|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Patrick
Smith |
|
Patrick
Smith’s music is heavy with tradition,
beautifully well crafted, and performed.
It is also edgy and explosive, sometimes
dancing along the dark, funky low notes
that hide in those sucking, black spaces
best-found lurking in barrooms sometime
‘round midnight before bursting
forth in a blaze of white-lighted gospel
that sends dancers’ hands writhing
towards heaven in ecstasy. His music
is full of place, bringing all that
the Mississippi River melting pot has
to offer with it. He deftly fuses various
influences that rolled in on that mighty
river to his hometown of Vicksburg,
Mississippi, weaving into his songs
Delta blues, barrelhouse rocking piano
riffs, wailing jazz, underbelly soul,
heart-wrenching gospel, and the funkiness
of a New Orleans brass band. Patrick’s
throaty, warm, whisky voice ties his
sound tightly together.
The Patrick Smith Band’s new
CD, Free Beer and Fried Chickn, released
in 2004, features musicians with whom
he has toured and played over the
years such as the North Mississippi
Allstars, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band,
and Jimbo Mathis. Some of the legendary
artists Smith and his band have appeared
with across the US and Europe over
the past fifteen years of touring
are B.B. King, Doctor John, the Neville
Brothers, Little Feat, Galactic, Junior
Brown, and Buddy Guy, among others.
Patrick Smith is a self-taught pianist
who had his first paying gig at the
age of fourteen. Throughout high school,
he played the explosive Highway 61
blues corridor between Vicksburg and
Greenville, Mississippi, having to
sit outside the kitchen door or in
the parking lot during set breaks
because he wasn’t old enough
to stay inside the bars he was playing
in. Patrick honed his skills by playing
constantly and jamming whenever he
could, jamming with the now-legendary
Beanland on riverboat cruises on the
Mississippi as a teenager and playing
with JoJo Herman of Beanland and Widespread
Panic fame while in college in Oxford,
Mississippi. Now, Patrick often tours
with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. Heavy
tourin keeps Patrick’s own band
fine- tuned as they currently perform
more than 100 gigs per year. The Patrick
Smith Band’s music is funky,
bluesy, and soulful, but rocks. It
resonates with both the weight of
a yellow moon and the freshness of
ice dripping off a cold beer. It’s
new and old at the same time. This
music’s got gut. The Patrick
Smith show is electric and kinetic.
You won't help but be moved.
Purchase the new CD by clicking
here.
|
|
|
Please
check back soon for more information
about the Patrick Smith Band. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|