Aaron welcomed the new band Fancy Gap to the studio last week, fresh off the release of their self-titled debut album.
Fancy Gap is a new project, but the artists behind it are seasoned veterans. Stuart McLamb has been making music as The Love Language for more than 15 years, and he initially started this endeavor with the intent of making a new Love Language album – only for things to go in an unexpected new direction, when he teamed up with longtime producer Charles Crossingham.
“Charles and I had met years ago,” McLamb says, “and he said, ‘when you’re ready, I’d love to do some recording, I love your music.’ Ultimately I took him up on that offer – and what started as the beginning stages of a Love Language record, with the pandemic kicking in, ended up just being the two of us kind of forming our pandemic alliance.”
McLamb and Crossingham ended up writing songs together in Crossingham’s cabin – located in the small Virginia mountain town of Fancy Gap.
“It just was a really natural evolution,” McLamb says. “It just became a different beast, (and) we got really excited when we realized we were hitting a new sound. I don’t know the exact science or math or chemistry behind it, but…there’s a real beauty in collaboration where the sum is greater than the parts, and you work together for a little while (and realize) this is the right collaboration, this is clicking.”
What emerged from that collaboration is a stellar set of ten tracks, all hovering around the sweet-spot balance between 90s alt-rock and mainstream country – the perfect album to play on full blast, when you’re driving on the highway with the top down on a cool autumn Friday night.
“The songs of the mountains had a big impact on us,” says Crossingham, and McLamb says the same of 90s-era album rock: “I found an old Case Logic – you remember, the big CD cases? – in my parents’ closet. There’s a lot of inspiration I found.”
When the writing was done, McLamb and Crossingham turned next to recording – not by themselves anymore, but with a powerhouse team that included organist Rami Jaffee (Foo Fighters), guitarist Will McFarlane (Mountain Goats), and steel guitarist Jon Graboff (Willie Nelson), plus vocal performances from Taking Back Sunday’s Adam Lazzara – as well as Sharon Van Etten, whose contribution on “Strawberry Moon” is an album highlight.
“She’s incredible,” says Crossingham. “I remember recording her, and Stu and I just looked at each other like, wow. The whole room just sort of stopped, it was an incredible moment.”
Crossingham and McLamb got one final assist in post-production, with five trips to Alabama to work with mixer Craig Alvin – whose credits include work on Kacey Musgraves’ Grammy-winning album “Golden Hour.”
“We sent (the album) to him,” says Crossingham, “and he’s a man of few words, – (but) I woke up to a text message one morning, and it just said, ‘I get it.’ It was a powerful moment because we had been cooped up in this cabin – and we felt like we were creating something cohesive, an album that made sense all of the way through – but you know, he had just won Album of the Year, and so for him to write back, ‘I get it,’ when we were just sort of all by ourselves creating this thing – it was very validating.”
Listen to the album (and purchase it) on Bandcamp.
If you want to catch Fancy Gap live, you’ll have several chances this fall. They’re playing an outdoor show on Halloween at Raleigh’s Landmark Tavern – and stay tuned for details about other shows, which have yet to be publicly announced.
Stuart McLamb and Charles Crossingham stopped by Live & Local (along with guitarist Steve Howell) to discuss the album and play three songs: “How to Dance,” “Little Heart Racer,” and “Strawberry Moon.” Listen:
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