GARY DEAN SMITH: No Liquor

Gary Dean Smith

No Liquor

© 2007 Gary Smith

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Americana music at its best. A bit of John Hiatt and Lyle Lovett influence that spans the spectrum with some very lush productions and some sparse, yet heartfelt tunes that will draw you in and hold you there.

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notes

Gary is an artist with a wide range of musical influences. Perfectly comfortable with everything from loud progerssive metal, playing and recording with Ginger Baker and Bill Ward, to fronting his own acoustic band complete with dobros and mandolins. Gary gained a reputation in Los Angeles and around southern California as a dedicated professional, but still having a great sense of fun and humor. Playing regularly with some of the most respected players around including members of the Walter Trout Band, Dan Yablonka, Greg Gaffney, and others, Gary was right at home.

He is also a very accomplished blues musician. He can walk into a club, sit in with the house band and instantly create a great repore both musically and personally. He is happy to lead the band and pull the crowd in with his brilliant vocals and tasty fingerstyle guitar, drawing on his deep influences of country and jazz styles. Or he can sit back and add a few notes here and there just to keep things interesting.

So why use all three names? Because individually, they are pretty boring. All together, they are still boring but at least there are more syllables. Let's go back to the beginning...

Gary was born in Long Beach, California and lived in
Fullerton until the age of 12. Having three older brothers- Jerry, Larry and Terry - offered a lot of fun, but also made him a pretty good target for their "amusement". At the age of 8, Gary told his mom that he wanted to learn to play guitar. She called the local music store and was informed that they did not teach guitar. They did, however, come running over to the house with an accordion. Without considering the long-term damage that mere association with an accordion can inflict upon an 8 year old boy, (see Bobby, The Lawrence Welk Show) the over-eager accordion peddler strapped that "radiator-like" behemoth on Gary right in front of all his brothers. This one absent-minded act extracted any inkling of "coolness" that Gary may have begun to project to his siblings. There was no more talk of playing guitar around the house.

At the age of 12, Gary packed his knapsack and hopped a boxcar for Arkansas. Okay, that is not entirely true. He did move to Arkansas but he did so with his parents. All of his brothers were on their own in California where they remained, so Gary lived pretty much isolated for three years on a God forsaken mountain top in one of the most beautiful places on Earth. That wasn't all it was cracked up to be. It wasn't quite "biscuits and mustard", but pretty close. He lived near Hot Springs, but then moved to a bigger town called Pine Bluff. Gary was now really building some character. There was still no more mention of playing guitar, though all of those years of solitude would have been a good time for some serious wood-shedding.

Finally at the age of 15, Gary had the nerve to say the word "guitar" again. His neighbor and somehow distant uncle ( ? ) gave him an old Silvertone acoustic guitar and taught him a couple of chords, and how to properly mix vodka and Tang.

A year or so later, Gary bought a Les Paul knockoff and he and a couple of friends from school started a band. Poorly playing the covers you would expect from a bunch of high school kids in Arkansas, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Allman Brothers, etc., Gary developed quite a name for himself as a guitarist in "the land of banjos", so at the age of 20 he decided to go back to California and become the smallest fish in the biggest pond.

Back in California, Gary was fortunate enough to have some excellent teachers (guitar, not accordion). He studied classical guitar with Peter Zisa. He also studied Jazz theory with Joe Diorio at Musicians Institute (MI) in Hollywood. At the same time, he was playing in a progressive hard rock band called "FORCE OF SOULS", whose independent CD release featured guest artists including drummers Ginger Baker of CREAM and Bill Ward of BLACK SABBATH. Other artists on the record were David Lindley from EL RAYO-X and the JACKSON BROWN BAND and friend and guitarist extrordinaire Randy Hansen. The CD was entitled "To Live and Die in Orange County". FORCE OF SOULS was voted one of the best top 10 unsigned bands of 1991 by the Los Angeles Times. Unfortunately, even with a little airplay on KLOS in Los Angeles, the band remained unsigned.

But, they did sign an endorsement deal with G & L Guitars, Leo Fender's company. The band met Mr. Fender and became fairly close to him and Mrs. Fender. When Leo passed away in 1991, Leland Jeffries of FORCE OF SOULS arranged the Leo Fender Memorial Jam at the University of California at Irvine's Bren Center. It was a benefit to raise awareness and money for the Parkinson's Disease Foundation. There were several big players who volunteered their time and talent to the event, including guitarists Robben Ford, Skunk Baxter, Robbie Krieger, Yngwie Malmsteen, and others. Legendary guitarist James Burton was at the event also. Gary spent the evening before the show hanging out with Mr. Burton, listening and learning. The next day, James Burton and Albert Lee put together a set with bassist Jeff Berlin and drummer Jim Monroe. Experiencing that performance re-ignited Gary's passion for country-blues style music.

Gary spent a couple of years re-tooling his technique and then joined the Kari Gaffney Band. He became good friends with bassist Greg Gaffney who encouraged Gary to write and sing his own songs. The first performance of these original songs was as an opening act for Larry Gatlin at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano. Gary has since recorded these songs and has just released the full length CD entitled "No Liquor". The CD is available here at CD BABY and on iTunes.

In 2006, Gary, his wife Amy and their 5 year old son Jack moved to the Denver Colorado area where he continues to write and play in clubs around Denver.

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  • Colorado Music Buzz
    author: Gary Smith

    This review is re-typed word for word from Colorado Music Buzz paper, December 2007. There is not a star system... Sandwiched between the sounds of Classic Rock and Southern Rock bands come many crafts. One such craft is Gary Dean Smith, a Californian native who is now a Colorado resident. With him are evident trails of many 1970'a and 1980's Country "pool-hall" bar influences. On the NO LIQUOR album, you'll hear vocal ranges similar to that of Bruce Springsteen on 'Tumbledown", Bob Seger on "Better Days", ans surprisingly, David Bowie on "The Gentle Kind". He gives his torch over to a wonderful artist Elisa Fiorillo, who's performed with musicians such as Savage Garden in the past, to perform solo on his song "Rainy Day Lovers." If you are thinking of hopping on boxcars to get away from Colorado, you'll want to consider listening to the song "NO LIQUOR" as it serves up steady beats similar to Kenny Roger's "Lucille" with a hearty violin. NO LIQUOR should be added to one more jukebox in any bar and grill tavern.

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