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"Akustik Gitarre" Magazine

March 2007

Tom Smith's

"Juliet's Window"

Reviewed in Germany's "Akustik Gitarre" Magazine

Smith's "On Any Given Night"

Included in:

"Akustik Gitarre Begleit-CD zur Ausgabe 2/07"

Track 9

Tom is in good company on this CD. Also included are:

John Lennon

Eric Clapton

T-Bone Burnett

Ralph McTell

Guitar Nine Records Review! June/July '07
Category: Music

From Guitar Nine Record Review at: http://www.guitar9.com/undiscov67e.html
 

With a common name like Tom Smith, it helps to be talented at something in order to distinguish yourself from all the other Tom Smith's out there. After years of seeing Tom Smith, the head of the regional grocery chain Food Lion, on television, another Tom Smith has popped into the consciousness of the nation, or the music world, at least. This is due in no small part to his CD-R release, entitled Juliet's Window, where he plays both guitar and banjo with great skill. Guitarists will love the slide work heard on "Like Ships In The Bay", while Kottke and Hedges fans (and fingerpicking devotees in general) will warm up immediately to songs such as "Child's Play". Banjo rolls and fills are not in anyone's comfort zone around here, but with his attention to detail where his guitar work is concerned, surely banjo lovers will give it a thumbs up. Worth a closer listen.

It's been said that Tom could be referred to as a mixture of Kaki King, Michael Hedges and Leo Kottke but that would be too limiting. His early influences were Thelonius Monk, Charles Mingus, Miles Davis and Bob Dylan. Since he began playing in 1966, Tom has performed in 30 states and three countries. His musical career has taken him from coffee houses in North Carolina and bars in San Francisco to concert halls and festival audiences of 10,000. He has done PBS shows and has shared the stage with Tuck and Patti, Michael Hedges, John Hammond, Robben Ford, John Fahey, Jesse Winchester, Todd Phillips, Livingston Taylor, Melanie, David Pomeroy, Reckless Johnny Wales, Odetta, Robin Ford and Dave Van Ronk.

In addition to some positive press about Juliet's Window from Sing Out Magazine (United States) and Akustik Gitarre Magazine (Germany), Smith's music was recently included on Akustik Gitarre's compilation CD, in the company of artists such as John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Ralph McTell and T-Bone Walker.

MP3 Songs
Child's Play
Like Ships In The Bay

Contact Information
Tom Smith
P.O. Box 8606
Hermitage, TN 37076
United States

E-mail: Tom Smith
Web site: http://www.tomsmithguitar.com/

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"Sing Out" Magazine Review's "Juliet's Window." "SMITH CONVINCES."
“Sing Out” Magazine's spring 2007 review: "Juliet's Window"

"Tom's newest release, "Juliet's Window" was just reviewed in the spring 2007 issue of "Sing Out!" magazine.

"Tennessee-based Tom Smith, an accomplished acoustic guitarist, banjoist and composer, has been making music for more than three decades. First appearing on the Northern California folk scene in the 1970's, he's gone on to perform cross-country -- sharing stages with the likes of Odetta, John Hammond, Jr., Dave Van Ronk and Jesse Winchester.

"Often compared with contemporaries like Leo Kottke and John Fahey, he has a style all his own that reflects Blues, Jazz (I hear a lot of Monk and Mingus) and early Country influences as well as Beethoven and Bach.

"His finger-picking technique, classical in origin, ranges broadly across the fretboard and combined with his characteristically fleet and clean, uncluttered arrangements explores a heady variety of moods from song to song. From the richly nuanced and flowing, bi-tonal banjo sound on the opening "Juliet's Window" and the dense, mesmerizing "Paper Dragons" to the playful, splashy abandon of "Child's Play" and the Fahey-like "Like Roses in the Night" with its vivid tempo shifts and intricate, occasionally frantic note patterns, Smith convinces.

"The other two banjo songs are worth noting as well. “On Any Given Night” possesses an almost heraldic sense of discovery with its use of fluctuating dynamics proving most effective while the closing “Pennies to the Party” has the charged feel of a square dance reel with Smith’s sparkling finger-work. Other listener-friendly originals include the slide guitar driven “Some Other Blues (for Some Other Lady)” and the contemplative, impressionistic “After the Past.” Gee, Fahey would have loved Smith’s sing titles.

"Emotionally warm music you can let your imagination run wild with. Smith also has three other albums available from his website, all also recommended." -- GvonT

Tom Smith's music can be heard and purchased at http://www.TomSmithGuitar.com/listen.html or at CDBaby.com"

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THE WHITE HOUSE

WASHINGTON

MR. TOM SMITH

     "You have worked with energy and dedication to provide solutions to the many problems that government alone cannot fix... Your work is going a long way toward healing and renewing your community, inspiring all who seek to improve our world. 

     "Best wishes for every future success."

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON

(Commendation RE: literacy work in Los Angeles)

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GuitarNation.com CD Review

Title: "Juliet's Window"

Artist: Tom Smith, Nashville, TN

For info regarding Tom’s services as a Luthier, booking or to buy CDs, please contact him at: info@TomSmithGuitar.com and say you saw his review at Guitar Nation.

To hear selections from “Juliet’s Window,” “Little Dog,” (also reviewed here on http://www.guitarnation.com/cdreviews.smith.htm ) and Smith’s 2 other CDs, “On Any Given Night,” and “Musical Pictures,” please go to: http://www.TomSmithGuitar.com

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Ralph Murphy - ASCAP
"Juliet's Window is a beautiful album, quirky as hell, but truly beautiful!"

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 Will Ackerman - Founder, Windham Hill Records
"Head and shoulders above the rest."

Billy Sheehan (rock  bassist)
'...the best in that style of playing I have heard'

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Nashvile City Paper- Smith Displays Versitility on new CD

"He's one of the nation's premier guitarists, even though he's better known to devotees of instrumental releases and musicians than general audiences. But Tom Smith's playing has been ranked right alongside that of such acoustic masters as Leo Kottke and John Fahey, and he's shared the stage with a host of rock, blues and folk greats, among them John Hammond, Odetta, Michael Hedges, Dave Van Ronk and Livingston Taylor. Now a Nashville resident, his newest release Juliet's Window is a technical masterpiece, though it's also so diverse that it could accurately be deemed jazz, folk, ambient/New Age or even in some places blues.

To some extent Juliet's Window might also be deemed a return for Smith, who never completely abandoned the guitar and banjo but almost a decade off from formal concerts and shows while doing something that proved quite helpful in many other ways.

"I worked with students in teaching art and literacy in South Central Los Angeles," Smith said. "These were students who in some cases had been in situations where it seemed like they were almost afraid to learn, and in other instances had to be shown not to fear the people who were trying to help them. It was an amazing period in my life, and a rewarding time even though it wasn't exactly what I'd always been doing before that."

That's because Smith previously established his reputation as a topflight soloist and interpreter on both guitar and banjo. During the '60s and '70s he was a familiar face on the acoustic and coffeehouse scene. Smith was known for lyrical impressionistic works that could be sentimental or edgy, rapid-fire or slowly paced, elegant and expressive. That blend of styles appears throughout Juliet's Window, from the teeming sensibility of such pieces as "Like Roses In The Night" or "Little Jewell" to the more upbeat "Some Other Blues (for some other lady)" or "Pennies To The Party." Juliet's Window is getting sizeable regional airplay and support, with a network of area stations that include Middle Tennessee State University's WMOT-FM (89.5) among those regularly airing it.

"Being in Nashville also poses some interesting challenges because you're in a town where there are more great musicians per square mile than anywhere in America," Smith said. "It makes you really think about what you want to do musically, how you must present it and who is really your core audience. What being here also does is really make you listen to yourself as a player and discover what you're trying to do and say. It becomes much less about technique and more about what you want to put into a song. You learn how to let the notes breathe in a composition and not try to play everything at once."

