It’s a New Year for new tunes
…and time for a new Album of the Month! Deep in discussion about how to start the New Year td tasked me with doing the deed and Wendi Dunlap‘s first full album came up. He is still trying to finish the Olympia opus that looks to be possibly 3 CDs worth at this point, but who knows what the final draft will be.
The Web Bio:
Wendi Dunlap is a singer/writer/artist/Renaissance woman living in Atlanta, Georgia, and formerly (a long time resident and music scenester) of Seattle, Washington. She wrote her first song at about four years old, and spent her childhood singing along with the Beatles, the Partridge Family, Barbra Streisand, and the Captain & Tennille.
As an adult, she spent time in a few Seattle bands, and wrote about others as a writer for Backlash and The Rocket. After some time off from music, she found her musical family in the Facebook group Theme Music, and ended up performing with them at the yearly Themestock concert. Through Theme Music, she became part of the TM Collective tribute albums project, and has contributed tracks to tributes to the Beatles, Kate Bush, Squeeze, Aimee Mann, and many more.
Eventually, she started writing songs again, and soon had an album worth of new material. Her first full album, Looking For Buildings, came out in October 2021 on Futureman Records.
Wendi also released an instrumental version of her new album called, you guessed it, Looking For Buildings: Instrumental Version, November 4, 2021. You can find that here.
HAW: After all of that and listening to the album I had only one burning question for her;
What took you so long?
WD: I always wanted to make one, but I didn’t have enough original material I was happy with, and I didn’t have a band for much of the time. When I started recording covers for Theme Music, the community encouraged me a lot and several people encouraged me to make a record.
Then I participated in NASOALMO, the National Solo Album Month project, in which you have to write/perform an entire album in one month. I wrote a bunch of songs for it, and was pretty happy with it, so I decided to record a real album with that material.
My move to Atlanta slowed things down a bit, but when COVID came along, I finally contacted Ken and asked him about producing. Once that was set up, I had deadlines and things moved quickly. Other than Ken, everyone playing/singing on the album is from the Theme Music group, and they did an amazing job!
The album was entirely recorded remotely, with people in Georgia, Massachusetts, Seattle, and France all contributing.
It turns out that I can write a lot more original material if I have deadlines, like NASOALMO. I came out of that project confident I could write songs; though I had written songs before and recorded some of them in various projects, I never really had confidence in it before.
Some Press Quotes:
PowerPopaholic sez,
“An elegant vocal that catches your ear right away… The guitar jangle and heart-felt ‘Season of Loss’ is a bittersweet rocker about the Pandemic, with a hook-filled chorus. Next, the sophisticated ‘Field of View’ shows a depth of emotional joy seldom heard.
“…This is a strong debut that deserves to be heard. Check it out.”
Carl Cafarelli, Boppin’ (Like The Hip Folks Do) sez,
“Pop music. Gorgeous, inviting pop music. What more do you need? Wendi Dunlap‘s new album Looking For Buildings offers your opportunity to fall heart-first into a dreamy, luxurious bed of pure radio-ready bliss. Wendi Dunlap has just the building you’re looking for.”
For those interested, she had this to say about the producer of her album:
(Previously posted on Wendi Dunlap’s Twitter and Facebook feeds.)
As you may know, I released my debut album on Friday, October 22, called Looking For Buildings. The album was produced by Ken Stringfellow of the Posies, and he also played and sang on it.
On the following Monday, a KUOW story came out, in which multiple women accused him of abuse and even rape.
I believe the women 100%.
I was (and still am) very happy about and proud of the way the album came out, and I will always be grateful to Ken for the work he put into it and the generous gift of his talent toward my debut album. But I am sad and angry at everything else.
Wendi goes into more detail here.
GMR thinks (well I do anyway) that you should go out and buy this fine indie power pop album right now.
BTW, It’s about time Wendi!
HAW
Jan 2022