The year is 2008. Steve Gunn was experiencing the itch to start working on material under his own name after having spent the last several years playing in and around Philadelphia and Brooklyn in collaborative projects such as GHQ. He had recorded some experimental CDRs on his own under the moniker Moongang before branching out in 2007 to placing the name “Steve Gunn” on titles for the first time. The first couple of releases displayed an immediate leap in his songwriting and confidence. His growth as a solo artist seemed to meet the use of his name head on with a burst of creativity. Nowhere was this growth more visible than with the 2008 title “Sundowner”. The album’s first iteration was released on CD by Digitalis Recordings. Not only was it the first Gunn title to have a release on a non-recordable media, but it was his widest release to date. Gone were the days of micro-editions. Now folks from far and wide could get deeply into what Steve was working on and the spells he was weaving.
Jump forward a couple of years to 2010. Gunn had released his widely acclaimed “Boerum Palace” the year prior, a title which amplified the spotlight on both his craft and his place within the broader new weird America scene. Venerable Asheville institution Harvest Records couldn’t shake the ghostly majesty of “Sundowner” and reached out to him to see if they could do a vinyl edition on their then-new label imprint. Steve obliged the request but felt that he could lay down “better” versions of half of the album’s tracks. He re-recorded these tracks, paired them with a few of the originals and that became the album’s vinyl edition. Without formal distribution but sold through Harvest’s webstore and by Steve at shows, this one was for the true heads in the know.
Jump once more to 2026. This missive is being written in connection with a current vinyl and CD reissue of “Sundowner” by Three Lobed Recordings, the title’s first widely distributed version. Eighteen years removed from its original release, what is it that keeps bringing folks back to this title time and time again? The answer is simple – the songs and the performances. You have Gunn-specific guitar workouts like “No Atlas” and “Concrete Beach”. You have haunting vocal turns like “For the Horse, Etc.”, “Money Train Blues” and a gorgeous take on John Martyn’s “Over The Hill”. This is the album where Jack Rose told Steve he needed to keep putting out material in this vein. Ask anyone who knows it and they will all tell you that this album is both timeless and has earned the legend. Three Lobed is excited to bring this one back into the wider conversation, back into store shelves and onto the turntables of listeners everywhere.
releases October 30th, 2026
All songs by Steve Gunn except “Over The Hill” by John Martyn.
The Fat Angel Sings 