Smith is now working on songs for another CD, and will also be contributing a banjo solo to the next release from old friends Tuck and Patti. His three previous releases, as well as Juliet's Window are available on his Web site TomSmithGuitar.com"
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National Traditional Country Association - Bob Everhart
"...his music is the most complex and beautiful [songs] you are likely to hear this generation. He is an artist with much vitality and energy, and he makes it all look so effortless."

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Nashvillemusicnews.com
Jessica Ford
JULIET'S WINDOW

"If you are looking for some music that will calm you down after a long stressful day at work, while taking you on a dreamy stroll through the gardens and picking wild flowers...this is it. Even though I was hoping for the songs to have more of a story like feel, with a beginning, middle and end, I was still able to allow myself to drift off to a place far, far away. While you listen to each song, the acoustic guitar with an old world sound takes you from Spanish to Folk, and from the green pastures full of dandy lions, to the western deserts with ease and grace.

An artistic collection of genres played by the guitar, with hints of yesterday's southern finger picking sounds, I was able to listen to this CD throughout. I couldn't help but listen with an artists ear, appreciating the talent and time that has been spent learning this popular instrument. The CD takes a step away from Nashville's current trends which was actually refreshing and was a nice surprise and change. The songs presented a defined style and I was able to distinguish the flavors as they inter-twined throughout the CD. Even though I was still wishing for more of a story line and the songs to "go somewhere", I was able to pick out my favorite.

Track #1 "Juliet's Window" gave me the need to go to the nearest Day Spa and order up a deep tissue massage! This CD is well titled and the hand drawn CD cover is an appropriate touch to this artistic collection."

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Monterey Herald
'Master guitarist'

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20th Century Guitar Magazine
"Lone Oak Records- Great hands make for a fine set of sumptuous sounding acoustic guitar instrumentals on Juliet's Window by Tom Smith. Among his influences, Smith credits Beethoven, Monk and Mingus, while clearly drawing further inspiration from acoustic legends like Fahey and Kottke. From jazz and country to blues and classical, the diversity of the instrumental acoustic "Americana" sound is alive and well and living in Tom Smith's guitar."

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From the Boston Phoenix
"Tom Smith may be one of America's finest unknown acoustic guitarists. For this album the Bay Area picker has put together 13 solo pieces, played on banjo, bottleneck slide or his own homemade acoustic, and utilizing a variety of tunings that would do John Fahey proud. Semi-improvisational soundscapes like these are rarely overwhelming, yet Smith's do have their subtle charm."

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Rocky Mountain News
'Liquid and evocative compositions'

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Nashville Rage
'Amazing guitar and banjo player'

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BAM Magazine
'Uniformly excellent'

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(From a cursory translation...)

"Full and rich is his playing, powerful in sound, with open chords and open strings, counterpoints set into play.  His finger style keeping a great tempo going and are colored by his slides.  In his compositions, he makes use of his rich experiences with Blues, Folk, Country and Jazz.  "Musical Pictures"; that is what he likes to present his public and he succeeds in doing that...

Tom Smith; a common name, an uncommon talent"

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Ben Cole - GHS Strings
"Tom's music is inspirational, cutting edge and even unexplainable at times...
I love it!!! Maybe "Experimental Acoustic."

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CD REVIEW: Tom Smith - Juliet's Window

Muse's Muse
By Alex Jasperse - 04/16/2007 - 09:38 PM EDT

 Artist: Smith, Tom
Album: Juliet's Window [2006]
Label: Lone Oak Productions
Website: http://www.tomsmithguitar.com
Genre: Bluegrass, Solo Instrumental, New Acoustic

CD Review:

He’s a luthier who’s worked with Les Paul, Michael Hedges, Kenny Rodgers, Bob Dylan and Tom Petty. He’s toured the United States, and has played for audiences of 10,000. He’s been described as one of the premier acoustic guitarists in North America, yet his common name still goes relatively unnoticed. So who is Mr. Tom Smith?

Active in the American music scene for over 30 years, from one end of the fret board to the other, Tom Smith lives and breathes the acoustic guitar. Musically monotonous he is not, if the idea of guitar virtuosity scares you. He is charged with a dynamic energy all his own that isn’t overtly pretentious or a flash in the pan. Rarely does Smith disrespect his musical roots, considering that his work is a hybridized combination of folk, jazz and blues sensibilities.

Smith’s latest release, Juliet’s Window, is a feast of acoustic guitar based compositions. Open tunings? Yup, got that. Vicious finger picking and slide guitar? You bet. Some banjo on the side? That’s there too. And for dessert there’s a central concept that caps it all off. But does Juliet’s Window inspire a lineup for second servings? Here’s where it gets a little messy…

Given Smith’s wide palette of sounds, his songs sound like they’ve strayed a little bit off course. They’re very interesting to listen to, but when tracks like “Child’s Play” start hitting the two minute mark, a shapeless feeling soon takes centre stage – almost as though Smith had to retrace his steps to figure out where to go next. While his instrumental vocabulary is astonishing, the very homemade production sound begins to distort the different voices employed in each song. Smith is great at creating grooves, but his switch between banjos, slide guitars and open tunings makes it wearying to secure some sort of emotional connection with each track. And even though his individual sounds are captivating, at the end of the day, the whole is somewhat dissatisfying.

The curse of bad production is, well, just that. Aside from the sound quality complaints, because there are NO overdubs and multi-layered parts (that Smith is more than capable of laying down), his pieces border on being chaotic, notably in tracks like “Some Other Blues (For Some Other Lady).” Maybe the best way to understand this is to put it this way: we all know the people who like to keep on talking, who just steam roll over all chances of somebody else contributing to the conversation. As they keep going, we pretend we’re fascinated by what they have to say, when in fact, the only thing we’re thinking is “Wow. Take a breath.” Although this is a bit of a stretch, this is what can happen when you don’t have overdubs. It suffocates all chances of having the other people in the room join in and share their thoughts. The natural rests and breaks in the musical conversation are not here. In its breathless approach, the listener simply tunes out.

The other complaint with Juliet’s Window is that it’s firmly latched to the folk roots, which doesn’t work so well if Smith isn’t in your house to explain the stories behind the songs. Why does the banjo-driven piece, “On Any Given Night,” become frustrating midway through? Is it supposed to represent an indecisive thought process? Or is it an expression of joy, with its upbeat rhythm? Smith is apparently known for his stories when performing live, but the disjointed feel of arranging multiple songs that all need their own individual space to breathe on one disc (without the assistance of a tale or two), makes it a tiring listen.

Smith needs to apply his astonishing range of techniques in a more specific manner, which the track “Paper Dragons” best illustrates. The songs sounds as though Smith has run his acoustic guitar through a light distortion pedal and played with the EQ levels (giving it an intriguing overloaded and low-fi personality). If this is any indication of his curiosity to explore what can be done with the acoustic guitar next, it won’t be long before he’ll be snapped up by major labels and hailed by legions of guitarists worldwide. But if Smith’s allegiance to good ol’ chicken picking is his preferred cup of tea, I’m not there to stop him. However, I will wonder why he isn’t exploring the directions being paved by artists like Kaki King and Justin King, or Pat Metheny and John Scofield, or Tony Rice and Michael Hedges. He’s got the talent. He’s more than ready. But he needs a push.

At the end of the day, Juliet’s Window is a series of clever, note-dense acoustic tracks from previous Smith albums. The earthy appeal of the finger-style craft, with a laid back approach, will be embraced by casual listeners and finger-style followers alike. Will Smith become a household name in the guitar community? That may be difficult to answer if he doesn’t set himself apart from his counterparts – creating a voice that has a new story to tell. While it won’t blow you away or shake accusations of being “aural wallpaper,” it still may be worth a look to see what’s in Juliet’s Window.

For more information, please contact Tom Smith at tom@tomsmithguitar.com

 

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Nashville Tennessean
'Acoustic Guitar Virtuoso.'

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Jim Moore, - Animal Band
"Tom Smith plays like I dream, big and in color!"

