Updated Site

March 4, 2025

Welcome to my new, updated website. Please remember to come by and check out the Updates section to find out the latest information about my recordings, performances, and other work.

When George Gershwin created "Porgy and Bess", the blues attained operatic dimensions. As interpreted by fellow New Yorker Smitty. The form acquires a chamber element. Playing acoustic metal bodied National guitars of various sizes and pitch, the guitarist researches the percussive, whining slide techniques of the great Mississippi delta bluesman from Son House to Muddy Waters. Combining these with intriguing traces of folk idioms, such as bluegrass, country, tejano, hawaiian and fleeting glimpses of jazz. Smitty engorges and enlarges this rich material to create his own compositional, conceptual repertory of americana with microscopic detail.

While favoring small unit formats of duos and trios, he has also worked in the larger aggregations of conductor/ composer Butch Morris as well as with the Spin Doctors, Keith Richards and the Xpensive Wino's and west african Diabate clan. Reflective and refractive, his compositions have been represented on HBO " Soprano's", "Deadwood", as well as Cinemax, and Comedy Central. Say's Chris Spencer of HBO, "Smitty has been producing outstanding soundtrack music for HBO since the early nineties. His music has pure touch-sparse, emotional and evocative, the perfect match for our visuals. A beautiful sound".

A spare man with a sound as big as Broonzy. Smitty can be heard performing his seamless compositions weekly at Nublu, on NYC's lower east side. The "holler" is in the slide and the rhythm.

Smitty can be heard performing his seamless compositions weekly out in the high desert towns of Joshua tree, Landers and Pioneertown California.

John Ferris

NYC

NYC native Smitty plays his original compositions on National Reso-Phonic metal-body guitars bottleneck style with a virtuosity seldom heard, an intellectual take on classic Delta blues.

Compositions for:

• HBO
• Sopranos Premiere Series
• Sopranos 2006 Series Promos
• Sopranos: The Making Of, 2006
• Deadwood Promo (Gold Medal, New York Television and Film Festival, 2006 "Best Scoring of a Promotional Spot")
• Cinemax
• Comedy Central
• Tracy Ullman
• Denis Leary
• Composition and performance in Sam Shepard's Off-Broadway Production Lie of the Mind

Performances and Recordings with:

• Spin Doctors
• Keith Richards & The X-pensive Wino's
• Conductor/Composer Butch Morris
• West African musicians "Diabate"
• Sam Shepard
• Insectivora the Fire Eater at Coney Island Sideshow, NY
• Various private events for Ralph Lauren’s RRL stores, NY
• Ludlow Blunt in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
• King Baby Jewelry, Nashville, TN

Recordings:

• "Witch Hunt" - Soulsearch Music 1999
• "The Jacklight Sessions" - Soulsearch Music 2001
• "Like A Child" - Soulsearch Music 2003
• "Monkeyjunk" - Witchhunt Publishing 2003

Featured:

• WWOZ Radio Featured Artist
• South X Southwest Music Festival
• CB's Gallery, NYC
• Otto's Shrunken Head, NYC (weekly performances)
• NUBLU, NYC (weekly performances)

"Smitty has been producing outstanding soundtrack music for HBO/Cinemax since the early nineties. His music has a pure touch - sparse, emotional and evocative - the perfect match to our visuals. A beautiful sound." - Chris Spencer, VP Creative Services HBO

"Beautiful sound. something else." - Bill Berry, WWOZ

".compelling sound, refreshingly honest, intimate vibe. Highly recommended live.quite special." - Michael Dominici, WHERE Y'AT Magazine

"All gut, all instinct." - Todd Horton, Producer

"Alternately evoking the banks of the Mississippi Delta and a mysterious dark alley.cinematic soundscapes.Urban Folk at its best: honest, unique, timeless." - Tom Bacon, Soul Search Productions

Halloween at The Palms, Wonder Valley