Kevin Smith
Bluebonnet Blues
Lone Star. The Guadalupe River. Helotes Country Store. Shiner Bock. The Derailers. Pearl Beer. Gary P. Nunn. Get the idea? Kevin Smith’s CD reads like a Texas travelogue, one reference after another about the Lone Star State, drinkin’, hanging out in the Hill Country, drinkin’, missing a girlfriend, and drinkin’. Did I mention drinkin’? If there’s one line about cold Lone Stars in here, there’s five. That makes a six-pack by my count, and at least Smith can pull it off, blessed as he is with a dark baritone voice and a backup band that includes Al Mays on harmonica and Ronnie Vaughn on pedal steel. The local’s songwriting style is more on the traditional side of country than contemporaries like Robert Earl Keen or Jack Ingram, but Smith needs to branch out his songwriting a little to keep from blending in with Ingram, Pat Green, Owen Temple, and all the other Hill Country singer-songwriters that have come along in Keen’s footsteps. On the other hand, maybe that’s exactly what he’s shooting for.
This article appears in August 25 • 2000.