Porchlight Smoker’s SCOTT SMITH is our guest on December 1st.
Here
are few Qs
and lots of As
from the man from Kansas.
Working backwards from where you are
now, how did you get to alt-Americana?
I’m
going to jump back to the past here. Otherwise I get dyslexic.
I
spent my teen formative years in Kansas listening to artists like Emmy Lou
Harris, Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, Lynyrd Skynrd, Marshall Tucker Band,
The Allman Bros, JJ Cale, The Byrds/Gram Parsons (sweet hearts of the rodeo),
Dylan's Nashville period, Waylon Jennings, Pure Prairie League, The Charlie
Daniels Band, amongst many other country influenced artists. In the 80's,
people like Steve Earle and Nancy Griffith continued to carry the torch.
What
has come to be called ' Americana", I believe has always been around, and
its popularity in popular culture just waxes and wanes with the fickle /
popular times. There is a case to be made for lots of "Americana"
having British roots I believe. Culture is a continuum. I hear country music
when I listen to old Stones records.
Also,
where I'm from, Austin was just down the road a piece, and my mates and I
related a lot to that whole long haired country boy / hippie thing. We spent a
lot of time in pickup trucks with spliffs and bottles of Jim Beam (for better
or worse).
Long
hair and cowboy hats. And hedonism. It was the 70's...
Was it all around you at home or did
you, like most people, graduate from listening to
mainstream music?
If one
grows up in Wichita Kansas, there is no avoiding country music on radio and in
bars and clubs and whatall. Most folks will have an uncle or someone who is
fond of Merle Haggard and Bob Wills, or an Aunt who has records by Kitty Wells
and Patsy Cline etc.
My
folks were not country music people especially but there would still be a Roger
Miller and Kingston Trio album in the record collection. My mother’s records
would range from show tunes from My Fair
Lady and Jesus Christ Superstar,
to Mitch Miller and Simon and Garfunkel. I recall her having a bagpipes record
as well! I also listened to a lot of popular music - Top 40 and what not.
Like a
lot of people my age I got introduced to blues in through British bands like
Led Zeppelin, Cream, the Stones et al.
The
first LP I ever got as a kid was a Monkees record as I recall. I believe Mike
Nesmith of the Monkees went on to produce some LA country rock stuff. Speaking
of country rock, however un-fashionable, there's them durn Eagles...
I
listened to a lot of singer-songwriter types back in the day, your Jackson
Browne and James Taylor and Joni Mitchell types. David Geffen's Asylum label in
70's had a fair few poets with guitars on board.
What kind of stuff did you first started playing?
My earliest
experiences of playing music happened as a kid in a Unitarian church, where my
mother would take me to sing Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie and Bobby Dylan
songs and such as some part of the civil rights movement in the 60's.
As far
as being an older (teenager) type, I learned a lot of Neil Young and Bob Dylan
songs whilst trying to learn how to play a guitar. Somewhere, one runs across
Carter family tunes whilst learning about hammer-ons and such. And sooner or
later, the 12 bar blues will make itself known. From a 12 bar, it’s a short
step to a lot of rock music...
You’re professionally involved in
modern (avant-garde?) dance. That would seem to
be the polar opposite of the roots music you play, so how do they coexist?
I do
get jobs composing music & sound for dance and theatrical
performances. (I don't want to scare
anybody, but I was a postmodern dancer in back in my youth). I enjoy creating the
ambience and accompaniments for performance and video / film scores and
sometimes I will slip roots music notions into these works. Just because I like
Hank Williams that does not prevent me from liking Brian Eno, or Stravinsky or
appreciating the musings of John Cage. My experiences in theatre have exposed
me to a lot of contemporary / modern musics. My tastes / appetites for music
are broad, and I’m always surprised at how narrow some folks’ opinions can
become when it comes to defining what they like or don't like regarding
"SOUND".
What’s in your solo repertoire?
I hope
to touch on some blues, some folk, and some country, and perhaps to folkify
some popular tunes - some things I don't get to do in the bands,
and to be able to move at my own speed, rather than at band tempos. I generally have to be careful that I don't
play too many John Prine tunes.
What instruments do you play?
The
usual... In the bands I play all sorts of stringed instruments. Yer Banjers,
lap steel, harps and whatall. For the purpose of accompanying my own singing, I
usually stick to guitars.
Guitars, Cadillacs and
hillbilly music is all that keeps me hanging on....
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