David Starr – Starr & Stucky
David Starr is releasing an album of acoustic songs which feature David on vocals and guitar with mandolin player Erik Stucky: Starr & Stucky. Erik Stucky and David have been playing songs together as a performing duo frequently over the past seven years, and this album of fan favorite songs emerged out of those hours of perfecting them. Starr & Stucky was produced by David Starr and Mark Prentice; and mixed and mastered by David Kalmusky.
“Good As Gone” is the lead track on the album, with an uptempo song about movin’ on from that old back-and-forth drama: “Too much time in the rear view mirror, I gotta keep moving on. She’s calling my name but I can’t hear her. Color me good as gone.” This has the kind of songwriting licks that can easily catch a wide, mainstream audience. The mandolin and the acoustic guitar are bright and shiny.
“Don’t Give Me Hope” takes things in another direction, with a song where the protagonist is worrying about honesty within a relationship and is asking for their partner to let him down hard so he can walk away: “Don’t give me hope … I’ve got just enough rope to pull myself out, don’t give me hope…I should move on.”
“Waiting in the Dark” is some light mandolin melodies amidst darker guitar strums and then “there’s a thumbnail moon in a plate glass sky, and I’m waiting in the dark for you to come by…. for things to get real,” and again we are emprisoned by something unrequited and someone else’s spell cast over us. The message: “I’m tired of being alone,” comes through blazingly clear. The mandolin solos on this one take the limelight.
“Alive Again” puts optimism and redemption back into in the spotlight “I’ll make you feel alive again.” Later in the album the mandolin is featured again in Spanish – Mexican style on the haunting “Cabo San Lucas” with powerful lines like: “As I drew your name in the sand, I saw your face in the water at my feet as it washed away the shadow of a man. Cabo San Lucas, adios and goodbye.”
The mandolin on this album is dazzling and intricate and provides a counterpoint of buoyancy and light to David’s poetic songwriting of tormented love-and-loss songs and a character who is battling loneliness. You’ll be glad you listened.
Find more tour dates and information on David’s website here: https://www.davidstarrmusic.com/
Save the music here: https://hypeddit.com/davidstarr/goodasgone
Enjoy our previous coverage here: Song Premiere: David Starr “Good As Gone” with Erik Stucky
