J.C. SMITH BAND

DEFINING COOL

2009-04-01

Hailing from the San Francisco Bay area, the J.C. Smith Band is a versatile six piece outfit (J.C. Smith on guitar and vocals, Donnie Green on drums, Paul Smith on B3 and keys, Robert Green on bass, Tommy Maitland on trumpet and Abraham Vasquez on tenor, alto and baritone sax) that can handle everything from straight guitar driven blues, "Bluezeman", to saxophone and b3 fueled funk, "Rite on Time", to jump/swing on the Roy Brown classic, "She Walks Right In", to mid-tempo scorchers care of Duke Robillard, "Lonesome Blues/Duke’s Blues" and Louis Jordan, "Outskirts of Town", to groove heavy reworks of the oft covered Don Nix tune, "Going Down", to a guitar and piano driven version of Albert King’s "I Walked All Night Long" to a slide laden version of Muddy Water’s "Satisfied". What holds this wide ranging set together is Smith’s powerfully elastic voice that swoops and glides with ease through not only the low down gritty numbers but also the ones that push the high end of his vocal chords. While this set is heavy on covers there are a couple of well done originals and the band adds enough new instrumental spark to the rest to make it an enjoyable listen. Smitty