Every great heist movie kicks off with the same delusion: one last job. Equal parts noir narrative and existential meditation, Wesley Stace’s new single unfolds like a cinematic crime drama, only to reveal itself as something more personal.
“He thought he was out, but they’ve reeled him back in for one final job,” says the venerable singer/songwriter formerly (and still occasionally) known as John Wesley Harding. “If all goes well, he gets to retire, hang up his holster, maybe tend the garden and get to know his family. But what if it doesn’t?”
The title track to Stace’s forthcoming LP, One Last Heist (Pravda), is also its guiding conceit—one that refuses to settle into an easy-to-pinpoint meaning.
“It kind of became the central concept for the record,” says Stace. “Metaphor? Reality? Is it a story? Is it my last record? It doesn’t matter.”
That playful ambiguity extends throughout the LP, where mystery, romance, mythology, satire and protest intermingle. Recorded at Studio 1935 in Philadelphia’s historic Bok Building, One Last Heist was produced, arranged and written by Stace with longtime collaborator David Nagler. The core band includes Nagler on keyboards, Eddie Carlson on bass and Stéphane San Juan (David Byrne, Marcos Valle) on drums, with additional contributions from guitarists Joe Gore (Tom Waits, PJ Harvey) and Justin Mazer (Bob Weir), drummer Patrick Berkery (War On Drugs, Pernice Brothers) and vocalist Chris von Sneidern.
“This heist began with frustrations about the one before,” says Stace. “We’d intended my previous album, (2021’s) Late Style, to be the most elegant record imaginable, but COVID was a scruffy time and much of it was recorded in isolation in far-flung locations, without the chemistry and esprit de corps of musicians playing together in real time in the same space.”
Determined to reverse that trend, Stace and crew arranged the songs in advance and recorded them live. “Studio 1935 is an open plan—very welcoming, not lots of isolated booths,” says Stace. “We were all able to congregate, interact and improvise.”
The result is lush, expansive, unexpectedly groovy and a good distance from the strummy, forthright folk rock that marked Stace’s early career. “There’s no reason why my songs shouldn’t swing like I want them to, despite all their words,” he says. “Check out Esther Phillips doing Gilbert O’Sullivan … Johnny Hammond doing Cat Stevens. Why not?”
The video for “One Last Heist” was assembled with a similarly adventurous spirit. Armed with little more than an iPhone, Stace and collaborators hashed it out in places like Memphis, Louisville, Ky., and Marfa, Texas, during an 8,500-mile road trip across America.
“How it managed to get made at all is a bit of a mystery and a miracle,” says Stace. “It tells you the story if you don’t concentrate—or another story quite like it.”
We’re proud to the premiere Wesley Stace’s “One Last Heist.” Look for the new album on Sept. 2.
—Hobart Rowland
