Steve Gunn Releases New EP ‘Nakama’

Steve Gunn released a new EP, Nakama, made up of reworkings of five songs that appeared on his 2021 LP, Other You. Gunn also confirmed a weekly residency in February at Brooklyn’s Union Pool.

The EP begins with “Protection,” featuring Gunn joined by Mdou Moctar bassist Mikey Coltun and guitarist Ahmoudou Madassane. The subsequent two songs, “Good Wind” and “On The Way” see Gunn joined by Natural Information Society. The last two songs are remixes, first is the Circuit Des Yeux remix of “Ever Feel That Way,” followed by Bing & Ruth‘s remix of “Reflection.” Gunn stated the following regarding the EP:

“[Nakama] touches on a lot of music that I love, but that I might not necessarily translate with the proper album. To give these songs to people that I admire and to see how they would return, knowing that their music is an inspiration to me, was really a cool opportunity. Joshua Abrams’ bass playing, his group Natural Information Society, and his film soundtrack work have been an inspiration to me for some time now. I am grateful that I was able to travel to Chicago and work closely with Josh in his studio on ‘Good Wind’ and ‘On the Way.’ Reimagining these songs with Josh, along with Lisa Alvarado’s accompaniment, was a total joy. I arrived with the intention of keeping these songs open in seeing where they would go in working with Josh, and am very happy with the results.”

“Ahmoudou and I wanted to give ‘Protection’ a Tuareg feel,” said Coltun. “We knew we wanted to use field recordings from Niger and specifically Tende music, which is the drums and chanting you hear. We used drum machines which is an homage to Abdallah Oumbadougou, the first Niger Tuareg artist to do that in the ’90s.”

“It was a joy to get inside of Steve’s music and rearrange the furniture,” said Bing & Ruth’s David Moore. “‘Reflection’ struck me instantly as a classic song that I wouldn’t want to stray too far from the original, so I added some piano and moved around a lot of the pieces until I found something somewhere between sunshine rock and a psychedelic opium den. Such a pleasure to get this one where it ended up.”

Gunn’s three-show residency at Union Pool will present three different formats, with a solo performance on February 1, a Gunn-Truscinski Duo performance with drummer John Truscinski on February 8 and with a full band on February 15. The residency shows are free with confirmed RSVP. Gunn’s February European tour dates have been canceled due to COVID-19. Gunn’s March and April North American tour dates with Jeff Parker are still set to take place as planned.

Stream Steve Gunn’s new EP, Nakama, below: