SEATTLE'S SECRET WEAPON:
The Sublime Soul Of Shawn Smith

Back in 1993, whilst he was riding high on the back of the huge, global success of their debut album 'Ten', Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard took some time out from the overwhelming rollercoaster of his day job to return to his home city of Seattle and kick back, relax and maybe make some music with friends. Joining forces with ex-Malfunkshun drummer Regan Hagar and bassist Jeremy Toback, the trio started to rehearse and found themselves coming up with a batch of slinky, funky grooves that were a world away from the relentless grunge rock assault of Gossard's day job. One thing was missing though: a co-writer and vocalist who could maybe help to mould these tunes together and turn them into proper songs. Gossard knew exactly who to call: Step forward please, Mr Shawn Smith.
The fact that almost 25 years later I find myself writing an appreciation of this man's phenomenal talents and hoping that whoever reads this piece may go out there and discover his work for themselves - when really the man should be a worldwide superstar - just shows how impossible the music business can be. In my view, Smith is an incredible songwriter, a compelling performer, and - most importantly - blessed with one of the finest voices ever to wrap itself around a microphone. He's up there with Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke, Stevie Wonder and the late, great Prince Rogers Nelson when it comes to delicious soulful vocal ability.
So, who IS Shawn Smith???
Born in Spokane, Washington in 1965, Smith discovered music early and after tripping out on artists as diverse as Elton John, Kiss and - oh yes - The Partridge Family, he threw himself into mastering the piano and the drums and started to pen his own songs. A move to California in his late teens came to nothing so he relocated back up to Seattle and dove headlong into the burgeoning alt-rock scene of the late 80s. In a bold move that would prove to be a taster for how his later career would pan out, Smith decided to spread his talents across a number of different bands. First out of the traps were a short-lived combo called Love Co who eventually morphed into Satchel. Featuring the aforementioned Regan Hagar from Malfunkshun - a local funk rock band fronted by Andrew Wood who had left to form Mother Love Bone - as well as guitarist John Hoag and bassist Corey Kane, Satchel set to work on their debut record. However, also at that time, Smith was throwing his hat into the ring with local production wizard Steve Fisk - who had recently produced records for The Posies, Low and Soul Coughing as well as being on engineering duties for local big guns Nirvana and Soundgarden. Fisk was renowned amongst his peers for his slightly idiosyncratic way of working and once he and Smith paired up, they quickly wrote, recorded and released a startling collection of songs under the name of Pigeonhed. Released in early 1993, it was an album of bizarre beats and rhymes, with a grimy almost industrial edge to it. It was also my first introduction to Smith's voice after I discovered it in a box in the basement of long lost and much lamented Soho music emporium Mr CD. The cover drew me in first - a grainy photo of a huge pile of garbage - and once I got the staff to play the CD for me it was the incredible voice of the singer, who I assumed was a young black guy, that made me part with my hard-earned. However, the only photo I could find in the CD booklet was of a couple of pasty looking white dudes. Surely not?

(Remember kids, this was way before internet search engines and the like. My options for finding out more information were somewhat limited...) The album was raw, at times half-baked and came across as a little unfinished, but Smith's mellifluous, keening falsetto was a thing of wonder. Whatever this guy did next, I thought, was going to be rather special. Unbeknown to me of course, what he did next was to not only return to the Satchel ranks and continue working on their album, but to also answer that call from Stone Gossard and help out with his musical adventure. Obviously, due to the Pearl Jam connection, this particular project garnered a lot more press in the lead-up to it's release, and when it reached the shelves in the late spring of 93 - and after a brief legal skirmish with another band over the name - 'Shame' by Brad was rapturously recieved. As a massive PJ fan, I rushed straight out to purchase it and it was only then - after listening to maybe 20 seconds of the opening song - did I realise that the Shawn Smith of Pigeonhed was the Shawn Smith of Brad. My cup runneth over! 

As I mentioned earlier, that first Brad album was a world away - sonically - from Pearl Jam's 'Ten', and was certainly much more accessible than PJ's sophomore offering 'Vs', which was only a few months away from release itself. Combining Chilis-style funk with delicate piano ballads akin to early, peak-period Elton, 'Shame' was an absolute treat. Not only one of the finest albums from that particular purple patch for North American alternative rock, but just one of the finest rock albums of the last 40 years, period. Although garnering a minor hit single in this country with the terrifically groovy '20th Century', the album really didn't take off sales-wise - a real surprise when you consider how monstrously huge Pearl Jam were at the time. However, anyone with ears could tell that, along with the glorious music on offer, it was Smith's vocal ability that really stood out. I awaited his next offering with bated breath....

