. The group traveled to New York City in 1976 to appear at Max's Kansas City, but dissolved soon after, at which time Stamey returned to the New York to set up his own label, Car Records.

In addition to issuing the posthumous Sneakers collection In the Red in 1978, Car also issued "I Am the Cosmos," the lone solo single of ex-Big Star member, Chris Bell; concurrently, Stamey played live with Bell's onetime Big Star bandmate, Alex Chilton, and in 1977 issued a solo single, "The Summer Sun." When Rigby and bassist Gene Holder relocated to New York, Stamey joined them as the dB's, releasing the 1978 single "If and When" before expanding to a four-piece with the addition of Holsapple.

Stamey left the dB's in 1983, issuing the solo LP It's a Wonderful Life later that same year; after issuing 1984's Instant Excitement EP, he recorded and toured with the Golden Palominos, and soon after released the Christmas Time (1986, East Side Digit) mini-album. A year later, Stamey signed with A&M to make his long-awaited major-label debut with It's Alright (1987, A&M / Universal); despite uniformly solid reviews, the album made almost no commercial impact, and he spent the next several years as a producer and guest musician. The LP later appeared on Rhino in 1991 under the title Fireworks; that same year, he reunited with Holsapple for Mavericks (1991, RNA Records). For 1995's The Robust Beauty of Improper Models in Decision Making (1995, East Side Digit), Stamey made a radical shift away from his pop past, teaming with cornetist/guitarist Kirk Ross for an exercise in free improvisation. Stamey spent the remainder of the decade focusing on producing records for other artists at his Modern studio in Chapel Hill, but returned to his own recording career with Travels in the South (2004, Yep Roc / Orange). Less than a year later, Stamey had another album ready for release, a collaboration with Yo La Tengo and Tyson Rogers credited to the Chris Stamey Experience and titled A Question of Temperature (2005, Yep Roc).

A few years after A Question of Temperature, Stamey reunited with Peter Holsapple, releasing Here and Now (2009, Bar / None Records) and supporting it with a tour. Stamey then turned his attention to a live staging of Big Star's 3rd album (1975, PVC Records), acting as the musical director for the concerts. The first of these debuted at Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, North Carolina in December of 2010 and over the next few years, Stamey brought Big Star's Third to London and to 2012's South by Southwest festival. That year also saw the reunion of the dB's, who played live and released the new album Falling Off the Sky that summer. Stamey continued with the release of his solo album Lovesick Blues (2013, Yep Roc). Two years later, he released Euphoria (2015, Yep Roc).