Shane Smith & the Saints

One Liner: Damn fine Texas-centric country

Poster Position: 20

Thoughts:  I'm thinking of a few other bands like this that I had never heard of until the Fest, but the first one that comes to mind is Turnpike Troubadours.  Not the same sound here, but these guys sound like the kind of band that has a huge following at Texas State and Sam Houston State and can sell out a frat party or small town barroom in the blink of an eye.  Two albums, 2013's Coast and 2015's Geronimo, and this isn't quite outlaw country, but is a little bit more country than straight Americana would be, but its right in that same area of the musical map where those two nations border.  Some electric guitar, some fiddle, some acoustic guitar, and pretty great lyrics that should be easy to sing along with.  Maybe it sounds a little like the Avett Brothers, if they were a little more traditional.

Their most listened-to track is from the first album (Coast), "Dance the Night Away," with 367k streams.

A little banjo, tambourine, and you've got a good time song.  I like it, and I bet its fun as hell to jam out to in a live setting.

However, this is also that kind of name-checking country that I used to make fun of, as pioneered by Robert Earl and Pat Green, singing about Copenhagen, Wolf Brand Chili, and Shiner Beer to establish their bona fides as real Texas boys.  That track above goes to the tried and true "cajuns and zydeco" well.  "Work Was Through" is a name-checking paradise, from Stevie Ray Vaughan to Kurt Cobain to Johnny Cash (and the Broken Spoke, although that ain't dead yet).  Other songs drop Austin, oil, Neil Young, whiskey, headin' for the coast to heal your soul, and a prayer to be buried in Texas when your time is through.  That being said, this doesn't taste as craven, so I'm not as hung up on the dropping of names and well-used tropes.  

What you realize after a few listens is that the lyrics are remarkably clear - which I love - meaning that you can really hear and understand the lyrics.  And I think these lyrics are good, worthy of being heard.  "The Mountain" is a good example, going from an a capella lament until it morphs into a fiddle breakdown, all about miners who have to go down into the under-mountain dragon who keeps the coal in his lungs.  Or "Oil Town," which evokes Springsteen over an almost Irish (maybe Boston Irish) fiddle/harmonica rock track.

The most popular track right now for the band is one off of the new album, called "All I See Is You," with 304k streams so far.

Live version, so the sound isn't quite as good as their studio version, but you get it.  High energy and fun, almost jam band-ish if it weren't for the insistent fiddling.  Spotify doesn't provide any bio, but their locations for listeners shows the focus of the band - Houston, Dallas, Austin, Grand Prairie, and Katy, in that order.  Just need El Paso and San Antonio to replace those two suburbs and they'd be making it happen in Texas.  

Their official website (band membership requirement?  Beards.  Brown beards) gives this as bio material: "Hints of folk, rock, country and Americana all shine through an aggressive, rootsy fiddle beat stew that’s connecting with students, hipsters, bikers, roughnecks and songwriter buffs at every stop."  Fiddle beat stew.  Not going to get those words out of my mind for a bit.  They then name check Mumford & Sons, Band of Horses, Flogging Molly, and Creedence.  Bold and weird choices there, but whatever.  The point is that I've liked listening to this new album quite a bit and wouldn't mind seeing them play live at the 'fest.