sonny

Music:

Member Since: 1/13/2006
Band Website: sonnysmith.com
Band Members:
Get this video and more at MySpace.comvarious revolving cast russ blackmar, leroy bach, emmet kelley, todd roper, marc cappelle, kelly hogan...
Influences: sonny smith born delaney smith in san francisco in 1972 went to europe at seventeen and met a parisian journalist for the french playboy magazine and other various erotica, whom gave him a tarot somewhere around 4 in the mornign whuch said he wwas a fool (boy walking off cliff with dog). and in the course of his life would stay a fool until late in life through mishap would become a king. from europe went to colorado where he flunked out of college but began playing blues piano in bars. first emulating blues pianists like memphis slim, jimmy yancey, singing basic songs. he left for central america where he lived in the jungle on a hippie farm and began to write plays, screenplays, short stories and his first original songs. known for his writing style, a songwriter first and foremost, writes narratives, stories with characters and dialogue in the form of song, his first record THIS is my story, this is my song a folk record wioth guitar vocals and piano the occasional harmony, an autobiographical piece. of the four records he has made each one is kind of a concept record or at least tied by an underlying theme. second record sordid tales of love and gore a six song record of broken love themes with jolie holland accompanying on harmonies. the third record one act plays, each song in the form of a play with smith singing narration and guest singers playing various parts. of the few records that exist in this kind of tradition (lou reed's and joe jackson's) those are both pieces of shit but smith manages to match the imagery of terry allen's juarez. guests appear throughout from rico bell of the mekons, andy cabic of vetiver, jolie holland, miranda july, neko case, virgil shaw, mark eitzel, akire and eugene chen, edith frost and a few more. for his 4th and latest record smith wrote about his neighborhood FRuitvale in Oakland, Ca. recorded in chicago with leroy bach and in san francisco at the headlands center for the arts where he was a resident and maintains a studio. last year he wrote a play for THE LAB. he recently went on tour with neko case.
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