Smith/McKay All Day
Pat McKay (L) and Jimmy Smith aka Smith/McKay All Day aka SMAD
This won’t be a space where I do much new album reviewing, but I’m gonna make an exception for Smith/McKay All Day’s debut album, On The Smile Side. The Smith in SMad is Jimmy Smith, bassist/songwriter/co-founder of The Gourds, who I discussed in Episode 10 of Don’t Call It Nothing. I cannot tell an accurate version of the ‘90s without The Gourds beebling, blitzing, and bean bowling. And in thinking about Jimmy Smith, I’m reminded of something Tom Waits once said to Keith Richards. I believe it was during the recording of "That Feel" for Bone Machine. In telling Richards what he wanted, Waits said to imagine a film projector playing an old movie. "You know how sometimes with an old, dusty film, a hair will get on the lens, wiggle around on-screen, and your eye is drawn to it? Keith, I want you to be that hair."
Well, that hair has been Jimmy Smith's whole goddamn raison d'etre since he was a baby Coyote. And now he's joined forces with Pat McKay, a country blues conjurer and the loneliest black man in Montana. Jimmy sings about being the eggs in your meatloaf, Pat's lived it. You can hear that combo of pain and joyous struggle in "Help," part chain gang protest, part Plastic Ono Band juju eyeball. “Esteline” hits the sweet spot of lived experience and country lament and it might be the album’s high point in terms of the SMad vocal harmonies. I love how the mandolin and harmonica each play around with the melody in unique ways.
Smith/McKay All Day - “Esteline”
But, you come to a Jimmy Smith project for dartboard basslines and Smile Side does not disappoint. “Touch Twice” and “She’s A Girl” are great examples of bippity bop, kinda “Miss You,” kinda Madness bass wiggle. Smith’s bass in “Off Gassing” elegantly pulls against acoustic guitar strum, and the resonance of the instrument sounds like a standup. My favorite bass playing on the album, though, is during the verses and guitar solo of “Rough Patch.” In a callback to “Mr. Betty,” we get a swaggering riff straight outta the late ‘60s Wyman playbook, as Mr. Jimmy, also on drums and cowbell, drags the beat to puts some funk in the pocket. Meanwhile, multiple acoustic guitars are set off in each channel, variously strumming hard on the beat and playing Stonesy licks. Nice vocal arrangement, too, as Smith’s lead vocals hit dead center, a second Smith sings low backup in the right channel, and McKay howls backups in the left.
The notion of struggle rears its head again in the chorus when Smith sings:
"Nobody cares about your rough patch
Nobody's buying from your small batch
And when you order something strange
Off the menu ... will they despise you?
Off the menu ... yeah, they will find you
Off the menu ... it will beguile you
Off the menu ... it will define you"
In a world where your worth is measured in likes and views, it's fair to ask if anyone gives a shit about your small batch. By its very nature, non-conformity doesn't sell. But, from my perspective this is a feature, not a bug. As a fellow purveyor of off-menu exploration, On The Smile Side scratches a specific roots rock weirdo itch and I'm grateful. It's the George Strait cassette on the floorboard screaming, "Play me."
Smith/McKay All Day - “Rough Patch”
