Stephen Day to Launch 25-Date US Tour Starting in Minneapolis

Soft rock'n'soul songwriter Stephen Day returns with his most open and honest collection of songs on his fourth full-length, eponymous album, released via Riser House. With it, Day shares a visualizer for the single 'Cry Baby.' Day made his Grand Ole Opry debut in Nashville. He and his band kick off a 25-date U.S. tour in Minneapolis.

Driven by a compelling groove and guitar solo, Day notes 'Cry Baby'... 'is the classic two sided love song where something about the chemistry just didn't click, but both parties involved wanted it to work and wish they could still be near each other as the breakup is happening. The hardest kind of breakup, I think.'

Co-produced by longtime collaborator Micah Tawlks along with multi-GRAMMY winning producer Ian Fitchuk, the album demonstrates Day is a formidable, uncategorizable artist who's able to flit between decades as well as genres—soul, R&B, rock'n'roll, and pop—with effortless ease.

Stephen Day can be purchased here.

Since first picking up a guitar as a high school student in Georgia, Day always knew he wanted to make a self-titled album. Even then, he understood that putting his own name on a record would come with one essential requirement: complete vulnerability and unwavering honesty. Across its 13 songs, Stephen Day offers an intimate portrait of Day's deepest emotions, weaving together every facet of who he is as a songwriter, musician, storyteller, and craftsman.

From beginning to end, the listener can hear why Day finally felt ready to present to them his namesake. Lead single 'Rock Bottom Baby' channels you into its infectious groove. August single, 'You Wouldn't Know,' is a power ballad that commands you to sing along at the top of your lungs. The impassioned pop-rock of 'Annie Breakdown' and 'Yes I Do' sends you travelling back in time, capturing Day's modus operandi on this album perfectly. They sound like classic songs from the '80s, yet they're simultaneously contemporary and fresh. Songs you swear must already have taken their place in the pantheon of music, but they're Day's brand new additions.

The delicate strains of 'Mama, I Found Your Guitar' provides a true focal point for the record. The heart and the soul. Day grew up as the son of a pastor, and his mother was a singer at church. One day, he found her guitar in the closet and asked her to teach him a few things, which inadvertently set him on this path he's still on. Yet the song also brings that story into the present day, imbuing it with all the difficulties and uncertainties that come with being a musician alongside the hopeful romanticism of it all.

'It's made way for really beautiful things to happen, and it's also made way for really heartbreaking things to happen,' says Day of his career to date. 'Pursuing something like this feels like a very vulnerable thing to do, so that song is both admiration for my mother, while also being inspired yet confused about why I ended up on this path, how I ended up here now that I've been doing it for a minute, and questioning what it means for the rest of my life. You know, am I doing the right thing? All those kinds of existential feelings.'

Those existential feelings were compounded by a deeply fraught personal time. After Day's wife endured 'some very intense medical surgeries,' the couple prepared themselves for the absolute worst. For a few months they were, as Day puts it, 'living under the idea that she may not really be around that long.' Thankfully, that wasn't the case. But the deep fear of loss is addressed and conveyed by the plaintive, searching 'Don't Leave Me Like This.'

'It was a great way for me to work through these emotions that I had about the fear of losing my partner,' he remembers, 'while giving someone else a way to read the story that might not be as heavy.'

That unguarded creativity was not only a key component in feeling ready to make a self-titled full-length, but the exposed emotion aligned with the intentional mission at the core of this album: ensure it is as human as possible. And so, working with Matt Chancey on bass, David Crutcher on keys, Ian Fitchuk on drums, Kevin Daily on auxiliary guitar and Scooter Spicer on percussion, that's exactly what they did by tracking as a band live in the studio.

'We had two separate chunks of recording days to knock out the entire album,' says Day, 'and it was the most amazing experience. It was how I had always dreamed records would be made in that sort of old-fashioned way. One of the things I wrote down and kept on a piece of paper in the studio was the phrase 'In with the old, out with the new.' I wanted to take the old way of doing things, but with the hope and prayer that whatever came out of the speakers didn't feel like a retro album, but like 2029 or 2030.'

It's the next chapter for an artist that has already seen more than 200 million streams to date, received cultural co-signs from peers like Teddy Swims, Allen Stone, and Cory Wong, as well as a major motion sync placement in Universal Pictures' Strays. This album carries the very essence of who Day is, both as a storyteller and a musician: timeless.

Tour Dates

10/03 - Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line

10/04 - Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall

10/06 - Kansas City, MO @ RecordBar

10/07 - St. Louis, MO @ Old Rock House

10/09 - Indianapolis, IN @ Hi-Fi

10/10 - Ann Arbor, MI @ Blind Pig

10/11 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Thunderbird Music Hall

10/15 - Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

10/16 - Boston, MA @ Middle East Downstairs

10/17 - Ardmore, PA @ Ardmore Music Hall

10/18 - Washington, DC @ Union Stage

10/22 - Birmingham, AL @ Saturn

10/23 - Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West

10/24 - Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl

11/03 - Dallas, TX @ Deep Ellum Art Co.

11/04 - Austin, TX @ 3Ten ACL

11/07 - Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom

11/08 - San Diego, CA @ Music Box

11/11 - Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey

11/12 - San Francisco, CA @ The Independent

11/14 - Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile

11/15 - Portland, OR @ Polaris Hall

11/19 – Boise, ID @ Shrine Basement

11/20 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Metro Music Hall

11/21 - Denver, CO @ Marquis Hall

Tickets are available at stephenday.org.

Tracklist

01. It Is What It Is

02. Rock Bottom Baby

03. Annie Breakdown

04. Yes I Do

05. Back In My Bed

06. Cry Baby

07. Heartbreak Is Up Ahead

08. You Wouldn't Know

09. Don't Leave Me Like This

10. Mama, I Found Your Guitar

11. Leanin' On My Truck

12. Supernova

13. Picture's Perfect