''Stay Gold'' is the eighth full-length studio album from American musician

Butch Walker Bradley Glenn "Butch" Walker (born November 14, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He was the lead guitarist for the glam metal band SouthGang from the late 1980s to early 1990s as well as the lead vocalist ...

, released on August 26, 2016, through

DangerBird records Dangerbird Records is an independent record label in Los Angeles, California. The label is home to artists from around the world and part of the burgeoning Silver Lake music scene. The label has had international success from its small roster of ...

in the United States and

Lojinx Lojinx is a British independent record label and Music publisher (popular music), music publishing company established in 2004 in South London, United Kingdom, UK. It was voted as one of the top ten "Best Record Labels of 2010". Based in London ...

in Europe. The album was announced in June of that year with the lead single “East Coast Girl”. Following his previous release, ''

Afraid of Ghosts ''Afraid of Ghosts'' is the seventh full-length studio album from Butch Walker, and was released on Lojinx records in Europe on 2 February 2015 and Dangerbird Records in North America on February 3, 2015. The album was announced on October 6, 2 ...

'', an emotional album recorded after the loss of his father, ''Stay Gold'' presents a much more upbeat and optimistic outlook, with Walker saying "I spilled it all out on 'Afraid of Ghosts''and it was a heavy subject. Where do you go from there? ..It triggered a lot of bittersweet nostalgia. So I started writing about all that, and it sounded like the template should be more of a celebration, as far as the music goes."

Background and production

Walker cites the 1983 film '' The Outsiders'' as a major thematic influence for the record, echoing his own small town childhood, with the title referencing the line spoken by Johnny Cade to Ponyboy Curtis, "Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold."

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

. Musicians *

Ryan Adams David Ryan Adams (born November 5, 1974) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, artist, and poet. He has released 23 albums, as well as three studio albums as a former member of alt-country band Whiskeytown. In 2000, Adams left ...

–

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

* Daniel Donato – guitar *

Gavin Fitzjohn Adequate Seven were a Welsh band who blended music styles such as hip hop, hardcore, punk, and funk. They formed in 2000 and split in December 2006. History Adequate Seven formed in November 2000 and played their first gig only four weeks la ...

– horn *

Roger Manning Roger Manning is a New York City based singer-songwriter who plays an aggressive acoustic style of music. Manning, along with a small handful of other artists, composed the original New York City anti-folk scene. On February 6, 1985, Manning w ...

–

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

, piano,

background vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are used ...

Ashley Monroe Ashley Lauren Monroe (born September 10, 1986) is an American country music singer-songwriter. Monroe has released two solo singles, "Satisfied" and "I Don't Want To" (which featured Brooks & Dunn singer Ronnie Dunn), that reached the U.S. ''Bi ...

– vocals * Steven "Doc" Patt –

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

upright bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

slide guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos tha ...

, background vocals * Suzanne Santo –

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

, background vocals * Mark Stepro –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

, background vocals *

– bass guitar, guitar, keyboards,

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

, piano, vocals Technical personnel *

Michael Brauer Michael Brauer is a New York-based mix engineer. He received a Grammy for "Best Pop Vocal Album" for his work on John Mayer's ''Continuum'', "Best Alternative Album" for Coldplay's ''Parachutes'', and also "Best Rock Album" for Coldplay's ''Viva la ...

– mixing * Pete Lyman – mastering * Todd Stopera –

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

Charts

References

{{Authority control Butch Walker albums 2016 albums Albums produced by Butch Walker Lojinx albums Dangerbird Records albums