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S6: E1: Shane Smith ( Shane Smith & The Saints) From Texas Roots to 'Yellowstone' Fame
As the tour bus rolled into Tacoma, we grabbed a moment with Shane Smith, frontman of Shane Smith & the Saints, amidst the backdrop of a bustling tour schedule. Shane unpacks the journey of their musical grind, from the humbling beginnings in Terrell, Texas, to the moment their tunes echoed through the scenes of "Yellowstone," sparking a wildfire of fandom. His reflections on touring alongside the indomitable Whiskey Myers bring to light the tenacity and grit it takes to carve out a space in the music industry's vast landscape.
Strap in for a ride through the evolution of a songwriter, where passion collides with purpose, and the allure of the road meets the solace of home. Shane Smith's candid tales of shifting from the pursuit of education to chasing the echo of his own music encapsulate the transformation from an eager student to a seasoned artist. Our discussion meanders through the veins of genre-defying creativity, as Shane shares his refusal to be boxed into a single musical identity, all while savoring the thrill of a live show that promises to be as dynamic as their sound.
The episode crescendos with the recounting of an extraordinary acoustic performance, born from the chaos of a weather-stricken gig on the Mexican border. As we tip our hats to the freshly released single "The Graze," we also cast a spotlight on the band's highly anticipated local show in Houston's White Oak Music Hall. Shane Smith & the Saints are a testament to the unwavering spirit of musicians who turn every stone and every storm into a step towards triumph.
This is Backstage Pass Radio, the podcast that's designed for the music junkie with a thirst for musical knowledge. Hi, this is Adam Gordon, and I want to thank you all for joining us today. Make sure you like, subscribe and turn alerts on for this and all upcoming podcasts. And now here's your host of Backstage Pass Radio, randy Holsey.
Speaker 2:Shane, it's great to see you, man Howdy, from down here in Cyprus, texas. I think I'm catching you and the boys out on the road right now, correct?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we're in Tacoma Washington right now, the moment we played in Portland Oregon last night.
Speaker 2:Out on the West Coast then yes, sir Is that the Spanish ballroom that you guys are playing this evening. Is that correct?
Speaker 3:No, it's got a funny name. It's like McMenamins or something like that. It's almost like a big ballroom. It's a real, pretty, real, pretty place. I hadn't even heard of it until we got here today, but it it's almost like there's like a hotel and a restaurant and then there's like a big, like ballroom concert venue thing. It's a pretty spot.
Speaker 2:Nice. Well, we'll talk more about some of the upcoming shows shortly, but in the meantime, thanks again for spending a little bit of time with me this evening. Man, it's good to have you yeah thanks for taking the time. My pleasure. So, terrell, texas man, basically East Dallas, correct, is that where you were born and where you were raised?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's our East of Dallas and our West of Tyler, so we're like right in the middle of Tyler and Dallas, texas, sure.
Speaker 2:For some time you guys were out with Whiskey Myers, who you know held from that part of the great state of Texas, correct?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I went to junior college over in Tyler, texas, and you know those guys grew up right down the road from there, palestine yeah, palestine, and Henderson County and all that stuff. So it's crazy. You know, getting to tour with those guys has just been the coolest thing ever because I've, you know, I've loved their music and all of us have been listening to them since we were in high school and it's the coolest thing to see a band like Bloom so late, like they have. Sure, you know what I mean. It just goes to show like how hard of workers they are. They didn't throw in the towel, you know, they just kept their head down and kept chugging along and now they're just exploding in such a unique and cool way. It's really cool to be a part of, because we definitely were listening to them when they were doing some real small when it wasn't even cool, right To listen to whiskey Myers.
Speaker 2:Well, you know what? Don't discount yourselves either. I mean, you guys have had a hell of a run here as well, and it's good to see some good Texas bands out there doing their thing and getting that recognition that they deserve. I'm a local artist here in Cyprus. It's a duo that I play in and we cover quite a bit of the stuff from Whiskey Meyer, so we really appreciate what you guys are doing out there and love the music.
