Usually a band has to sit with me for a while. Marinate in my head a bit. Have a few spins on the record before I can proclaim that I LOVE this shit. Smith & Weeden is not one of those bands. S&W skyrocketed in my list of bands that I hold close to my heart and need to listen to within about 30 seconds of ‘Playing a Part’ kicked in from my first listen of their self-titled May 2014 release. It’s good old fashioned rock n’ roll, but certainly has hints of that early years Americana ala Wilco and Uncle Tupelo. Its just f*ckin’ fun and good music, man. Its loud, but not abrasive. It makes you want to dance, but it’s not “dance music”…at least in the industry defining way. It’s not too rock for country music or too country for rock music, its a beautiful and masterful blend of the two. Loud rock solos, pounding drums, and Jesse Emmanuel Smith’s vocal is equal parts badass grunginess and Buddy Holly-esque eloquence. It’s a killer combination for sure.
The record itself has some fantastic variety to it as well. ‘Drinking Through Some Issues’ is the epitome of a great country tune. With lyrical content about drinking and troubles ( “lately I’ve been drinking about you” ) and that twangy goodness in the electric lead guitar. Then following up with songs like “Wondering” that start off like a solo Dylan tune sparse and intimate, then those harmonies kick on in, man. Those harmonies…. are…. just excellent. Not pretty or gorgeous, but real and bona fide. These boys play music that I believe in and believe them when they sing out.
“Sunshine” is a quieter side with a slow burn on the acoustic guitar. Smith’s voice is crying. Not literally, but making you feel like music should do. But it ain’t all sad and depressing inducing, it’s a good feeling. It’s a things are gonna get better someday. Hell we got problems, but we can sing about them and all gather around, shoot some whiskey and listen to these boys play their songs.
I don’t know what else to really say. I just keep unintentionally listening to this record over and over again and I love it more each time I listen to it. It’s not even like I make a conscious decision that “I am going to listen to Smith & Weeden right now”, my brain automatically starts typing “s…m…i…” into the web browser at work to stream on bandcamp, or my finger automatically swipes to it on my phone. I am not sure why it took me this long to really dig into these boys, but shit I am happy I did (Thanks Michael Panico for making me see the light).
Do yourself a favor today and go buy this record: