SHAWN SMITH  1965 - 2019

Yet another obituary for me to write on this little blog of mine, and this time it's an absolute heartbreaker. Seattle-based singer/songwriter Shawn Smith - he of the sublime vocal ability and magisterial songwriting chops - has passed away at the tragically young age of 53. No cause of death has been officially given as of yet, but rumours are circulating that Shawn died of a heart-attack due to diabetes related complications. He was found at his home in Seattle on Friday and is survived by his teenage son, Dove. Shawn was a phenomenal singer and musician with talent oozing from every pore and will be sorely missed by everyone who knew him and who listened to and subsequently fell in love with his music. He sadly never achieved the kind of commercial recognition that his monumental gifts should have bestowed upon him - indeed in recent years he had apparently been struggling for money and was close to homelessness - but his musical legacy will live on and, for my money, can easily be compared to his heroes Prince and Stevie Wonder. 
I first discovered Shawn in early 1993 when - due to my insane devotion to Pearl Jam - I rushed out to buy the side-project album by PJ guitarist Stone Gossard which he was releasing under the name Brad. This new band of Gossard's was a four-piece blues-infused funk-rock combo made up of Gossard on guitar, Regan Hagar on drums, bassist Jeremy Toback and Shawn on vocals and piano. It was obvious to me from the very first vocal lines of opening track Buttercup that Shawn was an incredible singer and I vowed to learn everything I could about this amazingly talented man. I posted a full and thorough appreciation of Shawn on this blog in June 2017 in conjunction with his UK tour of that month and I implore you to scroll back and give it a read. Suffice to say that since that wondrous Brad debut in 1993, there have been a myriad of projects featuring Shawn - four more Brad albums, three from his band Satchel, two dance-based electronica records under the name Pigeonhed, various solo efforts and side projects - and all of them are fantastic collections of songs that when listened to, leave you shaking your head at the mysterious vagaries of the music business that allow stunning talents like Shawn to slip through the cracks whilst other lesser singers reap the rewards. As far as I'm concerned, Shawn was one of the greatest singers that I've ever had the joyous fortune to listen to and my memories of the three times I was lucky enough to witness him perform live - once with a reunited Brad in 2013 and two solo tours in 2015 and 2017 - will stay with me for the rest of my days. The man was a true great and to say I'm devastated at his passing is an understatement.
Rest in peace, Shawn. Sleep well and thank you for the music.

"And you're wrapped in my memory like chains yeah, you're only a memory now. I can't wait till we see each other again, and you're wrapped in my memory like chains".

TOP TWENTY SHAWN SMITH SONGS

1:  SATCHEL: SUFFERING
2:  BRAD: SCREEN
3:  SHAWN SMITH: WRAPPED IN MY MEMORY
4:  BRAD: BUTTERCUP
5:  PIGEONHED: THE FULL SENTENCE
6:  BRAD: 20th CENTURY
7:  BRAD: THE DAY BRINGS
8:  SHAWN SMITH: THE TRAIN IS COMING
9:  BRAD: RAISE LOVE
10: PIGEONHED: GLORY BOUND
11: SATCHEL: TIME 'O' THE YEAR
12: SHAWN SMITH: LEAVING CALIFORNIA
13: PIGEONHED: BATTLE FLAG
14: BRAD: LIFT
15: SATCHEL: TROUBLE COME DOWN
16: BRAD: GOOD NEWS
17: PIGEONHED: FIRE'S COMIN' DOWN
18: BRAD: WATERS DEEP
19: PIGEONHED: AIN'T IT SO
20: BRAD: IF YOU CAN MAKE IT GOOD

SHAWN SMITH: 28/10/1965 - 05/04/2019  R.I.P.

VIDEOS OF THE WEEK

Another brace of sad losses within the rock and roll universe over the last couple of weeks with the passing of legendary pop polymath Scott Walker and ska pioneer Ranking Roger. Both men were major players not only in their respective musical spheres, but also throughout my life from childhood to the present day. Walker - born Noel Scott Engel - first found fame in the mid-60's as one third of the ridiculously good-looking Walker Brothers vocal group. Along with his fellow 'brothers' - they were nothing of the sort of course - they tore up the charts with monumentally magnificent tunes such as The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore and Make It Easy On Yourself. Scott soon tired of the relentless grind of the pop world - as well as the hordes of screaming teenyboppers who followed him everywhere - and soon embarked on a quite astonishing solo career that morphed over the ensuing decades from ornate chamber pop, esoteric jazz-influenced AOR, avant-garde post-rock and even brain-scrambling drone rock. Listening back to his extraordinary back catalogue, it's almost impossible to comprehend that the man responsible for those first four incredible solo albums of the late 60's and early 70's is the same experimental musical genius that gave us albums like 'Tilt' and the frankly bizarro 'The Drift'. He truly was a complete one-off and will be sorely missed. 
Ranking Roger - real name Roger Charlery - was a pivotal member of the British ska band The Beat, who found huge fame in the late 70's with their own brand of reggae-infused skank-heavy dance beats that gained massive traction in the wake of the success of The Specials, Madness, The Selecter and others. Garnering a handful of mighty hit singles like Mirror In The Bathroom, Hands Off She's Mine and Can't Get Used To Losing You, Roger and the rest of The Beat were regular visitors to my childhood world thanks to their constant appearances on Top Of The Pops. Roger, along with Chas Smash from Madness, inspired me to buy some Sta-Press slacks, wear white socks and dance around my bedroom like a loon - although he made it look effortless. After the dissolution of The Beat, he joined the group's singer Dave Wakeling in General Public, who were pretty big in the States for a while, before forging his own path. He had recently been touring in his own version of The Beat before succumbing to cancer at the stupidly young age of 56. Rest in peace Roger - and keep dancing up there.