“Everyone knows that you can sing…” For The White Buffalo – aka singer / songwriter / guitarist Jake Smith, Oregon-born, Southern California-raised – it was time to take the less travelled path; to assemble notions for studio album Number 8, the follow-up to ‘On The Widow’s Walk’ (Snakefarm, 2020), and embark on a voyage of discovery. Out with the old, the organic, the expected, the tried; in with the new – new producer, new studio, new location, no distractions, no looking back… Enter ‘Year Of The Dark Horse’… “You think we’re a country band? A folk band? Americana? Rock? What the fuck are you gonna say now?!” laughs Jake. “With this album, I wanted something outside of what I’ve ever done. I wanted to open up. Do something dangerous. I’m hard to put into a singular genre as it is, but now I really wanted to take away any kind of preconception or pigeon-holing. “And don’t ask me, cos I don’t know what it is! It’s a genre-bending thing – there’s elements and influences from ELO, Daniel Lanois, Tom Waits, The Boss, circus, pirate music, yacht rock, and I’m driving and pushing some of these numbers in a way I’ve never done before. “At the top of the pandemic, I put the acoustic guitar on its stand, got a synthesizer and began writing on it, not really knowing how to play keys, just exploring the different sounds and landscapes. In the not knowing, it allowed me to expand my vocal melodies and compositions in ways the guitar had possibly limited.”  When Jake, flanked by regular touring / recording compadres, bassist / keyboard player / guitarist Christopher Hoffee and drummer Matt Lynott, crossed the threshold of East Nashville’s Neon Cross Studio, a converted Southern Baptist Church, he wasn’t chapter an’ verse prepared, as usual. The time before recording had been a crazy one, so there were a bunch of loose ends to be tied (“I’m a perpetual procrastinator” – Jake), plus only three of the 12 songs had been completely written. Jake had maps in his head, but most were mere bones of compositions with only a few key lyrics penned. This allowed producer / studio owner Jay Joyce – plus trusted assistant, Jason Hall – the wiggle room to really get involved, to guide and explore new frontiers.  He’s a Grammy Award-winning Producer of the Year (2018), has 4 CMA and 5 ACM Awards, and when it comes to making music, the Ohio native is never one to take the obvious route – perfect for an album featuring a dozen musical vignettes, individual yet constant in flow; an album loosely based around the shifting of the seasons and the shifting of a relationship; an album showing off the complete scope of Jake’s song-writing craft, from the stripped back to the fully loaded… ‘Year Of The Dark Horse’, coming soon via Snakefarm: normal rules do not apply.

Musician who shouldn’t be   Once described as a “musician who shouldn’t be a musician,” Mesa, AZ-based singer/songwriter/musician Gene Moran may be hard to categorize but he sure isn’t hard to listen to.  Take some old classic country 45s from the Hank Williams school of lonesome, add a heavy dose of alt-rock, grunge and fuzz (ala Dinosaur Jr. and the like) and throw in some old school Arizona desert rock of the Naked Prey, Greyhound Soul and Giant Sand variety. Multiply all that by some better-than-average free childhood guitar lessons by a talented relative and divide it by an accident at birth, subtract the use of fine and gross motor skills (cerebral palsy), and add a wheelchair which results in a unique and distinctive playing style. Now transmute the sound in your head and make it a dozen or so times better than what you’re already imagining. Yeah. This guy’s the real deal.  A former teacher A former teacher, a small-town troubadour and a lifelong dabbler in the live music realm, Moran recently traded in being in front of a classroom for being in front of an audience. Both as a solo musician and as part of Tempe, AZ’s Mean Gene and the Soul Scorchers, the duo Rockin’ Chair, The Blinding Suns, and San Diego, CA based Mean Gene and the Green Sardines, Moran’s rock and roll journey may just be beginning, but this is a man that’s bound to go places. Catch him while you can! “There’s peeps that write about themselves and peeps that write about the world around them. Gene Moran has an attention to detail about the world around him…a perspective that most of us miss. Of late this guy inspires me of what writing songs is supposed to be about. He conjures up not just his own world but those of others as well. You’d be lucky if you were a part of it and if you weren't you'd feel as if you were there.” - Joe Peña, Greyhound Soul  “A lot of people relate to Gene’s songs…everyday issues of poverty, addiction, despair, love and any number of sad and tragic things in life. He just lays it all out there for us with that beautiful smile just about a mile wide. Your number one fan, Van.” - Van Christian, Naked Prey