Speaker 3:Yeah, man, well, thank you, thank you very much. I appreciate it and I think that those guys have just been like a great example for us, just seeing a band that didn't necessarily catch many breaks early on, you know, but just kept their heads down and kept working, and that's very much kind of the same case with us. You know, we were at it for close to 10 years before we caught any kind of a big break in the show Yellowstone. All kinds of dots got connected when that happened, but it was also after, you know, years and years of hard touring and playing like small clubs throughout the US, everywhere you know, and so it kind of just helped.
Speaker 3:I say this a lot in interviews, but to me it just more or less connected a million dots for people. You know, like everybody had a neighbor or a best friend or a cousin or somebody that was already like a die-hard fan of ours and had been. Every one of those people like got a big win whenever we got that opportunity. It's like they were winning alongside us when that happened, and so you know it's a really cool thing, and I think the Whiskey Myers guys it's a similar situation. So they've been a not only do. We love their music, but we've just we've looked up to their work ethic and we've just seen that it can happen even if it is later in your career. Like those stars can align at any point if you just keep working at it, you know.
Speaker 2:Sure, and it's something that I've taught my kids. Kids are grown now, but it's all about perseverance, you know. It's about grinding and just staying with things until you make it happen. You know, steve Miller wrote a song years ago and he said something like you, I think, the song Jet Airliner. Right, he said you got to go through hell before you get to heaven. And there's a lot of truth to that adage. You know it's not. If everything was easy, everybody would be a Shane Smith and the Saints, everybody would be a Whiskey. Myers play in the big venues and that type of thing. So you got to grind a little bit.
Speaker 3:Oh man, you get to grind a lot. In our situation we had to grind a whole lot and but yeah, I mean everybody's different though it's like I see some bands where it just happens and it happens quick and there is no grind really to it. But I think the reality is is if you get into this business, you are going to grind period. It's just some people catch it at the front end of their careers. Other people have to catch it on the back end of their careers and there might be tough times. You know, on the on the back half of their careers that they got to navigate and figure out how to how to get through it. You know, I just think it's it's inevitable that that's going to be a part of your path, though, you know, when you do a job like this, yeah Well, I think when you get out there and you grind and you hustle, it makes you appreciate what you have.
Speaker 2:When you start to reap those benefits of, when you see good things start to happen, you can look back in the rear view mirror and say, man, we put in the work, and it just makes you appreciate it so much more than if somebody just handed it to you, which that's always the easy way out, right, and that's nice sometimes. But you know, I think you lose perspective and you think that everything's just supposed to be given to you on a silver platter, and you and I both know that nothing is owed to us. We have to go out there and work for what we, what we earn.
Speaker 3:For sure. And anyways, you're definitely right and I think, no matter what, that's just a part of the deal and you just got to keep your head down and try to keep working to an end goal and try to have like a direction and a path that you're just kind of relentlessly trying to get everyone to the end of the day.
Speaker 2:I very much agree. Well, at what age did you know music was going to be what you choose to do with your life? Did you know that at a young age? Did it come later in life? Talk to the listeners a little bit about thoughts around that.
Speaker 3:No, it was definitely. It was something I love to do and I got into it later. I mean, I got into it, I feel like around the same time anybody gets into it or the average person gets into it. And it was when I was like 15 or 16. And my cousin kind of exposed me to some songwriters that really influenced me, that by the age of like 17, 18, I was trying to like write songs and just really getting into that side of things. You know, aside from just chord progressions and melodies and stuff, it was more like on the lyrics for me. I caught that pretty heavy early on and so I dove really hard into that aspect of it. And you know, it wasn't until I was probably I don't know 20 or 20 or so that I was just really I was just really becoming obsessed with it.
Speaker 3:And there were other things in my life that I was, you know, focused on more before that and it just started to take over and was school. It was just like how quick can I get out of school so that I can focus on this? Like everything just kind of shifted over to that. We were doing bar gigs by then and it was really like the second that we started playing outside of Texas. I remember just having this like just overwhelming excitement of like touring and and driving a van for nine hours across. You know what I mean. It was just for some reason, like even the I don't know the dumbest little run of shows like in my mind, was just like the biggest deal in the world and and and. So I think looking back, that's a pretty telltale sign that I was pretty caught up with. It is just looking back at some of those shows we were doing and how, how excited I was to be doing them. Honestly, you know.
Speaker 2:Do you still feel like you enjoy life on the road? Is it a grind? A lot of times I know some people get into it and then realize, man, wow, I didn't think it was gonna be like this Like you still enjoy getting out and doing your thing. I know you love playing the shows, but the the day-to-day driving from city to city or however you guys travel.
Speaker 3:Yeah, man, I do, I love it. I just also am at a spot where, you know, I just want to find more balance with it and find some more time at home, and that's like not just a matter of a few days, but like weeks and weeks in a row where we're just not having a tour and and do big shows or anything like that, and I think that would be. My answer is like yeah, of course I love it, but at the same time, I think everybody is definitely stoked to get to that place, that next chapter, where we don't necessarily have to be, you know, yes, people to everything.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. You get to choose the right shows.
Speaker 3:So there's just really cool opportunities that we haven't ever seen before. So we've got to be yes people right now, you know, and so I think I'm excited to see that next phase of it, though, but right now, you know, I mean, when I think about it, it's everything I've ever wanted in a career. I mean, you know, like I remember seeing guys in a bus for the first time and just thinking like, oh my god, I can't even imagine how amazing that would be to be in a bus, you know. And eventually that came true for us, you know. And then I remember seeing, first time I ever saw guys not take the bus and they were flying into a show, but the bus was picking them up and I thought, oh my god, that would be so incredible. You know, like you're not even taking the bus anymore.
Speaker 2:Exactly, you graduated.
Speaker 3:And now that's how it's been Literally this whole summer. That's always been doing is flying and meeting the bus all over. You know whether it's Canada or the US or East Coast, west Coast, whatever, and so it's everything I've ever asked for. But at the same time it's a lot. You know, like once you're in the pick up and you're like what the hell is going on. You know what day is it?
Speaker 3:I don't know, you know and so I think we could just keep moving and keep making big progress, the way we have this last year or two, but also being able to just kind of pick and choose some more time off here and there. I think that would be the goal, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's nice being the cat's meow sometime, right To get on the plane and just land somewhere.
Speaker 2:That's cool, I think, and I think every artist aspires to get to that point in a career where they're just flying from town to town. And I know a lot of these back roads cities. It's tough to fly into them. You have to kind of fly into a major hub and then drive over or whatever. But you know, at some point in time you'll only be playing the Atlantis and the Houston's and the Dallas. It'll not always have to be the little bars and know where's Phil right. So right as a songwriter. Are you a songwriter that really doesn't like to be, I guess, for lack of better terms, lumped into a genre? Are you one of those writers or do you kind of know where you fit from a genre perspective? Can you speak a little bit about your writing and how you write and if you have a genre in mind that you think that you fit the best into?
Speaker 3:Man, I think I just and it's always been like this, I think, with hobbies of mine and stuff like I did, they ebb and flow in and out of my life, like one thing I'll really love and then I'll love something else and what are in this. Like that's just the way. I don't know if it's like. I think there's certain elements that I'm pretty consistent with, but a lot of things that I'm interested in I did. In a way, I kind of ebb and flow with some of that stuff and I think it translates over to the music because, at the end of the day, that's what you're getting inspired by.
Speaker 3:And so, you know, I would love to write a song that is like a Frank Sinatra-esque song, just as much as I would love to write a song that you know is more of like a I don't know like a Southern Rock or like even a, like a Mumford and Sons vibe or Kings of Leon vibe or whatever. I mean there's like I love all kinds of music and so there is no way around it, I am going to want to write all kinds of different music and and I think that we do a pretty good job, or I don't know if you want to call it a good job or whatever, but what do you feel like? We are fairly unique in that we put out albums that like at least this next album that we're about to be releasing. Like I mean, every song on that thing sounds like it could fit in a different genre, in my opinion. I mean, like it doesn't. There is no like thing you can box it into.
Speaker 2:It's not cookie cutter, basically right.
