There's a familiar name on this weekend's Tailgate N' Tallboys lineup — and not just Cody Johnson, whose 2024 appearance was canceled due to severe weather on the night he was scheduled to play.
Johnson kept his promise to come back and headlines Saturday, fresh off his win at the ACM awards, earning Song of the Year with Dirt Cheap.
Earlier in the day is an artist who knows Central Illinois, with Metamora black dirt country rockers Joe Stamm Band playing a set on the Surfside stage at 2:30 p.m.
Ahead of a new record set for release on July 11, Stamm will preview songs from Little Crosses, a 12-track LP created with producer and engineer Al Torrence.
Stamm first worked with Torrence on a four-song EP released last year with the Pittsburgh-based band Allegheny High, fronted by West Virginia’s Charles Wesley Godwin. Torrence has produced all of Godwin’s records; Stamm said Little Crosses was an excuse to work with him again — this time with the full band.
“I wanted to bring my band and my songs into his studio and let him do what he wanted with it,” Stamm said. “We’d always self-produced our records before, so it was an incredible new experience to go into the studio with a very competent musician and producer and let him finish coloring the songs and apply the polish.”
Indeed, Torrence’s stamp is all over this album that has stylings from Southern rock, mainline country and even alternative sprinkled in.
A single opening the record called Territory Town has what Stamm describes as “Mellencamp synth.” Forward’s driving pulse takes hints from Florence + the Machine. The last track, Wolf Man, channels jam band guitar and an almost Eddie Vedder-like vocal.
It’s a departure from Stamm’s comfort zone — a blend of Midwest Americana and outlaw country he calls black dirt country rock that was front and center in Wild Man, the band’s last studio album released in 2023.
“We’re trying to service each song in its own right instead of trying to fit it into some sound that either we’re looking for or sounds that we felt like the album needed to be as a whole,” said Stamm. “I wish I could tell you I was more intentional about that, because that would make me look pretty smart. It’s not a real formula. It’s really a kind of, get in the studio, in the rehearsal and slug it out until you feel your way to where the song wants to be.”
If there’s anything holding the record together, he said, it’s the writing.
“I think that’s probably the through line — and just the music that we like as a group and all the different influences that the casual listener may not be able to recognize, but for me it all makes sense,” he said. “We did talk a bit after the record was done. It was like, is this too all over the place? Does this have an identity crisis? But again, I would hate to take any of those songs and force them through the lens of some overall sound.”
Slowing down — maybe
Little Crosses also marks the first release under a new label, Den Tree Records.
“It sounds fancy,” said Stamm. “There were just a couple small administrative reasons for doing that.”
Copyright, business reasons and “boring reasons” are on the list.
“But I think the most exciting reason for doing it was that we could come out with a new line of merchandise,” Stamm said.
Stamm’s wife Elise handles most of the design side of the business; still based out of Metamora, where the couple lives with their daughter. Stamm said his current pace, which includes a lot of output in the studio and being on the road more days than not, may not last.
“That’s something me and my wife actually talked about this morning in the kitchen,” he said. “How do we find a balance? That’s an ongoing journey and I’m not sure I’ve found it yet.”
He’s thought about breaking the streak of at least one record a year, or doing more projects like his 2024 solo LP Memoirs, a live-to-tape acoustic record he plans to repeat again next year.
“I really did that as a response to the stress of producing Wild Man,” he said. “I love being in the studio, and I just love songs and stories. I wanted to get back to the simplicity of that.”
For now, the label will house just two artists: Joe Stamm and Joe Stamm Band, though he’s remaining open to what the future of that looks like.
As for making a move from Metamora to Nashville as a potential way to leapfrog the grind of DIY producing — Stamm’s not changed his mind about staying put in Central Illinois.
“I still don’t know where I fit in,” he said. “I feel just as naïve if not more so about what moving to a music hub would do for me. All I can really do or control is keeping my head down, being productive, writing songs, releasing them, touring —and letting the career continue to develop in that fashion.”
Joe Stamm Band plays at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Tailgate N’ Tallboys at the McLean County Fairgrounds in Bloomington. Festival and day passes start at $109 and are available at tailgatentallboys.com/bloomington.
Little Crosses will be available however you get your music on July 11. Get a pre-save link at joestammband.com.
