A survivor, by the skin of his teeth, of decades at the bumpy end of the music business, STUFF HAPPENS is Stuffy Shmitt’s first album in eight years. Living in New York, at the end of his tether, battling bipolar disorder and on a self-destructive path, he made the crucial decision to finally ditch his deadly lifestyle in the West Village and attempt to rebuild his life. Moving to Nashville and getting himself correctly medicated set him on a path towards normality and regained sanity.
With a clear head and decades of demons to exorcise, the resulting album is a treasure chest of honest and hard-hitting songs. Writing from personal experiences and observations Mommy And Daddy recalls his parents, once wild, carefree and unpredictable, now aged and weakening. The raunchy opener It’s OK speaks openly of a close friend, a walking car wreck who’s constantly messing up, despite the many helping hands offered to her. His vocals never sounded better than on the belter She’s Come Unglued. It boasts an addictive and killer riff and tells the story of a partner heading for a breakdown and a crumbling relationship. The striking piano led ballad The Last Song grieves a failed love affair and Sleeping On The Wet Spot is a self-deprecating yarn of recurring catastrophe, a possible recap on the writer’s often ill-fated life choices.
An unusual yet exceptional combination of soothing ballads and hardcore rockers, STUFF HAPPENS plays out like a few genres melting together, by an artist with a hyperactive brain and on this occasion, firing on all cylinders.