Speaker 3:For sure. Yeah, it's just it sounds different. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but it is what it is and I think it keeps it more interesting for us and more enjoyable for us, because it's not redundant, and I think that we're going to enjoy playing those songs for many, many more years than we would if they all kind of bled together.
Speaker 2:Well, think about what other areas you're appealing to, and I think in music it's all about relevance. You have to remain relevant and you have to be in front of people. People know your name and if you're just stuck in this hole, right then you're catering to a specific group of people. But I think some artists that have become really popular, you know, you think about guys like Kid Rock. You know he was rap rock, then he was a country guy, then he was Southern Rock, like he's float, like you said, he's, he's float in and out of these genres and it's appealing to all of these different genres. And I think even today he's very popular, whereas a lot of musicians are popular for their 3, 4, 5-year run and then you don't really hear much from them anymore. They kind of lose, I guess, that luster, if you will. But I think that keeps it interesting, like you said, you know, and you're appealing to more than just one group of people, which is a good thing, I think. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3:The goal, you know, is I mean hopefully, and same thing with a live show. I mean the hope is also that it keeps the live show fresh enough to where it lives for years and years and years, with people just leaving the show every night saying, ok, I have to see that show the next time they're anywhere near me, like I'm not going to miss that show. Sure, and I think you know we're doing a good job if we can keep it like that.
Speaker 2:Of course, if somebody said, shane, I need you to lump this band into a genre, where do you guys fit? What do you feel like your fit? Your genre is, and there's genres and there's thousands of subgenres. It's just kind of a joke, really, and I know that artists do not like walls, but where do you think you guys fit? Shane Smith and the Saints genre wise.
Speaker 3:I mean I hate saying this and I hate like what the genre has kind of become in a way, just because it's like the thing that everybody says now, but it is, I mean, I would say Americana, because it's like the melting pot of genres. It's become that smorgasbord.
Speaker 3:Which is, I mean that's great. I mean, at the end of the day, at least there's something that people can categorize with. I guess, if you need to categorize with something like that in itself as a question, Like I don't really, of course, I hope that over time these things just bleed together more and more where there's not as much distinction and it's just kind of like good music's good music, but you're always going to want those, you know, some kind of rough thing. I mean I would call us folk rock, but there's not like a big genre of just folk rock. But that's how.
Speaker 3:If someone asks, like what would you call your band, I would say we're a folk rock band. Ok, you know, and that's pretty simple to me. You know, the live show is very much a rock show. It's five guys on stage, there's no click track, there's no auto tune, there's no nothing. And we sweat our ass off by the. You know I'm completely soaking wet every single night. I mean you can ask any fan of ours and they would probably laugh. I mean it's laughable how much I sweat at our shows and like so it is. I mean it is like a rock show but there are folk elements to it that you know certain songs lean a little more country, other songs lead lean a little more rock, and so on and so forth.
Speaker 2:You know, well, all that sweat and helps you to maintain the girlish figure Right, that's. That's not a bad thing, that's not a bad thing? I doubt it. And hey, listen, man in, the older you get, the more you're going to say man, I'm glad I sweat it all those years because I'm getting to be a fat bastard now. You know, when you get older that metabolism slows right now I feel bad already.
Speaker 3:I'm like oh man I've got to take like every now and then I just have to do like a couple of weeks, like where I don't let myself drink or anything, because I find I can't lose weight and must stop drinking. Like it's become like that.
Speaker 2:Of course, I don't think it used to be like that in my 20s, or whatever, metabolism slows way down, you got to lay off the beer and the donuts for sure.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, and look at it right over here.
Speaker 2:Speaking of the voodoo donuts there, right yeah.
Speaker 3:What am I supposed to do with that? You know in the morning or whatever. Like you can't look, like it's your birthday.
Speaker 2:Absolutely the box.
Speaker 2:You can't let them go to waste. It would be inhumane if you let them go to waste, right? So you can't throw them in the garbage. You got to eat them. Well, you serve as primary songwriter for the band, right? What contributions do you take from the other guys in the band when it comes to songwriting? Is it really you that is? And when I say songwriting, is it you that's the lyricist, and they contribute musically, or do they contribute lyrically, or some contribute lyrically? Speak to the listeners a little bit about how that. I guess that karma works or that I don't even know what word I'm looking for, but how does the songwriting efforts work inside of the band.
