An old New York City rock & roller who’s performed and recorded with everyone from The Band’s Levon Helm to Violent Femmes’ Gordon Gano and David Johansen of the New York Dolls, from 2000 to 2012 Stuffy Shmitt released a half-dozen mostly under-the-radar solo records. Then about eight years ago he was completely consumed by bipolar disorder. Finally, he got himself properly medicated, moved to Nashville, and was able to sort out everything he’d created during his bouts of depression and mania. The resulting album, Stuff Happens was produced by Brett Ryan Stewart and Chris Tench and features Aaron Lee Tasjan and Brian Wright, as well as drummer Dave Colella and bassist Parker Hawkins.
Bleak but defiantly upbeat, the lead single, “It’s OK,” is a brutally honest song about Shmitt’s relationship with a beautiful soul who can’t seem to get her shit together. There’s a mesmerizing resignation in Shmitt’s voice as he sings, “It’s OK, forget it, It’s OK, don’t sweat it,” over and over again, as if he wants so badly to believe it’s true, but knows deep down that it’s all pretty far from OK.
The video for the song can only be described as Alice in Wonderland meets Paris, Texas. Catch the world premiere exclusively today at Ditty TV.