After a brief tour with Brad - including a brace of dates in the UK - his next move was to head back to the Satchel ranks and complete that first album. Released in the summer of 1994, 'EDC' was another sterling collection of piano-led rock music, interspersed with dialogue clips from the movie 'Reservoir Dogs' - a huge, cultural cornerstone at that time. One track in particular really stood out though. Closing out the album in some style, the ballad 'Suffering' was - and still is - an utter pearl of a song. A young Chris Martin may have been listening, as Coldplay later built their entire career on similar-sounding songs, but Smith's songwriting has barrell-loads more emotional heft and 'Suffering' is a prime example. The song was also brought to wider attention when it was used during one of the most affecting scenes in one of the 90's most affecting movies - 'Beautiful Girls'. Again though, large record sales passed Smith by. Perhaps the fact that he was dividing his time between three bands, even three brilliant bands, was confusing the majority of the record-buying public. Obviously then, the safest and sanest thing to do to rectify that situation was to record and release a lo-fi solo album under his own name. Obviously.
'Let It All Begin' was the name of that solo album and again, it was so full of brilliant songs that if it had been released by any of the big commercial bands around at that time, it would have been hailed as a masterpiece. As it was though, mainly due to the fact that it was distributed by a tiny independent label with pretty much zero promotion, it disappeared without trace. Smith's next move was to jump back on to the Brad/Satchel/Pigeonhed tricycle and within 18 months all three bands had released their second albums: Brad with 'Interiors'; Satchel with 'The Family' and Pigeonhed with 'The Full Sentence'. Normally when an artist is that prolific and releases everything they've recently recorded, the quality control can waver slightly - for proof, just listen to the second half of the once mighty Prince's career. However with Smith, that certainly wasn't the case. None of those three records were completely flawless, but they were still streets ahead of most rock music from the other side of the pond at that time, and certain tracks - most notably Brad's 'The Day Brings' and 'Glory Bound' by Pigeonhed - were simply fantastic. It was undeniable proof - if it were needed - that not only was Smith the finest white soul singer of his generation, if not of all time, but he was also quickly becoming one of the finest songwriters too.

Around the turn of the century there was another flurry of activity with a second solo album called 'Shield Of Thorns' and another Brad record in 'Welcome To Discovery Park'. Once again though, commercial success was sorely lacking, although Smith did sell a couple of songs to HBO for use in the TV show 'The Sopranos' which I hope aided his financial situation. There was a few years of silence from Smith for a while there in the noughties - aside from some web-based activity and sporadic live gigs in the US - but eventually more music was forthcoming. A split album of lost Brad and Satchel songs, a third solo album, 'Best Friends?' by Brad, Satchel's 'Heartache & Honey' as well as another new project called All Hail The Crown. (Indeed, the only act missing from this raft of releases were Pigeonhed who seemingly had ceased to exsist - although rumours abound of new music from the pair. Huzzah!) All of these albums were at once big, bold and brilliant as well as spine-tingling and deeply moving. Typical Smith fare then. Yet again though, the world wasn't listening.
For me, one of the reasons for this lack of interest from the majority of the music-buying public could well be the dearth of live appearances over the last quarter-century. There was that small tour from Brad to promote 'Shame' back in the day, and I certainly remember Smith embarking on a brief UK tour about a decade or so ago, but I can't recall any other dates. Of course, what with Gossard's continuing success with Pearl Jam filling his days, Brad tours had become almost impossible to pull off. Which is why, four years ago and just after the release of their fifth album 'United We Stand', the announcement of a UK tour by the current formation of Brad - Smith, Gossard, Hagar and bassist Kevin Lowe - was met with such excitement and salivation from the Smith faithful. I was lucky enough to attend their gig at the Islington Academy and it was one of the finest nights of my gigular life and everything I wanted it to be. Since then, Smith has been back over to Britain for two intimate tours - the latest being last month - where he has accompanied himself with a piano and delivered simply breathtaking and heartbreaking versions of his finest songs. His gig at The Half Moon in Putney a few weeks ago was utterly stunning as Smith delved deep into his catalogue and blew the audience away with astonishing versions of  'The Day Brings', 'Buttercup', 'Time O' The Year' as well as 'Shame's magisterial centerpiece 'Screen' - which could well be one of the ten best songs ever written. He also had time to thrill us with a startling cover of 'Sometimes It Snows In April' - originally recorded by his hero Prince. And there was also 'Wrapped In My Memory', another sensational piano ballad written as a tribute to Smith's fallen musical compadre Andrew Wood of Mother Love Bone. On this particular night though, the song took on an even more poignant and emotional air, as that very morning the news that Soundgarden vocalist Chris Cornell - another close friend of Smith's - had been found dead. There wasn't many dry eyes in the house by the song's end I can tell you. Smith then ended the show with a gargantuan mash-up of 'Purple Rain' and Mother Love Bone's 'Crown Of Thorns'. It was quite simply magnificent and Smith was genuinely moved by the reaction from the audience. It was another exceptional performance from an astoundingly talented artist whose music should, by rights, be sitting on every record shelf in the world.
A couple of years ago, in an interview Smith gave to Classic Rock magazine, he made a comment about how, although he was obviously blessed to be doing what he loves for a living and still being in a position to get his music out there, he was a little disappointed that larger commercial success had seemed to pass him by. He made mention of self-esteem issues and a possible lack of drive but in the end was comfortable with where he was. I've since read some reports on the internet that state that Smith is "technically homeless, not in a good place emotionally and reliant on financial help from others". I would of course like to take these comments with a pinch of salt and hope there's little truth there, but if not, I hope he has a support network of family and friends who are helping him as well as telling him - on a regular basis - that he is an incredible singer and a true artist. Since that last official Brad release 5 years ago, Smith has concentrated on putting his music out there digitally - mainly through his Bandcamp site which is awash with loads more tremendous tunes - and I urge you to investigate forthwith. And I implore you all to give Shawn Smith some of your time, purchase some of his records and fall in love with his music. Quite frankly, it's nigh on impossible not to.