Tucson inspires Mamma Coal’s new album

Carra “Mamma Coal” Stasney has plenty of reasons to celebrate.

She’ll celebrate the release of her album “Dance Hall Crush” at 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 14, at The Maverick. It’s a “pay what you wish” ticket price, although entry is free. With her, she’ll have a seven-piece band featuring Steff Koeppen, Grant Bloom, Arthur Vint, Thoger Lund, Alvin Blaine and Nick Coventry.

Two weeks later, on Wednesday, Sept. 27, her English/Spanish single “For Everything Bad, Mezcal” — which features Mexican Tejano artist Laura Denisse — will hit all streaming platforms. She’ll celebrate with a bilingual acoustic jam at El Crisol on Simpson, starting at 7 p.m. and co-hosted by Abelino Sanchez of Badlands.

“Our shows have a lot going on,” she said. “We have fiddle, electric guitar, pedal steel, keys, drums, bass and me. Steff Koeppen sings lead vocals sometimes. She’ll be there. Grant Bloom will sing some songs.”

“Dance Hall Crush” was a challenging project for Stasney — on many fronts.

“I was the producer, so I basically had to think through every aspect of it,” she said. “My band has great ideas, but I had to be the final call in arranging the songs and instrumentation. I had to creatively imagine the entire song and what all should be on it and find musicians to execute that. We had a pretty big team.”

Among them was Denisse, whom Stasney raved about.

“She’s a hard worker,” she said. “She’s trying to blow up. I just want to be a regional success and not travel too far. I saw her when she came through Tucson.

“The song has Spanish and English lyrics. I don’t speak Spanish, so it’s hard if you don’t speak Spanish really fluently.”

She recruited the help of Richie Castro, a musician she met while performing on the street.

“He was a traveling guy,” she recalled. “He loved Tucson and stopped to listen. I got the sense he was a musician — not sure why. I asked him if he wanted to play and sing something for us on my mic.

“He gets up there and sings this gorgeous song about Tucson that he had written himself. When I had the song to write and wondered who I was going to do it with, I thought of him because he writes in Spanish and English.”

Stasney had the melody, chorus and verse, but she asked Castro to write the Spanish verse. The result was “beautiful,” she said. He was in Sweden at the time, so they accomplished the task over WhatsApp.

Throughout her career, Stasney has evolved as a musician.

“I used to play a very specific style, which was honkytonk, with my old band Copper & Coal,” she said.

“Then, I did a concept album that was much more introspective and was much more specifically for listening. My concept album ‘Raven Haired Vixen’ is a narrative album where all the songs work together to tell a story. This is different from those things.”

With Mamma Coal, she has developed relationships with fans.

“You play at their home and play at their mother’s memorial. Or you play at their friend’s wedding, and now you are bonded. You get to know them and their stories,” Stasney said.

Although she is open to opportunities, Stasney is focused on building an audience locally and regionally. She wants to be there for her two children, one of whom has special needs.

Before relocating to Arizona, the Michigan native lived for 12 years in Portland.

Growing up, her parents played folk music at home. Her dad was a guitar player and singer, and her mom also sang. She taught herself to play guitar from books at 16 years old and began performing in front of audiences at around 19. Her first show was in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

She was impressed by the Tucson music scene when she and her husband moved here for his job.

“I discovered there was a real supportive scene for music,” she said. “The album is a product of my experience here. I wrote the songs with the people of Tucson in mind, like what would they respond to, what my experience has been here. It’s been great.”