Big Star's Jody Stephens and Songwriting Partner Luther Russell Return as Those Pretty Wrongs With the Tranquil 'Holiday Camp' to Sooth the Times

The super duo's third record is out now on Curation Records.

When Those Pretty Wrongs dropped “Paper Cup,” the excellent lead single from Holiday Camp, last November, I was stoked, to say the least:

Jody Stephens may be best known as the drummer for legendary power pop forefathers Big Star, but his contributions to music go well beyond “your favorite band’s favorite band.” On top of being a part of multiple iterations of Big Star, Stephens also drums for The Jayhawks/Wilco/Soul Asylum, etc. supergroup, Golden Smog, and co-fronts Those Pretty Wrongs with fellow songwriter Luther Russell. “Paper Cup” is the lead single from the upcoming album ‘Holiday Camp,’ out in March on Curation Records. It’s a great teaser of things to come, a classic pop song built around steady hammering piano and acoustic guitar. Most of all, I appreciate that the drummer for one of the most influential groups of the past fifty years chooses to give the song a steady backbone of a beat - one that doesn’t change course for the track’s four-minute running time. It’s a bold move that will have you spinning it again as soon as it concludes.

Now that Holiday Camp is here, it’s every bit as good as one could hope for and even unexpectedly cathartic. “Paper Cup” is one of the more spirited songs on the record, along with “New September Song,” in which Stephens welcomes you to the album with a steady diet of crash cymbals while pairing with trusty bandmate Russell for some heavenly power-pop harmonies. The outstanding “Always the Rainbow” channels the Los Angeles psychedelic folk-rock scene of the sixties, with Russell complimenting some lovely twelve-string guitar work with era-appropriate Rickenbacker accents. Include Wilco’s Pat Sansone on a righteous Moog lead (he also drops by to play some Mellotron on the relaxed yet propulsive “Scream”), and you have one of the year's best songs.

For all of these great moments, Those Pretty Wrongs are most compelling when everything is scaled back to focus on Stephens and Russell’s voices with a spare guitar to accompany them. “Ride Along” is an affectionate love song written for Stephens’ wife that recalls his late Big Star bandmate Chris Bell’s posthumous masterpiece, I Am the Cosmos. “This Painted Sky” beautifully illustrates an evening of solace away from the daily madness (“lemonade moon amidst the sparkling of galaxies and celestial queens, we’ll wake tomorrow and fight the fight, in the revelations of broad daylight, that carry us to grace again”). It’s impossible not to think of other music duos while listening to Holiday Camp, and “Brother My Brother” is a tender number that sounds as if Simon and Garfunkel checked their egos at the door and instead joined the classic soft rock staple, America.

Stephens and Russell reach out in turbulent times with a cup of coffee and a warm blanket and hope for something better. On “Something Beautiful,” they wonder, “Is the dream alive, or is it walking dead, can the hope revive, and mistrust be shed, by something beautiful?” before sailing off with another round of dulcet harmonies.

As I’ve listened to this record over the past few weeks, I’m reminded there is still good out there in a country that has lost its collective mind. Jody Stephens and Luther Russell are a special pairing that calms the air, much like the folk-rock predecessors they cull from throughout this tranquil record.

Another day of reading grim news, and all I can think of is Those Pretty Wrongs’ final statement on “The Way,” in which Stephens and Russell remind us that love and kindness are still the best solutions:

“Hate is fear,

leads us to divisiveness,

but love is brave,

and celebrates us every one,

so hold the flame,

illuminated by the sun,

darkness on the run,

and share the light with everyone.”

Holiday Camp is available on Curation Records.

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