This is the first record that I recorded with The Fourteens, who are:
Roger Brainard – electric and lead guitars
Geoff Gill – drums and percussion
Mary Gill – background vocals
Mark Sobus – bass
Mark Van Allen – pedal steel
Steve – vocals, acoustic and electric guitars
With additional help from Lee Davis – piano, organ; Alex Rodiek – trumpet; Ben Davis – tenor and bari sax; Wes Funderburk – trombone; Rich Herring – lead and additional guitars; Smith Curry – additional pedal steel; Barry Best – organ.
Words and music by Steve Baskin (We Thought We Were Grown, The One Percent, Girl from Indiana, Give A Damn About Today). Words and music by Steve Baskin | Roger Brainard (Do What You Wanna Do, Devoted to You, And You Want War). Words and music by Steve Baskin | Roger Brainard | Mary Gill (Love Is Hard). Pleasant Valley Sunday was written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin. I Believe in You and the badass horn arrangement for And You Want War by Barry Best. Horn arrangements for Love Is Hard, We Thought We Were Grown, Pleasant Valley Sunday, Do What You Wanna Do and Devoted to You by Steve Baskin.
Produced by Steve Baskin and Rich Herring. Mixed by Rich Herring at Trax Productions, Nashville, TN. Recorded by Lee Davis at Lee Davis Studio in Maysville, GA with additional tracks recorded by Steve Baskin at Underground Studio in Atlanta, GA and by Roger Brainard. Mastered by Alex McCullough at True East Mastering, Nashville, TN.
Photography by the amazing Kevin Garrett. Design by Giuli Hull and Zamina Davis.
Love Is Hard
2024 | Vinyl, CD, Digital With this record, I was able to pull together everything I love about music – old dear friends to write with, some absolutely stellar musicians and a great horn section.
Love Is Hard is a set of songs that brings a grownup perspective on love and relationships from just about every angle. It deals with marriage, family, community, losing a close friend, and our divided world. It’s not exactly light subject matter.
Darryl Sterdan at Tinnitist described the title track as "set against a late '70s-style backdrop that suggests members of The Rolling Stones, Tom Petty, Eagles and Fleetwood Mac channeling Al Green at Willie Mitchell's Royal Studios in Memphis — swathed in blankets of Hammond organ, sweetened with horns and lush backup vocals, and punctuated by stinging B.B. King-inspired guitar licks."
I wrote a great deal of this record with Roger Brainard, who has been a musical mentor and dear friend since I was fourteen years old. And it was co-produced by Rich Herring who I’ve known for just as long. Geoff Gill and Mark Sobus rounded out the rhythm section and Mary Gill sang like an angel.
Atlanta's FunkCake Horns brought the brass, and pedal steel wizard Mark van Allen – who is one of my favorite people and whose credits include Guy Clark, Warren Haynes, and Zac Brown – added a massive range of sounds. When Lee Davis wasn’t running the board during the sessions, he was adding amazing organ and piano parts
The record moves across a lot of territory. Declan Culliton at Lonesome Highway called it "another genre-hopping album that seamlessly swings between soul, blues, rock and roots," and noted that it "finds Baskin checking in on his past with honesty and no end of indebtedness — each hat a perfect fit for a hugely enjoyable listen." Gabor Kleinbloesem at Strutter'Zine in the Netherlands went song by song and found Toto meets Steely Dan in the opener, JJ Grey & Mofro in We Thought We Were Grown, Little Feat meets Hall & Oates in Devoted to You and 70s Chicago in the closer And You Want War. The diversity is real and intentional.
I Believe in You, written by my former bandmate Barry Best, bridges what Frequenze Musicali in Italy called "the North/South American soul divide between The Delfonics and Al Green." The AU Review in Australia called "Do What You Wanna Do" a "potent and sensual late-night cocktail that peers into your soul," powered by what Bruce Baker described as "a kick-arse Muscle Shoals groove."
Music Connection called me "a gifted lyricist." Tinnitist called the album "a sophisticated, deliberate statement that comes only with decades of hard-earned experience — at life, love and music." I'll take both.
