Chris Stamey’s New LP Is Quite ‘Alright’ to Former dB’s Partner

It’s not often in rock ‘n’ roll that estranged ex-partners rhapsodize about one another’s work. (John Lennon, for example, wasn’t exactly cajoling fans to go out and get their hands on Wings’ “Wild Life.”) So when someone does, you might want to pay attention.

Chris Stamey, the leader of the dB’s up until his departure in 1983, has his first major-label solo album, “It’s Alright,” just out. And Peter Holsapple, the one-time bandmate who now leads the dB’s, can’t say enough about it.

Said Holsapple of Stamey’s album a few weeks ago: “It’s extraordinary. . . . My songs are pretty immediate, but his really take work and are well worth the work of listening to. And this record is pretty straightforward for him. It’s not exactly a Fleetwood Mac record, but then again, it’s not ponderously thought out. He didn’t think too hard on this one, he just played it.”

On hearing that his ex-partner is acting as his publicist these days, Stamey grudgingly plans thanks: “Now I owe him dinner.”

Stamey--who headlines the Lingerie with his band on Saturday night after a free acoustic show in the afternoon at Texas Records--has taken quite a different musical course than his former comrades.

While Holsapple has publicly stated his current intention to turn the dB’s into a bona-fide rock ‘n’ roll band instead of a pop band, Stamey has charted a less aggressive, far more low-key course. He’s not too pepped-up to be pop .

“I had an idea this would be sort of a comforting record, a record you could play after dinner,” said Stamey during a phone interview this week from an East Coast recording studio. “The way it’s sequenced, I think you can probably play it in the morning, but after dinner and then later and later at night, I thought it would be good.”

Stamey’s quiet singing voice adds considerably to the comfort factor. Even on the more upbeat songs, it’s far too slight to knock anyone’s socks off.

“I feel that I have yet to be as articulate vocally as I am on guitar,” admitted Stamey, who takes all the clean, supple guitar leads on his album while assigning rhythm parts to such luminaries as Richard Lloyd and Mitch Easter.

But his pleasant, normal-guy vocals provide a certain intimacy, whether on the fun, whispery, night-before-Christmas tone of his 1985 “Christmas Time” EP (one of the most charming rock Christmas records ever) or the more mature romantic reveries of the new album.

But mellow ? The Jersey boy insists that’s mostly an illusory result of his unusual arrangements and doesn’t stem from particularly relaxed singing or songwriting.

“I still think of what I do as making rock records,” said Stamey. “But I think I’ve always had trouble with rhythm guitars that play fast rhythms, you know, because I’m more interested in the way drums sound. A lot of things that you hear on energetic rock records, if you took out the rhythm guitar part, it would sound just like my record.”

The cleanliness of his current direction lets the hooks in songs like “Cara Lee” and “When We’re Alone” stand out and, with the right push, those potential hits could conceivably break Stamey out of the college-radio ghetto. Certainly these tunes are more overtly commercial than the looser, messier rock direction the dB’s have taken this year.

Stamey, for his part, sounds fairly sick of dB’s comparisons, and is quick to bring up the other work he’s done over the years. The coincidence of both he and the dB’s finally getting major-label support for the first time at the same time doesn’t strike him as funny.

“I don’t really see that as ironic,” said Stamey, “because the way I look at what I’ve done, if it was a graph, there are a lot of little places where it comes up--and only one of ‘em is the dB’s. That was just a band I was in for a few years. Your public profile sometimes is a lot different than how you think of yourself.

“Even though I was just backing him up, playing with Alex Chilton was of equally high value. And the stuff with the Golden Palominos was fun.

“Every time I do a collaborative project, I say, ‘I’ll never do this again.’ The week before I started playing with Alex, I said, ‘From now on, I’m on my own,’ because I had just been in a band called Sneakers before that. And then when I started the dB’s, it was my backing group, and I said, ‘I’ll never be in a collaborative group.’ . . .

“But I do think I’m going to try to hold out for a while now.”