Stef Chura Swings With R.E.M.’s Buck, Mills

Stef Chura is back with her first album in seven years — and she’s brought a pair of R.E.M. legends along for the ride.

The Detroit singer/songwriter will release Dancing Alone on the Concrete on Oct. 2 via Saddle Creek, led by the new single “Danny,” which features guest performances from R.E.M.’s Peter Buck and Mike Mills. The collaboration came together organically during the album’s recording sessions at Athens, Ga.’s Chase Park Transduction studio with producer Robert Schneider of the Apples in Stereo.

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“Robert was like, ‘Wouldn’t this sound great with Mike Mills playing bass on it?’” Chura recalled. “So he called him up, and he and Mike Mills and Peter Buck ended up playing on that song just from shooting the shit.”

The resulting track carries a hint of classic Athens melancholy while centering on one of Chura’s most hopeful songs to date. “Danny” was inspired by a fleeting connection she made after relocating to New Orleans during the COVID lockdowns. “I met someone who was traveling through New Orleans,” Chura said. “We had an instant rapport and an easy chemistry, and it reminded me what excitement could feel like. I wrote ‘Danny’ as an ode to the fantasy of meeting someone who could sweep me off my feet when I felt like I needed rescuing.”

She added, “He invited me to a party, but I stayed home and watched the clock tick instead. Afterwards I couldn’t stop imagining the version of myself who had gone, who had seized the moment.”

Dancing Alone on the Concrete marks Chura’s first full-length since 2019’s Midnight. In the years between, she ended an engagement, left Detroit for New Orleans, became a mother and eventually returned home. “By playing the piano more, I was learning more about transposing chords and things like that,” Chura said. “I was going back and forth, playing songs on the guitar and the piano, and it lent itself to the writing process in a nice way.”

Those sessions eventually brought her to Athens, where Schneider teamed her with engineers and musicians David Barbe (Sugar) and Andy LeMaster (Now It’s Overhead), while Buck and Mills added an unmistakable R.E.M. connection to “Danny.”

Chura will open for Dinosaur Jr. on a fall North American tour beginning Oct. 9 in Las Vegas.

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