Talking about his new album, Until We Meet Again, singer/songwriter Mark Edgar Stuart thinks back on his first recording session, at Sun Studio. Over in his hometown of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, 15-year-old Stuart played in a band with the nephew of Memphis Horns trumpeter Wayne Jackson. Jackson booked the band at Sun as an avuncular gift, befriending Stuart in the process. “Wayne took a liking to me,” Stuart recalls. “That was one reason I came to Memphis. He was my first mentor.”
It just so happened that the engineer on those ancient sessions was Dawn Hopkins, who, fast-forwarding a few decades, was also behind the board for Until We Meet Again. “Working with Dawn was a real full-circle moment,” Stuart says wistfully. “Here I am 30 years later, going back to the basics, and Dawn’s at the helm! I love these full circles. And the whole record’s full of them.”
Hopkins works with co-producer Reba Russell, a renowned singer and songwriter in her own right. Under the name “The Blue Eyed Bitches,” the two are making waves around Memphis and beyond with their naturalistic approach to production. Not long after producing the acclaimed Delta Joe Sanders, they set their sights on Stuart.
Reba approached Madjack’s Ronny Russell and asked, “Do you think Mark would let us produce a record on him? I love that guy.” It caught Stuart unawares.
“I got a green light to make a record and I wasn’t even looking to do it,” he marvels. Being a singer herself, Reba heard untapped potential in Stuart’s voice. “That was her big pitch to Ronny: She wanted to produce me as a singer,” says Stuart. “She told me, ‘I know there’s a voice living inside there, and you haven’t tapped into it yet.’”
The results are easy, breezy, and natural, thanks to the producers’ focus on feel above all else. That suits Stuart just fine. “They come from that Jim Dickinson school of thought,” Stuart says. “It’s just about the emotion. Every song just took one or two takes. It’s pretty much what I do when you see me live.” The result is an album of spare arrangements, often featuring just Stuart’s voice and guitar, with an occasional second guitar, bass, light drums, or background vocal — and plenty of breathing room.
These days, with Stuart established as one of the best singer/songwriters around, it’s hard to imagine that he started writing less than 10 years ago. Until then he was a bass player, first for the Pawtuckets and then as a hired gun on many recording sessions and tours. Eventually, backing quality songwriters like Cory Branan, Jack Oblivian, and John Paul Keith inspired him to try his hand at the craft.
“On the first record, I had something to say about my cancer and about my dad,” he reflects. “On the second record, there was more cancer stuff and stuff about my wife and our little troubles.” After that, he found himself collaborating with the likes of Keith Sykes, working on the follow-up to his sophomore album. But somehow, he wasn’t connecting. “When the third record came around, I’d been hanging out with these really great songwriters, and I think I let their craft influence my craft. Looking back on that, I should have just recognized my craft as being weird and unique.”
Now, with Until We Meet Again, he’s come full circle back to himself. He credits his producers with helping him find his voice as never before, partly by choosing the songs. “The ones Dawn and Reba picked just so happen to be about love and life,” he says. “About writing love letters at a time when no one writes love letters. And fishing in heaven. And dying one day. I don’t think men would have picked all those songs. It took these two women to do that. Their biggest contribution was the song selection. They gave the whole record a theme. I feel like I’m saying something again.”
The Mark Edgar Stuart album release show will feature a full band and opener Kelley Mickwee, The Green Room at Crosstown Arts, Friday, March 4, 7:30 p.m. Visit crosstownarts.org for details.