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Nashville Music Guide
"There aren't too many acoustic albums out there and especially ones that are worth listening to, Tom Smith covers that gap with this latest album produced and released by the artist himself. If you like guitar and banjo this one's for you. The album boasts ten original tunes composed by Smith and shows off his virtuoso talents on both instruments. Definitely a CD for a rainy afternoon. It's not quite jazz, and not quite the blues, but a loose mix of both with a little bluegrass thrown in to sweeten the pot. Find it at www.TomSmithGuitar.com on the web."

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From Jazz/New Age artists Tuck and Patti.
"So many people play acoustic guitar that it's practically impossible to have an individual style. Yet I always know Tom Smith's unique playing within the first few seconds of hearing him play guitar or banjo. His compositions are wonderful and uniquely his. "Musical Pictures" is one of only a handful of albums that invite me to forget who I am and get lost in Tom Smith's creative vision."

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Guitar Nation.com
'Tom Smith is a guitarist for the 21st century. His driving, fingerstyle guitar breaks new ground in the fingerstyle genre. This CD was particularly enjoyable to review because Tom is a genuinely original guitarist. This review was particularly difficult to write because, as a completely original guitarist, he can't really be compared with anyone else...This CD will redefine fingerpicking for a long time to come!'

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Chattanooga Free Press
'...a gem of American roots music...'

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Nashville City Paper

'One of the more interesting and talented acoustic guitarists in Nashville'

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Hawaii Island Journal - The Best Nashville Picker You've Never Heard
"Well, there's 1352 guitar pickers in Nashville/and any one that unpacks his guitar can play twice as better as I will, sang the Lovin' Spoonful in 1967.

One of the best "Nashville Cats" you've never heard of will be unpacking his guitar here on the Big Island. While the name Tom Smith may not be in your musical lexicon, in Nashville, where there are more great musicians per square mile than perhaps anywhere else on Earth, people take note when he unpacks his homemade acoustic guitar-or his banjo-and starts picking. And while he's flattered, he doesn't take the talk too seriously.

"The Nashville papers seem to like me", Smith said wryly. "The Tennessean called me a virtuoso, not once, but twice in the same edition. This is a town that Mark Knopfler lives in and Chet Atkins built. They've got the best in the world in this town and they call me a virtuoso."

Smith will play at least two concerts here, both at intimate venues: Ocean View Evangelical Church on Friday, Mar. 31 and Jason Scott Lee's Ulua Theatre in Volcano Saturday, Apr. 1. Also on the bill are slack key and American fingerstyle guitarist Chris Yeaton, who recently released his second CD, Ho'o Pa'a; plus Bolo and Kona Bob.

I've never played there before and I'm just kind of curious," said Smith.

"I've toured over almost all of the U.S. and I' just trying to get off of the continent. It looks like later this year I'll be going to Australia and Europe and doing a lot of U.S. touring."

Smith, originally from the San Francisco Bay area, has released five albums: Still Life, Musical Pictures, Little Dog, On Any Given Night, and his latest, Juliet's Window. His influences include jazz, country, blues, bluegrass and classical music, as well as guitarists such as Tuck Andress and Leo Kottke. But according to Smith, it all started with the minimalist approach of the late guitarist and musicologist John Fahey.

"The most fascinating thing, you know, is two notes made sense," he explained. "I was going to be a history teacher, but those two notes made a kind of sense that I'd never heard before. I've always just done what makes sense and go from there. I envision myself closer to the jazz tradition than anything, even though I don't play jazz, per se. I don't get off on limb, but I do stretch emotions. A tune is a tune for me and I don't go too far from it, but I do stretch the emotions a lot."

In his book American Guitar, Italian guitarist and composer Maurizio Angeletti described Smith's playing as "completely free from the barriers of commercial music...the playing is, and couldn't be other than a reflection about life, and the conceptual transcription of it into music."

And while he is often categorized as "bluegrass" or "American fingerstyle," Smith eschews such labels, preferring to call his style "contemporary guitar."

"I play with a kind of an 'in your face' attitude," he mused. "Everybody else kind of plays like they're trying to be quiet and meditative, you know. One of things I like about Juliet's Window is that it's kind of outside of being solo guitar. It's not fingerstyle guitar. For the longest time, people have said 'fingerstyle guitar is like Will (Ackerman). When he was with Windham Hill (record label), he was trying to set a standard for how you're supposed to play acoustic guitar. (Michael) Hedges does that. Like, how many people do you hear that don't sound like Hedges? And it's very few people, really. Chris (Yeaton) has a very strong Will Ackerman influence, and he's worked for it."

