"THE BEAR," STEPHEN Kellogg's new album with his backing band the Sixers, is all about generations, a topic that has obvious roots in his own life.
"I feel like I'm smack in the middle of adolescence," says the thirtysomething musician, who started his first band as a teenager. "I'm here with my two kids, but I still call my parents for advice. So I'm totally someone's child, totally someone's parent."
That sense of in-between-ness informed not only the songs he wrote for the album, but the sequencing as well. With its balance of '70s country rock and a modern sensibility, "The Bear" begins with songs about youth, such as "Dying Wish of a Teenager" and culminates with songs set in old age, in particular the closer "Born in the Spring."
If this is a deeply personal album for Kellogg, it's also the Sixers' rawest and most adventurous to date, the result of a growing confidence onstage — the band tours almost constantly — and in the studio. After bouncing among major labels, the Sixers decided to shake things up a bit. "It was our first endeavor to take some chances and not be afraid to fall on our face," he explains.
"We just weren't as scared as we were on previous records. When you get your first record deal, you think it's your only shot and you can't mess it up. And then you get another shot and you think you still can't mess it up. We lived that way for a long time, but for this record we decided to make music from our hearts and see what happens."
The band's maturity has produced an album that sounds urgent and impassioned — in other words, young. "We're not a new band," Kellogg says. "We keep going because we love what we're doing."
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