Reviews
Now That Truth Was Gone
Vicente Zumel, La Hora del Blues (Jan 02, 2012)
"A folk blues troubadour, a real 'story teller' and an inveterate 'rolling stone', this is 'Smiling' Jack Smith. Gifted with a fine sensitivity, Jack brings us his latest work recorded in the spirit of a wandering poet, who at the same time knows exactly where his life is going. Smith sings about life, love, everyday problems, without the slightest worry about what people will think of him, he always does what he wants to do and he knows how to get it done because, as Schopenhauer said, "Half of our worries and anxieties arise from concern for the opinion of others..." Definitely this is not the case with our blues poet. For this album Smith has the valuable collaboration of the excellent guitar player David Gwynn, who rounds out the whole work to make both guitar players sound interwoven, effective and spontaneous. Ten well built songs deeply based on blues, neofolk and Americana."
by Stan Jay, President, Mandolin Brothers©, Ltd.
Smiling Jack Smith has a new album called "This Blue Before" with a superb blues band. His voice, although becoming more than a little raspy, not quite to the level of Tom Waits' entropy but suitably inflected to suggest a life of chronic late night adventure, is still vital, convincing, and put to its best and highest use by this singer/writer. The writing is pure Jack Smith - sardonic, self-centered (but all blues is, by definition, unabashedly self-centered), self-assured, except when it purports to not be and even then it's assertively self-deprecating. It is an album well worth ordering; the music and the performance by every musician are beyond first class. Don't order it just to hear this talented ex-patriate Staten Islander sing the blues, as capably and joyously as it has ever been done, buy it because this group may actually be the best continuously working blues band that gets paid in Euros.
Website: http://www.mandoweb.comE-mail: mandolin@mandoweb.com
THIS BLUE BEFORE, by Vicente Zumel, La Hora del Blues
You can notice Smiling Jack Smith betters himself in every new piece of work he does, not only as an excellent singer, guitar player and song writer, but also in the final production, musical concept, selection of musicians, arrangements, perfecting the sound of the whole album . With this new cd Jack has reached the peak. Soul, blues, swing, groove- in short good music, very well cooked with extremely good taste so, for the time being, we are facing the best album of his musical career. This Blue Before was recorded and produced in Canada, using his habitual drummer, the Spanish musician Quique Villafañe, who greatly contributes with his beat, tempo and tasteful breaks to the recording's success. But Jack has also included an splendid bunch of great Canadian musicians, together with a faultless horn section perfectly lead bt Phil Dwyer, that gives a brightness and strenght to the tracks. VERY GOOD!.