Steve Wynn, best known for his bands the Dream Syndicate, Miracle 3 and the Baseball Project, has been recording steadily for decades since his emergence in the 1980s. Unfortunately, not all of those recordings have been available on these shores.
Steve once worked with the band Australian Blonde in Spain, recording an album titled Momento. He met producer Paco Loco, and a bond was formed. Wynn would return a few years later and form a band with Loco and his wife, Linda Pitmon, recording an album under the name Smack Dab. They created incredible music, but music only available in Spain. While the music retains the dynamic energy of Wynn’s classic rock albums, these sessions find him swapping his Americana roots for a more creative, Euro-pop vibe. Rarely has Wynn’s music sounded so playful!
“I first met Paco back in 1998,” says Wynn. “I had a show booked in the area where he and his wife Muni were living, down in Andalusia. The owner of my Spanish label had been the drummer in Australian Blonde with Paco and knew that he was a fan, so he arranged for the band to drop by their pad. At the time, he spoke much less English than he does now. And my Spanish wasn’t as good as it is now. So, most of what I could tell was that he was kind, knew about my music, and, most of all, was fascinating and eccentric.
“I’ve gotten to know him quite well over the years, but I can still say that there is nobody in the world who is quite like Paco Loco. He is a legendary producer in Spain, and despite the many records he’s made and his many accolades, he still approaches every session with the fervor, curiosity, playfulness, and unpredictability of someone who is just starting out or, more likely, just never bothered to learn the rules. In other words, I knew I had met a kindred spirit from the start.”
On July 1, 2014, Omnivore Recordings will release 19 tracks from those two albums as Sketches in Spain, a look and listen into Wynn’s expansive and essential ’90s work. The set includes liner notes by curator Pat Thomas and by Wynn himself.
From originals to covers of Three Dog Night’s “Never Been To Spain” and Los Bravos’ “Black Is Black,” these recordings form the perfect evolution from and complement to the Dream Syndicate’s classic albums, including Omnivore’s critically acclaimed reissue of The Day Before Wine and Roses.
Ready for an introduction to these shores, Sketches in Spain not only references another important release via its title, but will take U.S. fans into another world and culture.
