Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers is a Northampton, Massachusetts, quartet made up of two distinct parts. In one corner there's the jubilant rock 'n' roll personality of The Sixers, while in the other muses an American songwriter in a period of profound growth, brought on partly by a near-death experience in a plane in Florida. "Kellogg's music is semi-gritty, melodic alt-country," says the Boston Globe. "Think early Wilco, Whiskeytown, or Tom Petty. Relaxed, yet passionate." By and large, the songs on the latest Sixers album, "Gift Horse," are real-life narratives, most of them directly relating to personal experiences. At the same time, the album is set against the broader tableau of contemporary America. In Stephen’s new songs, this is no static backdrop but a turbulent, often bitter reality that works its way into every aspect of our lives. “In terms of what’s going on in America right now, I have definite opinions, and pretty passionate ones,” he says. “I see a lot of division, with extremists on both sides, but I think there’s a huge number of people who have opinions that fall right in the middle of all that. I’m one of them, and I hope that I can speak to those people and say, ‘Hey, it’s OK to be moderate about things; being radical doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re right about something. I try to take that point of view and bring it into our music. Let’s establish the fact that we all belong here, and then maybe we can work through our differences with a little more grace.”
