Before he left Europe, I caught up with my old friend Christopher Paul Stelling. We trekked out to an old repurposed airfield in Soesterberg at sundown and filmed a video of Better Days from his new double record Forgotten But Not Gone & Few and Far Between in just one take. Then we relocated to a tree-covered bicycle lane near my house and filmed Fear The Long Night.
Back for a fourth session
Atlanta, Georgia based songwriter Christopher Paul Stelling has released seven albums and played thousands of concerts across the US, UK, and EU over the last decade. Stelling has mostly toured solo but has also supported Son Little, Mavis Staples, The Devil Makes Three, Ben Harper and many others. Stelling released a trio of albums for Anti- Records and has performed multiple times at Newport Folk Festival. This is his fourth The Influences session – and I’ll bet it will not be his last. Stelling is known for his intricate finger-style guitar work, road tested vocal delivery, and introspective lyrics.
Watch these two one takers from his latest double album Forgotten But Not Gone & Few and Far Between and order your own copy after if you’ve enjoyed it.
Photos
Christopher Paul Stelling
Credits
Filmed & edited by Matthijs van der Ven.
Audio recorded & mixed by Matthijs van der Ven.
Location
Vliegbasis Soesterberg and surroundings
Soesterberg, The Netherlands
There is no better way to discover music than watching great musicians cover the songs they love. The Influences has been producing these videos ever since 2008.
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Keep watching
Thank you for watching and enjoying this session. You’ll probably like some other sessions from The Influences’ archive too, like these earlier ones we filmed with Christopher Paul Stelling.
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Christopher Paul Stelling
After stumbling upon a video on YouTube of Christopher Paul Stelling playing one of his songs live, I was rather impressed by the vigour and drive the Brooklyn-based songwriter radiated. After listening to his new album Labor Against Waste, out on ANTI- Records, I was happy that Stelling immediately agreed to film a session.
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Christopher Paul Stelling
Christopher Paul Stelling has quickly become one of my very favourite folk singers from the last decade. The American already recorded a session for The Influences some years ago and when he and his band were around last year, we got them into a studio and filmed this new one.
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Christopher Paul Stelling
What do you do when filming a session before the show isn’t an option? You film it after midnight. With that solution, Christopher Paul Stelling and I walked into Utrecht’s city center and found two places to film quiet renditions of two songs off his latest LP ‘Forgiving It All’: ‘Rosewood’ and the title track.…