Album three is going to be magical.
No, seriously. The troubadour’s upcoming third record is titled Magical!
Conscientious Jim. Sincere Jim. Captivating Jim. Melodious Jim. These are surely not the best nicknames to ever be given to singer-songwriter Jim Stanard, but, if you ask us, they’re gosh-darn accurate. A creative from the start and a storyteller at heart (regardless of his late blooming on the professional side of things), Stanard is truly conscientious, sincere, captivating, and melodious in terms of the music he makes and how he shares it with the world. He is also wise and emotive, clearly crafting songs from deep inside himself. He dabbles in folk rock and swings into bluegrass territory with ease. If you’re a fan of Bob Dylan, the late Kris Kristofferson, the late John Denver, and The Band, Jim Stanard is for you – and you’re in luck, because he is on the cusp of releasing an LP that is the most conscientious, sincere, captivating, and melodious yet.
Your new album is coming out in January, Jim, so you’ll be kicking the new year into high gear with 10 new tracks all under the title of Magical. Did you know that you wanted to release the record in January? Does this album feel like one that should start a year off with, rather than close a year with?
Oh, yeah. This album has been 80% done for a while. We were initially targeting its release for Summer of 2024, but sometimes things take longer. I had to get a last song written [Laughs], and some things like that. We decided that before the holidays, it’s just a bad time to release stuff, so we released two singles. We got “You Turn Red (That Made Me Blue” out first. We wanted to get that out before the election. Then “When The West Was Won” came out shortly after. They are sort of a preview to the album. With the last two [albums], we just released the entire album and then started presenting individual songs for radio and so forth. Now we’re starting off with two songs and then putting the album out, but first we oughta get through the holidays.
These songs seem to really set the tone for the whole album, for what Magical is. How did you decide what songs would get released ahead of the album? I know “You Turned Red” is very apropos right now and you had great, thoughtful timing with that one. What about with “When The West Was Won,“ as you said it’s also going to be leading up to the release?
Well, with “You Turned Red,” it was kind of obvious. We wanted to get that out for the election. I have to say, what surprised me was this: when I wrote it, I did not intend to be partisan one way or the other. I was just poking fun at the partisanship. I said, “You turn red, that made me blue,” just because it didn’t make any sense to say, “You turned blue, that made me red.” It was not a particularly political choice, but it’s actually amusing to see some of the reaction I’ve gotten. Apparently, people are taking it very seriously as if it was, and some people are taking it as an anti-Trump song, which I didn’t actually even think of. It didn’t even cross my mind until I started getting the comments back.
For the next single, we were thinking about several songs, but we wanted something that was a little more central to the spirit of the album. I’ve got two basically ‘funny’ songs on the album, but it’s certainly not intended to be a comedy album. I wanted something that was more central to the spirit of the album, though, so we went through several choices and “When The West Was Won” felt like the right one. That’s a song I’ve been working on for probably four years. I kept rewriting it and rewriting it. I was just never satisfied with it. Finally, I decided it was done, whereas “You Turn Red” actually just kind of popped out kind of quickly. I only had a couple of rewrites on that.
And then you sat on it for a bit?
Just throughout getting the album ready and then getting the final vocals recorded… and then getting it mixed and everything. So, yeah, they have been ready for at least a year.
The process is interesting. I like to play in local bars, so I’ve been playing these songs live for over a year, too. Some of them take on a new life because of the stage. “When The West Was Won” went through many, many changes in all sorts of directions until I was felt it was as good as I could do. Some songs are like that, but it was unusual that that one took so long.
It paid off, because I took note upon hearing that song that I think it is a great way to finish off the record. It is also the best song on the album to have chosen to close the record. The last few notes and riffs it has wrap up the air of wisdom and honestly that was crafted throughout.
I appreciate that.
On that same kind of note, “Looking Back” is a great opener. It has such anthemic qualities and starts the album on such a high. Did you know that was going to open the album as soon as you wrote it/recorded it?
Oh, no – not at all. I just do the songs as they come along and then we look at all of them at the end and sort of decide what the order should be. “Looking Back” was one that I had a chorus for, and the metaphor about the closing door. The wind blowing the door closed is right in the beginning, but again, with that one I kept rewriting the verses, even though the chorus was pretty much there. I kept working on it and trying to get the right feeling. It wasn’t serious and it’s not somber, but it says something, and I try to not be preachy. I just try to be reflective. For that song, the final version came together pretty late, and I actually have not played it live yet, but I’ll have a chance to start doing that soon.
I think that would be quite the song to play in a live setting.
Yeah, I do look forward to trying that out [Laughs].
For me, the challenge is that almost always when I play, I’m playing by myself, so it’s just me and my guitar and I’m singing. Some of these songs kind of need a band, though. They all can be done solo, of course, because otherwise I wouldn’t be writing them [Laughs]. The more rock kind of songs, like “You Turned Red,” would sound better with some serious bluegrass musicians. The version that I do live is very stripped down instrumentally.
It’s funny, because out of the stuff that I play live, a go-to song for me is “Hard to Keep.” That one works with just one guitar. There are some that I actually have gotten to practice and learn to play live. Some songs need a little more of a band, though.
The name of the album is Magical, and the title track is a stand-out. When did you know you wanted to name the album that and kind of play into that fantastical motif with the album artwork? If that was something you had input in?
Oh, yeah, and we actually went through three titles. First of all, I wanted a title from one of the songs. The first one was, we were going to do was “Hard of Hearing Heart,” just because I think that’s a fun title with the alliteration. Then we thought, “Well, that doesn’t exactly hit the nail on the head in terms of what the album’s about.” Then I was very intrigued with the idea of calling it” “The Minotaur.” That song I like a lot, but many of the other people involved with the album were sort of not sold on it. They were sort of wondering if that really was something we should use at all. I kept rewriting the song and rewriting it some more to try to get to the right tone. I was enthusiastic about calling it “The Minotaur” anyway, but once again, we wanted something that was more central to the album, and that one is a little bit of an outlier in terms of the style of the song. We thought “Magical” really fit. It sort of summarized the album. Once we decided on the title, we looked at the bridge in the song – “I can’t get a tabbit out of a hat.” Of course we thought that we had to have a rabbit, and I can’t remember who came up with the picture of the rabbit we did, but it was pretty obvious we wanted to get a rabbit in the hat, so we did. That became Magical.
FOR MORE ON JIM STANARD, VISIT HIS WEBSITE!
