MUSIC
THE CHICKS DIG ‘EM
Indie Duo Smooth Hound Smith are a Maines Attraction
BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH
T
doesn’t do. We got a little dialogue going and then she showed up later in that tour at one of our shows in L.A.
HEY DON’T MIND IF YOU CALL them an Americana act, but Smooth Hound Smith’s gritty roots rock is a How did she hear your music? true melting pot of styles. The bluesy blend Zack: It’s funny, she had been at a venue of multi-instrumentalist Zack Smith (vocals/ that we had played and I guess they’d put our guitars/foot drums/harmonicas/banjo) and first CD in the house music. She heard it and Caitlin Doyle (vocals/percussion) was born she was just like, ‘Who is in 2012 and bred on small this?’ Then it just turned stages across the country. SMOOTH HOUND into a relationship and she Now based in hip East ended up singing on our SMITH Nashville, their garagealbum Sweet Tennessee AUGUST 14 • 7PM sale backline of wellHoney. When we heard Verizon Wireless Ampitheatre used guitars, drums and they were going to tour assorted instruments of again, we reached out percussion is packed and and submitted. We didn’t hear anything for ready for a busy summer season opening the a while but it ended up coming through so it Dixie Chicks’ massive tour. While on the road has really been a dream scenario for us. to their first show with the Chicks, the duo spoke with INsite from the van they lovingly Not a bad payoff for four years of hard work. call The Blue Beast. Zack: Yeah. I think about four years ago today we were playing the Farmers Market, How did you get the Dixie Chicks stamp of now we’re about to play these massive halls. approval? We’re definitely stoked because our original Zack: About two years ago we were driving goal was never anything big, we just wanted through Texas on the way to a show. We to play a lot and see the country. were talking about a whole bunch of stuff but in particular were talking about the How did you guys meet? Dixie Chicks because Caitlin has been a fan Zack: We were both playing in bands in for a really long time. When we got to the L.A. Then when I’d quit the band I was in, I venue in Austin, I look and we have all these decided to move to Nashville but we stayed Twitter notifications. Weird. Now I’m not in touch long-distance. We really started even a big Twitter user, but I looked at it connecting and she came to visit me in and what had happened was Natalie Maines Nashville and sat in at a solo show that I had actually tweeted about us, saying some was doing. complimentary things which she normally Caitlin: That first show I played a washboard
I’d brought along. If you’ve ever seen a washboard go through security at the airport, it’s pretty funny. They were like, ‘Are you going to use this to do your laundry?’ I was like, ‘’Yeah that’s the plan.’ When did you decide to move back to Nashville? Zack: I had a feeling I wanted to move back there but Caitlin wasn’t completely sold on it so we started looking for houses and we ended up finding this great house that we rented for just a fraction of the price of something we could get in L.A. The duo format has really been a popular movement in the last few years. Zack: There’s definitely some easy aspects to it. Since we were driving around in the van, we built a platform in the back for a bed and we can just sleep in here because we’re a couple. But if you had a third person, then it becomes less practical and we’d be losing money instead of making any. We have experimented a little with adding players but it’s great to do it with just the two of us. There’s a chemistry there that I don’t know we would have if we had someone else along with us. This is definitely not a typical country tour with bros in hats and all that. It’s a full-on rock production. Zack: Definitely. I just think they did a really good job of making a whole night full of music instead of just like, ‘Hey y’all, it’s a country throwdown.’
Caitlin: The people that love the Dixie Chicks, love Natalie and anything that she and the girls are gonna put together, they’re gonna love and really appreciate. Yeah, this is a just a night of good music. The tour ends in September, then what? Caitlin: We play our last show with the Chicks on September 2 in Salt Lake City and then we’re getting married on the 10th in Santa Cruz. It’s going to be a really busy year for us. Zack: Caitlin’s got everything ready for the wedding so now we can just sort of enjoy the tour. Be ready for the extreme heat at some of the sheds on this tour, it’s brutal this time of year. Zack: Oh man, we’re ready. We played in Atlanta a couple years ago in July or August at this show called “Tunes From The Tombs,” outside at Oakland Cemetery. That was the hottest, sweatiest thing we’ve ever done!
