Solid State, the title of New Haven-based musician Shandy Lawson’s new album, “refers to solid state in electronics terms,” he said, a nod to the gear he currently has in his studio — amplifiers that are cheaper and more reliable than those that use vacuum tubes. It also refers to the “three states of matter,” he said, solid, liquid, and gas. “At this point in life I feel like I’ve found my solid state,” he said. But another way, it could also refer to the state of Connecticut, and New Haven in particular, for the songwriting talent Lawson drew from to make the record. Of the 13 songs on the album, fully five of them were written by Lawson’s songwriting peers in the New Haven music scene — longtime friends that Lawson played live shows with before the pandemic, and hopefully will again when it’s over.
The project that led to Solid State had its genesis in another idea that the pandemic cut short. “‘I’m Still Here’ came about because we were going to do a big James Velvet tribute album,” Lawson said. By “we” he meant himself and fellow New Haven musicians, who wanted to pay their respects to Velvet, a leading light of the New Haven music scene for decades who died in 2015. Lawson recorded Velvet’s 2002 song “I’m Still Here,” singing and playing all the instruments.
Lawson.
Then the shutdowns from the Covid-19 pandemic began. Lawson had one song and the kernel of an idea. “If I’m going to do one cover, I might as well do a few others,” he recalled thinking. He had several songs he had recently written that he wanted to record. And, it turned out, he already knew several others from songwriters on the New Haven music scene he’d known for years.
“I’d been playing these songs for a long time,” Lawson said. He had admired the songs of New Haven-based musician Christopher Bousquet going back to Bousquet’s days in the band High Lonesome Plains. Of Frank Critelli — fellow musician and Lawson’s bandmate in The Bargain — he said he’s “been stealing his stuff for decades.” He’d been talking to Jeffrey Thunders of the Lost Riots about “about doing each other’s songs … stylistically we’re as far apart as we can get, but I’m a punk at heart,” Lawson said. They started swapping songs years ago. Early in quarantine musician Al Raebuck had written a song, but “that he didn’t think his voice was right for,” and called Lawson to see if he wanted to do it. “I told him I’d take a stab at it,” Lawson said.
Among Lawson’s own songs are “Anastasia,” a fictional rumination on what Anastasia Romanov’s life had been like, had she escaped the execution of her family to end up in Alaska and live another 90-something years. “Trying to Get Home” is a classic road-trip song that sounds like the open highway from the strut of the drums to the gritty washes of guitar. “Sunflower,” meanwhile, manages to bottle the mood of its title in the tone and texture of the music. And then there’s “Weekend’s Work,” an expletive-laced yarn about misadventures with a buddy named Frank that name-checks another friend named Muddy, who may or may not resemble the members of The Bargain. “I really debated putting it on the record. I don’t mind swearing on the song — in fact, I love it — but I didn’t know if the administrative tasks with worth it,” Lawson said, regarding the need to register the song and apply age warnings on it. “But it has quickly become a favorite of mine,” Lawson added. ““Frank makes me play it. He’s the Willie to my Waylon.”
Lawson, of course, asked each of the songwriters for permission to record their music — permission they happily gave. What songwriter doesn’t want to hear their music performed by someone else? “They’re just so excited to be on the record,” Lawson said. And especially as the pandemic continues, the album serves as a connection to a community that can’t get together and play and hear music right now. “It’s worth me skipping some of my own tunes to spread the message.”
That sense of community is one Lawson hopes to foster more. “I’d always wanted New Haven to be like Austin in the ‘70s” — a town full of songwriters in which “everyone was playing everyone else’s songs. It was so communal,” Lawson said. “We could all be playing one another’s songs more. There’s so much talent around town.” New Haven has seen its own taste of that, too; Lawson recalled an event at Books & Co. in Hamden in which songwriters learned and performed one another’s songs. He also recalled a song circle with Velvet, Critelli, and members of the Sawtelles. The process, he thought, was beneficial to everyone, from songwriters and musicians to audience members. “The best songs rise to the top that way.”
“Once the pandemic is gone, I’d love to get that going again,” Lawson said. “Maybe a regular series where you cover your favorite local act.” But in the meantime, there’s the possibility of making more recordings, of his and others’ songs. “I’m sitting in my studio right now,” Lawson said, “surrounded by nothing but instruments and time.”
