Daily Discovery: Smooth Hound Smith, “California Sway”

ARTIST:  Smooth Hound Smith

SONG:  California Sway

BIRTHDATE: Zack: Feb. 28th // Caitlin: Oct. 9th

HOMETOWN: Zack: Santa Monica, CA // Caitlin: Fresno, CA

CURRENT LOCATION: Nashville, TN

AMBITIONS: Travel the world, play and write as much music as possible, make some money, and to be able to properly digest dairy products one day

TURN-OFFS: Zack: humble-brags, loud talkers // Caitlin:  rudeness, gas masks

TURN-ONS: avocados, dogs, snuggles

DREAM GIG: The Hollywood Bowl, Saturday Night Live

FAVORITE LYRIC: Zack: “He got a tattoo on his arm that say ‘Baby’/ He got another one that just say ‘Hey’…” – Jim Croce

CRAZIEST PERSON I KNOW: We recently met Cuba Gooding Jr. at one of our shows.  He went pretty crazy on the dance floor.

SONG I WISH I WROTE: “Keep Your Heart Young” by Brandi Carlile

5 PEOPLE I’D MOST LIKE TO HAVE DINNER WITH: Oprah, Bea Arthur, Bill Murray, Mark Twain, Rebecca Black

MY FAVORITE CONCERT EXPERIENCE: Caitlin: “I saw the Rolling Stones when I was 14 years old.  They played ‘Saint of Me’ and at the very end there was a massive confetti explosion from the stage and everyone was dancing; it epitomized rock ‘n’ roll.”

I WROTE THIS SONG: Zack: “I had just moved to Nashville during the winter a few years back and I was missing California and the comforts it provided.  I had the main finger-picked riff of the song that I would play while pacing around my house, trying to make sense of it.  It’s played in an open tuning so I kept trying to find interesting chord voicings to make it sound different, but at one point I just tried a pretty standard blues progression and It was exactly what I was looking for.  Simple and honest.  The lyrics are quite simple as well, and they fell into place almost immediately; I think I finished them entirely within an hour.   When I started playing with Caitlin, she added some quirky percussion, some great bluegrass-y harmonies, and she wrote her vocal breakdown towards the end.  The way her voice shimmers in conjunction with the slide guitars really personifies California for me.”