Cy Winstanley – Trick In The Box: New Song Of The Day

Cy Winstanley has just released Trick In The Box. This Nashville-based Kiwi will be releasing his Dumplings EP shortly.

Here’s what Cy has to say:

The new release by Nashville-based New Zealand musician Cy Winstanley moves easily between frivolity, sensuality, and groove, much like it’s creator. With an underlying humor and joy, the collection showcases Cy’s breadth as a songwriter, and gives an exciting introduction to a new sonic chapter in the work of this diverse and life-loving musician.

The ‘Dumplings EP’ is the first solo outing for the three-time New Zealand Music Award winner. Named for the title track, this three song collection is a vivid window into Winstanley’s world. While the songwriting takes a similar approach to Tattletale Saints, Cy’s band with long time collaborator and bassist Vanessa McGowan, it strays sonically from folk and bluegrass, moving into distinctly danker sonic territory.

Recorded at The Cabin Studio in Nashville with Grammy winning engineer Brandon Bell, Cy enlisted good friends Matty Alger on drums (Eminem, Albert Lee), Owen Biddle on bass (The Roots, Mr Barrington) and Ryan Connors on keys (Yola, Devon Gilfillian, Parker Millsap) to form a small, but righteously grooving ensemble.

‘She Had the Dumplings (The Covid Blues) ruminates on sensations missed while stuck at home during quarantine. This fantasy night out begins at a Chinese restaurant, listing a variety of dishes and the feeling of fullness, before moving through the subway, to the club, to a music venue to witness the spirit moving power of a live band, only to be told that it was all but a dream. Venturing at times into the psych-folk realm, the song is an anthem for this out-of-body era we have been living through.

‘Trick in the Box’ is Cy’s homage to long time idol Whitney Houston (his first date at age 10 was to see ‘The Bodyguard’). The line ‘we’ve been foolin’ for a long time / ripe fruit on a high vine’  opens this tale of nascent love, just out of reach. The arrangement is spacious and lilting, the band steady but light as Ryan Connors’ Moog solo snakes in after the 2nd chorus, reminiscent of 90’s R&B stylings. Never one to shy away from a plot twist, Cy’s chorus lyric flips to reveal that the ‘trick’ he’s holding onto is in fact a declaration of love.

The third song in the set begins in the vein of a Waylon-esque country rocker that is perhaps too crass for any country musician to sing. Cy insists though that the message is positive and one of learned necessity after many years on the road. It is a common notion among musicians and travelling people that estrangement from one’s spouse can lead to a divide upon returning home, necessitating an ‘ice breaking’ event to get things back on the same wavelength.  Need I spell it out? Well, Cy certainly does in this NSFW jam.