Speaker 3:Man, essentially I normally write the stuff that you would go and play at an open midnight with an acoustic guitar. You know what I mean. I'll normally write a song up to that point where it's like a chord progression Now, given there might be a chord that gets changed here and there, there might be something in a bridge that gets adjusted here and there or whatever once we're in the studio setting. And these guys are much better musicians than I am you know what I mean Like our lead guitarists, our fiddle player, our bassist. These guys are so much more talented in terms of like melodies and notations and like harmonics and all kinds of stuff like that than I am. But at the end of the day I kind of like write the bones of the song, which is you know, and then like what you would play at an open mic and then in a setting, eddell all just keep adding to it you know what I mean and building like layer after layer.
Speaker 2:at that point, Sure, so you write the story and they basically make it come to life from there, right? I mean, yeah, well, correct me where I'm wrong here, but the band I think has I think it's four albums out, and one of those is a live album, correct? Does that sound right? Four is what you guys have out from a, from an album perspective.
Speaker 3:Uh, costa Ramos Hell Mary. Live from the Desert right and then Live from the Desert, would be four, would be number four. Okay, so three three albums. I technically had one album out before that was called I'll See the Miles, but it was way, way back. As a band We've got three albums and then and then there's the Live from the Desert record would be number four.
Speaker 2:Okay, where was that live record recorded?
Speaker 3:Out in Tirlingua, texas. Okay, all right Way way west Texas, down near Big Bend National Park.
Speaker 2:Of course People are familiar with that, of course, yeah, Well, out of the four records, is there one of them that resonates as your favorite? And I know that's like asking a parent which kid do you love the most? Like, yeah, a parent is never going to say I love my third kid more than my second kid, but is there one of the efforts that really stick out to you as like the one you're the most proud of?
Speaker 3:Man, honestly, the Live from the Desert was just one of those things you can't. You can't replicate what happened there in that setting and like the way, the way that all went down, and nobody really knows the backstory to it and you and I don't have enough time here to truly go into it. But essentially we set up you know, I've invested like $20,000 in this production with a film crew and a track and all this stuff, and we were going to go out in the middle of nowhere in the middle of nowhere and pretty much shoot like a live video during COVID and our live concert. I'm sorry, and it was supposed to start right at sunrise. The sun was going to rise to our backs, like, and we had rented these anamorphic lenses that were like would flare with light. I mean, it was just going to be insane. And you know the same lenses they shot Star Wars with. They're like $1,000 a day to rent one of them, you know and like.
Speaker 3:Anyways, we set everything up out there. We got out there, it was all good and dandy and they weren't ready for us to soundcheck until one o'clock in the morning and essentially this massive storm blew in and it didn't pick up on anyone's radars, because it was in Mexico and we were right on the border of Mexico and so, like you have no way of knowing that that's coming until, all of a sudden, you start to hear like a rumble way off and you start to see little flashes of light here and there. And, man, this, this sandstorm or dust storm, or I mean it was a lightning rainstorm but it like had a wall of sand. It was like a front blowing in you know what I mean when. It just hit us, like it felt like it was like 70 miles an hour no kidding Like I mean it was the gnarliest weather I think I've ever been in and it hit us at 1.15 in the morning, right as we were about to like sound check and we had no clue it was coming and so it destroyed everything and we had to reset it all up and it was just a total disaster.
Speaker 3:And the next morning we wake up and, like you know, you've got like a drum kit that rolled down the hill. You've got like it was up on this plateau that sat like 100 feet up above us and the bus and everything, at least I would say 100 feet up and the bus was in like a foot of mud when we got up the next morning and the fact that we still managed to like, come together and get it all set up and like and do what we had to do to make it happen, like, and then it turned out the way that it did. And then the only reason we went and filmed the acoustic set in that old chapel was because the weather came back during the set when we only got like six songs recorded and then it came back again. And so then we were like, oh my god, what are we going to do now? And that's why we went into that the ghost town and recorded in that chapel into those acoustic songs.
