Holliston producer reimagines the Rolling Stones with an alt-country accent
By Chris Bergeron/DAILY NEWS STAFF
GHS
Posted May 29, 2011 @ 09:53 AM
Lisa Cassidy/For Daily News and Wicked Local
Jim Sampas of Holliston is a music producer who has just released a Rolling Stones tribute album, "Paint It Black: An Alt Country Tribute To The Rolling Stones."
HOLLISTON —
Since naming his record company Reimagine Music, Jim Sampas has exemplified truth in advertising.
Over the last several years, the Holliston resident has produced acclaimed tribute albums recasting Bruce Springsteen, the Beatles and Bob Dylan through the voices of indie artists who've brought fresh life to old classics.
Sampas' Reimagine Music has just released what might be his boldest project -- "Paint It Black: An Alt Country Tribute To The Rolling Stones."
Heresy! You say no one can cover "Faraway Eyes" or "Wild Horses" like Ol' Sausage Lips sashaying across the stage while Keith Richards glowers in the wings like a vampire waiting for a transfusion?
Well, listen to Giant Sand crank out "Jumpin' Jack Flash" or Hem make "You Can't Always Get What You Want" completely his own and, maybe it's time to give Mick, Keith, Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman a rest.
Available as a digital download, "Paint It Black" features 15 covers of "re-imagined" songs from the Stones' fabled catalog, said Sampas, by alt country groups from Cowboy Junkies and The Handsome Family to Bay State musicians Barbara Kessler of Hopkinton singing "You Got the Silver" and Neil McCarthy and Ivo Matos performing "Wild Horses."
Other artists include Great Lake Swimmers, Matthew Ryan, The Bittersweets, Blue Mountain and Anders Parker among others.
Born in Lowell, Sampas is the nephew of Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouac who married his father's sister, Stella Sampas, so he's never shied away from heading into new territory.
Last year Sampas produced "One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur," a critically acclaimed documentary about the author's struggles with unwanted celebrity and alcoholism. He's also produced, along with musicians Jay Farrar of Volt and Benjamin Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie an album of songs based on passages from Kerouac's novel "Big Sur."
Sampas described alt, or alternative, country music as a non-commercial genre outside the mainstream in which "rock music meets country with lots of violins, fiddles, slide guitars and Hammond organs."
He cited the Eagles, Wilco, Cowboy Junkies and Wilson Family as some of the best known alt country groups.
A rock 'n' roll singer-songwriter before moving into music production, Sampas said the Stones began incorporating a "rough-hewn, country music feel" into their music in the late 1960s as a result of Richards' friendship with Gram Parsons, a guitarist who played with The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers before dying in 1973.
While hard to nail down a specific time, he said some Stones songs began displaying a "twangy, countrified" sound as early as "Exile on Main Street" in 1972 which "became the blueprint for alternative country music as we know it today."
After releasing an album last October based on Dylan's 1965 album "Bringing It All Back Home," Sampas said he wanted to plumb the Stones' catalog to show the breadth of their under-recognized alt country influence.
Sampas said, "This grouping of artists (on 'Paint It Black') is a dream come true for me and their alt country styles suits these songs well with one foot grounded in traditional country's past in violins, harmonicas and pedal steel guitars and another kicking into the 21st century with modern recording techniques and (synthesizers)."
After selecting Stones' songs amenable to an alt country treatment, Sampas said he recruited musicians whose interpretation "would create something unique and enjoyable to listen to."
"You'd think if you're putting together a Stones tribute you'd 'honky tonk' it. I wanted to get away from what other tribute albums had done," he said. "I'd chosen mostly slow songs. I wanted to showcase Jagger's and Richards' songwriting skills."
As he'd done with earlier albums, Sampas let the artists he'd selected choose the song that best suited their style or temperament. While they recorded various takes, Sampas worked with each group "like a producer" shaping the ultimate treatment to his vision to the album.
"The beauty of this project is that since the songs weren't from a single Stones album, I could put them together in any sequence that I thought worked," he said.
Released May 17 as a digital download, "Paint It Black" is available on Amazon.com for $8.99, iTunes for $9.99 or "virtually wherever digital music is sold," said Sampas. He's holding out the possibility of releasing it as a limited edition on vinyl for record collectors. Early last week it placed No. 3 on Amazon's alternative country rankings.
It has received a strong review from No Depression, regarded as the premier online journal of alt country music, and received a 4 1/2-star (out of five) review from Cover Me Songs.
Never one to rest, Sampas has already begun his next project, a 20th anniversary tribute album of Nirvana's "Nevermind."
After that, Justin Bieber? Lady Gaga?
For Sampas, it all depends on whose music is worth reimagining.
To learn more about Jim Sampas and his music, visit
http://www.reimaginemusic.com/.
Copyright 2011 The MetroWest Daily News. Some rights reserved
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