"Me, I've been playing bars for so long, all I want is somebody's attention. I liked it in (San Francisco's) North Beach where you're playing for drunks. You're playing for the scum of the earth. It's like a Tom Waits thing. And other people would never do that. But the reason that I got past that was to make music, you have to make it real."

Smith, who admits to being "quirky as hell," says that he appreciates all the drunks and the scum of the earth he's played for, because to become the best you can be, you have to play for a live audience, no matter who that audience is.

"Music is a terrible hobby." he said. "You don't have any chance at all of getting as good as you can be. And to me, the definition of that is 'how much life can you play?' This new stuff has me amazed because there's laughter in it and joy. I think it's a communication and not a series of notes. There is a thought, a communication, a dialogue. Would a car be a car if nobody ever drove it? Or would it be a planter?

"There's a rhetoric of writing something that nobody listens to and it's kind of self-indulgent. And you can hear it's self-indulgent. It's the communication that lets it become a real thing and that happens in a performance. Why would you drive 10,000 miles a week through blizzards and ice storms and insane things to go and play for people something that's pretty? Because something happens there that you can't get anywhere else in life, ever. And it definitley doesn't exist in a rehearsal room.

"In a studio, you can twist yourself and get stuff out of it and get it to be really remarkable. In that sense, I'm not sure which is better-the stuff you get out of a studio that you can never get to live, or the stuff get live that's so sparkling and magic that you never want to go into the studio again."

Smith went through what he termed a "disastrous divorce" last year. Against a backdrop of personal loss, he found the 'how much life can you play' inspiration to write and record Juliet's Window.

"I'm going through a remarkable period of time," Smith concluded. "Juliet's Window is a beautiful thing and I really like it. It's cathartic in the situation that it evolved from. It's about 'what is truth?' You can write something that is absolutely honest and communicates reality. And that, to me, is what you're trying to do.

"It's a funny business in that you spend all that time hammering out a little fraction of a second of emotion. Have you ever listened to a four-year-old laugh when you've kind of got your eyes closed and you're half asleep? That's really what music is. They've got this kind of little bubbly thing that comes through to the ear and you go, 'Wow, that's really amazing! What a sound.' And you try to figure out how to communicate that. That's what I do. That's what songwriters do, sort of.

"And you go out and you play it for a room full of strangers. Big rooms, little rooms. You play it on good nights; you play it on bad nights. Why would somebody do something like that? It's such an extraordinary gift. And I think 'gift' is the best word to describe it. And it's not about me. What it's about is that somehow or another, you can create a space that is different than anything that exists anywhere, and it can be perfect in that point in time. And you can touch lives with it."

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Muriel Anderson
'Play(s) with a great deal of passion'

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From Dirty Linen Folk Music Magazine
"Musical Pictures is Smith's second release and is a very aptly named all-instrumental tape. The Pasadena, California resident presents a real musical potpourri here. He's predominately an acoustic fingerstyle guitarist, somewhat Kottke-esque in approach, but has a broader range to his style than "just" an acoustic fingerpicker. This tape kicks off with a red herring very layered, heavily delayed/reverbed electric guitar piece. After that one though, he pretty much steers a course of acoustic pieces--a nice slide guitar workout, a fingerpicked composition, then a banjo tune. Other that the first song, he stays close to these instrumental approaches. This might be too eclectic for some. I liked it, though one might ask, "is he a space musician, or a banjo picker or what?" Basically he is an artist of many hats."

Home | Buy CDs | LIVE CLIPS! | About Tom | What Do the Papers Say? | Concerts | Get Your Free Electronic Press Kit | Contact | Friends | Listen | Luthier (Guitar Tech) | Blog with Tom | Mailing List | Stories from Planet Tom (Tom's Fiction...or is it?)

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For booking info call 615-969-8298

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