“MOONLIGHT” STILL FEELS RIGHT Atlanta’s Starbuck is Revived with Yacht Rock fans
BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH
40
YEARS AGO THIS SUMMER, ONE OF THE most inescapable songs on the radio was “Moonlight Feels Right.” The ubiquitous moog and marimba pastiche was like an audio daiquiri, ably fortified by singersongwriter Bruce Blackman’s intoxicating drawl. The mellow tune was a decidedly southern-fried mix of Steely Dan meets Supertramp and it remains a staple of classic pop-rock, soft rock and nostalgia programming. It was the band’s biggest hit by far, but the surviving core members of the group are still active in various solo projects and with the revitalized edition of Starbuck, a featured act at the annual land-locked voyage of the Yacht Rock Revival. The affable Blackman still resides near his home-base of Atlanta and he recently spent some time with INsite before a recording session. “Moonlight” has evolved from a soft rock standard to a Yacht Rock favorite. Yeah, I think so. Even though we’d never heard of the term back then, but that’s exactly what it is. It’s an evergreen staple of the genre at this point. It’s still played a lot, that’s for sure. Last report I had on plays was March and “Moonlight Feels Right” was at just a hair less than 150,000 times. 90,000 in the US and 60,000 outside the US. And that was just March of this year. Now that you’ve lived with it for 40 years, do you ever get tired of it? I’ve been living with it for 42 because there’s a couple years that I didn’t even show it to anyone. I kept to myself for a long time but
my wife kept on at me. She said I had to let somebody hear that song. Then when I finally did - kaboom!
write the little A-B-C ditties that are so popular today. It’s still a young man’s game sometimes because youth drives the market. But I did see a statistic the other day and it said that last year was the first time in the history of recorded music that old music sold more than new music. And they defined “old music” as anything 25 years old or older.
You’re recording later today, is this for a new Starbuck project? Right now, it’s my own stuff. I’ve had three songs in a row make it into the Top 40 in Adult Contemporary, so I’m working on more of that. But Starbuck is going to make a new record - and soon. Bo Wagner the marimba player, we And “Moonlight Feels Right” is like a classic car at this point. formed Starbuck together, he’s going to be It is! You know when we first cut that thing, twelve record moving from L.A. to Tampa companies turned it down. Some of ‘em said after Christmas. He’ll be close they passed on it because “it’s not disco.” I’m thinking, “Well tell me somethin’ I didn’t know!” enough that we can finally Then two years later, they were burning disco begin work with all the rest of records! So you never know but hey, we finally the guys who are here. We’re got a deal and what happened, happened. going to use all our vintage AUG 20 • 7PM instruments, the whole What was the original inspiration for it the thing and just do it right. No Piedmont Park song? computers, just us playing. pleaserock.com It’s about my wife Peggy and musically when I was writing it, I was thinking of “Summer How many original members Wind” by Frank Sinatra. With the horns and stuff, what I was are you working with now? trying to do was take synthesizers and use them like a big band. This is definitely the original band. You Take the opening of “Moonlight,” if you were to take out got me, Bo Wagner on marimbas, Tommy Strain on guitar, David the synths and put a big horn section in there with those Shaver and Sloan Hayes on keyboards and Jimmy Cobb on bass. same riffs, you’d get a big band song. That was our original The only two we’re missing are Johnny Walker and Darrell Kutz, intention. The week before I wrote it, I’d walked through a they’ve both passed away. It’s an honor to get to play with these plate glass window and I severed the finger of my right hand. guys and we’re very excited to get to play with Yacht Rock again. They took me down to Piedmont Hospital and they sewed it I’ve been hearing from friends from all over the world and we’ve back on so I had this gigantic cast on my hand. got people coming from San Francisco, L.A. and New York.
YACHT ROCK REVIVAL
Most people in your position would be rehashing the old stuff at this point. But you’re still working, doing something new and that’s great. I really don’t know how to do anything else. Luckily songwriting is something that doesn’t have an age connected to it. But I can’t
So you were forced into writing mode at that point. Yeah. One night about a week after that accident, I was sitting there writing and had my Mini- Moog on the floor with me. I wrote that song with just my left hand. Later people said, “Maybe ya oughta start writing with your left hand again!” insiteatlanta.com • August 2016 • PG 21