Denny Smith Special Guest On The Record Machine Show Podcast 4/21/20
"Smith is a soulful, rustic rock `n' roller who's turned out a consistent string of fine records over the past couple of years. All delivered with a passion and desperation that demand attention. No frills. Not sappy, not loud...just oozing with great energy, good songwriting and a powerful voice." - Kool Kat Musik
Denny Smith is a Nashville, TN-based singer, songwriter, and record producer. In addition to work with his bands The Great Affairs and The Die Youngs, he’s written and produced material for other acts and had his music featured in film & television.
On his second solo LP ‘From The Dark’ ; a departure from his band’s slightly harder-edged output, he employs a more subtle, nuanced approach to the production, and a lyrical bent that makes frequent comparison to artists like Tom Petty & Butch Walker a credible observation.
“I wanted to strip away some of the artifice that can go along with doing the straight-up Rock ensemble thing, and maybe see if I could cut a little closer to the core, and tell stories that seemed less like they’d been viewed from a distance or through some lens, lived vicariously. In fact, I didn’t really want to “tell stories” at all, what I wanted to do was get some things off my chest as truthfully and un-self-consciously as possible.”
The followup to 2016’s ‘An Overnight Low’ was co-produced with Grammy-winning Mixer/Engineer Michael Saint-Leon(Buddy Guy, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram), and Smith calls it “10 songs about untimely passings. unexpected diagnoses, unrelenting addictions, and the unfortunate reality that such is life sometimes, when a younger man’s days are behind you.”
“Another top-shelf collection of kick-ass material which begs to be featured within any play list that includes Kings of Leon, Counting Crows, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, and their ilk. Thought provoking lyrics coupled with Smith’s raspy voice invite you inside the album as it often harkens back to the kind of grit and raw emotion of Rod Stewart’s ‘Every Picture Tells a Story’.” -Popmart Zoo