Speaker 3:But it's just like, because all that happened, it turned into what it is and it just made it such a raw, cool thing and it was all one take. We didn't redo anything and none of us even had in ears like during the thing, so all you could hear out there was amps and a drum kit with no speakers at all and we're trying to do four part harmonies on microphones and we have no monitors, we have no in ears, nothing, and you're in the middle of nowhere with these amps loud as shit behind you, and so the fact that it turned out and sounds the way that it sounds is kind of miraculous, and so that's what makes it so special to me is I don't think about the song whenever I'm like watching the videos of that. I'm just thinking about like, oh my god, how in the world did that happen? How did it turn out like that?
Speaker 2:That's a super cool backstory and, like you said, I mean we don't have time to go deep, deep into it, but you know you wonder how many people know that backstory about. You know everything that you guys went through.
Speaker 3:I don't think many too.
Speaker 3:Many do honestly Like it's. It was such an extreme experience for us that subconsciously, it's like we just think everybody knows about it. Sure, you know what I mean, because it was so mild, us being there, boots on the ground, yeah, but in reality I don't think hardly anybody knows about it other than people that have listened to, like some interviews here and there. Of course, you know we're putting out a vinyl for it, we were releasing a vinyl for it and I had to write out like the whole story in the on the inner label of the vinyl, and so just, I wanted to give some kind of backstory for people that are purchasing it and something for them to read, and so that'll be cool. So hopefully those people take the time to read it or whatever, and, bill, they'll have the inside scoop on it.
Speaker 2:For sure. Well, listen, congrats on the release of the graze between the, the new single that's out I'll drop a clip in this for the listeners to hear and I wanted to get you to tell the listeners where they can find you and the boys on social media Right. Can you share that with the listeners real quick?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, we're on Instagram, facebook you know all of the things at Shane Smith Music. Again, the band is Shane Smith and the Saints and you know you can stream our music on all streaming platforms digitally and and, yeah, I hope everybody really enjoys the new music and hopefully we catch a bunch of folks out here on this fall tour. We're West Coast and East Coast and a lot of places in between, so we're covering a lot, of, a lot of spots in a short period of time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right on, and just for the listeners, the website is Shane Smith Music dot com where you guys can go out and take a look at. There's tons of merch out there that that people can purchase up there. I know if you're a vinyl collector, like I am, you can pick up vinyl directly from that online store as well. And then I asked the listeners here in the Houston area Shane, I think you guys have a date, december the ninth, back here in the Houston area at the White Oak Music Hall. So I ask and encourage all the local listeners to go out and support you and the guys when you run through Houston here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, get your friend groups together, get your crews all lined up and get some ugly Christmas sweaters come hang with us in Houston and that'll be our biggest Houston show to date. I think it's like a 5000 capacity. So, yeah, we need everybody to get on it. We're excited for it.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Well, Shane, this has been super cool catching up with you and getting to know more about you and what what you and the boys have going on. I wish you guys nothing but continued success at the music and the tour and, if something new comes out now, circle up with you. Maybe you can come back on for for a quick impromptu to tell us about the new stuff that you have coming out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, let's do it, it'll be, really cool.
Speaker 1:Let's do it. I'd love to do that.
Speaker 2:And a quick shout out to Crawford for helping us get this set up and making it happen. And you guys make sure again to follow Shane Smith and the Saints there on social media and Shane Smith musiccom. You guys take care of yourselves and each other and we'll see you right back here on the next episode of Backstage Pass Radio.
Speaker 1:Thanks so much for joining us. We hope you enjoyed today's episode of Backstage Pass Radio. Make sure to follow Randy on Facebook and Instagram at RandyHulseyMusic, and on Twitter at RHulseyMusic. Also make sure to like, subscribe and turn on alerts for upcoming podcasts. If you enjoyed the podcast, make sure to share the link with a friend and tell them Backstage Pass Radio is the best show on the web for everything music. We'll see you next time right here on Backstage Pass Radio.