LAST FEW HOURS TO PRESAVE!

LAST FEW HOURS TO PRESAVE!
Hey fans please take a moment to presave “WAYS” on the link below. If you are using Spotify or one of the streaming services it costs you ZERO to presave the album but it can help us so much tomorrow on release day to get into the charts and playlists! Click the link below to do so and you get a free unreleased track “What Happened to You” on a link when it’s completed. Takes 30 seconds! PRESAVE HERE!

Interview with 95.7 about the band and the new album. Thanks to 95.7 The Rock and Spence for having us-

WAYS by The Cold Stares

Free download for pre-saving the full WAYS album

“What Happened To You” will be a free download for anyone pre-saving the full WAYS album. We will have a link soon, and if you have already pre-saved the album message us and we will send you the download link. Hope you dig it-

This Friday October 4th…

This Friday October 4th “I Was A Fool” the first single from “WAYS BLUE” drops. The BLUE EP features-
“I Was A Fool”
“Going Down Easy”
“Ways”
And “Headstone Blues”.
Recorded at legendary Sam Phillips studio in Memphis Tennessee, the full BLUE EP comes out Friday October 11th.

WAYS BLUE
New EP WAYS BLUE by The Cold Stares

Folks, I can’t begin to say what this means to us…

Folks, I can’t begin to say what this means to us or how humbling it is.
Lots of stuff going on behind the scenes that I wanted to share but didn’t want to spoil, Joe trying to help us is one. Don’t even have the words to express my gratitude at the moment.
PLEASE if you’re a fan/friend of the band drop by Joe Bonamassa on Instagram and show him some love on this post, would mean the world to us. Thank you!

“Might As Well Die”, the first single from…

“Might As Well Die”, the first single from the 2nd EP of the “Ways” album, “Ways White”, releases tonight at midnight. The song was recorded after the album was finished, and released on social media as a B-side for our fans. After the overwhelming response to the song, our label asked to add it to the record. We felt like it fit in nicely in the dark ballad and southern feel of WAYS WHITE. A special song to me as a songwriter, not really written to be heard- but connecting with so many people. We hope you will stream and share with your friends tomorrow- “Might as Well Die” by The Cold Stares

Might As Well Die

I was standing at the water’s edge
Wondering how it felt drown
Rather you tie me to cinder block
And send me on my way down
Then to tell me that I’ve lost my love
And have to say goodbye
My sun rises and sets in her eyes
And I know, lord I know, deep inside

I might as well die, might as well put me in the ground and say your goodbye,
In the sweet by and by, Lord knows if I can’t have her love, I might as well die

She held the key that opened up my cell
She sat me free and cared for me
She never asked about the scars I bore
Or the places I had seen
So find yourself a firing squad
And a tall oak tree
If you can’t see well enough to shoot me down
String me up, swing me high and set me free

Cause I might as well die, might as well put me in the ground and say your goodbye
In the sweet by and by, Lord knows if I can’t have her love, I might as well die

Release of WAYS Black EP

I couldn’t let the release of WAYS Black EP come out without mentioning “Into Black”. I’m attached to this record probably more than any we have done, and all of these songs are special to me I’m different ways. But, “Into Black” has always had a quality to it, a weight to it, that as a songwriter you always search for but at times you almost are afraid to open the door to. If you’ve ever lost something or someone and would have done anything to have them back then I hope the song speaks to you. It’s a heavy sentiment with a heavy riff.

Online tonight at midnight-

“Into Black”
A 1000 miles I have crawled for you
The sun and wind have burned my skin
And though my rider has abandoned me
I still seek your face again
And I will see you in the end

And I stood at the edge of the earth
And I stepped off into black
And I fell through the gates of hell
Just so I could get you back, just so I could get you back

A 1000 days I have searched for you
Traveled through distant lands
And though this world has forsaken me
I will seek your face again
I will see you in the end

And I stood at the edge of the earth
And I stepped off into black
And I fell through the gates of hell
Just so I could get you back, just so I could get you back

Release of WAYS Black EP

Recording of WAYS

The Cold Stares making of “WAYS”.

After the “Mountain” album when we began to think about the next record there were a few things I knew I wanted to do. First, we had used some material that had been around for awhile for “Mountain”, and this time I wanted to write all the songs completely fresh. So in January I set out to write 12 songs from scratch that no one had heard us perform, and try to mostly not let them out of the bag until the album launched. Secondly, I thought it might be cool to construct the 12 songs for the record as 3 separate EP’s or collections of songs that basically were from the 3 areas of inspiration for the band. One, hard rock. Two, the blues. Three, country,western and folk ballads. Three different “WAYS” if you will.
So I wrote the songs in groups separately, each with their own mindsets as separate pieces that could stand on their own, but also in the end combine into a 12 song album.

When it came time to record, the original plan was to record the three EP’s in three different locations, each to have some meaning to it’s segment. The blues EP we thought we might cut in memphis, the hard rock EP maybe NYC or LA, and the acoustic EP I had planned on cutting out west in New Mexico while we were on tour for SXSW. One of the other things I had intended to do was to record the EP’s in studios that had some history and legacy that fit that style of music. In the end, and after a ton of research, most of the studios where our favorite albums were recorded were now either not open, or in disarray.

Sam Phillips studio in Memphis was on my radar for the blues EP, but when I started to really research the albums that had been made there we found that it was the one studio where really all three of our influences had really been recorded there. Some great blues albums, but also rock and roots stuff too.

So we booked a week at Sam to cut the entire record with the exception of some acoustic tracks that I planned to field record some of the parts. One thing we didn’t take into consideration was that making a record using a vintage based studio with great analog gear also meant us dealing with 70 year old equipment which can be temperamental to say the least. What started out as a few days ended up being over a month of back and forth trips to memphis to complete the album. By the end of the process we were absolutely exhausted, with sometimes 50 hours worth of driving in a week, and not near that in sleep. But in the end, we were both very happy with the result and I feel we got we wanted. We cut all the tracks live in the same room our heroes like Jerry Lee Lewis, Howling Wolf and Bob Dylan had. I sang on Wolf’s old microphone, and we sat at Sam’s desk upstairs and made revisions in the same chair Elvis sat in. We made an honest blue collar rock and roll record with a tip of the hat to our heroes, and hopefully left another memory in those walls.