It's all about the music !
By Bruce Maier
Located about midway between Seattle and Portland lies an historic little villa of about 15000 citizens known as Centralia. In the middle of town in the shadows of the great Carnegie Library stands a 100 year old gazebo where the twenty piece brass bands of yesteryear once entertained men throwing horse shoes and ladies with their full-length dresses politely sipping on lemonade on a hot summer day. Much has changed in one hundred years of music but thankfully people still love to go to the parks and listened to a great band. Recently the town of Centralia was treated to a park concert by Olympia Washington super-trio SQUARE and the JIMI’S, followed by the New Blues Brothers. While the 8 man NBB was a delight to see and dance to, I was there to actually see what my dear old friend Michael “ Smitty “ Smith was doing that’s been creating such a buzz here and vast distant regions of the globe, which I have been hearing so much about.
I
first met Smitty at Music 6000 in Olympia about 25 years back and we
only knew one another on a professional to customer basis. He was the
one guitar and equipment guy in the Northwest I could always turn to
and ask technical questions about guitars, synths and other gear and
never had to feel intimidated by his mode of explanation, finding him
to be always very helpful. As the years went on I became involved in
television production and had created and arts and entertainment
program which sometime had live bands in the studio as we broadcast our
one hour show. Smitty agreed one time to come on “ Sideshow “ and play
some original music for the viewers. He was such an amazing and
creative performer that everyone in the studio was mesmerized by his
playing! The ratings were very high for that episode and we had Smitty
back on the show whenever he was available.
Today
in 2008, Smitty commands a precision team trio comprised of Doug Howard
on the bass, William
“ Scot-Tay “ McDivitt on drums and vocals while he plays all the
guitars ( PRS and Les Paul )and lead vocals. They do a great mix of
original music and selected covers creatively . “ Smitty “ is a unique
guitarist with all kinds of tricks up the old sleeves, and a couple
I’ve never seen another guitar player attempt. Doug is solid as a rock
on the Fender bass and works with Scottie like two halves of a heart in
perfect synch! They are experienced crowd pleasers and knew just how to
get the 2500 person audience right into their hands. The crowd started
cheering before the first song was half over, and by the time they
broke into the second song they were a major hit and could do no wrong
! They used an uncanny sense of dynamics like another whole instrument,
drawing you right into their master fader for a smooth ride into the
mix. Speaking of mix, the sound company was having so many problems and
never did correct their errors, yet Smitty and the boys kept on playing
their hearts and souls to the delight of a very appreciative audience.
It is evident that Square and The Jimi’s are top talent and will be
asked back to play for that community someday in the future.
I highly recommend that you stop by their MySpace page and get to know
them a little better. We will be conducting an interview early this
Fall . Our thanks to Kim, Scot-Tay, Doug and of course "Smitty".
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