Jake Smith, aka The White Buffalo, is the quintessence of the American spirit, he picked his name right in the middle of some western mythology, and writes deeply emotional songs about outlaws, violence, redemption and lost corners of America. What you first notice when he comes on stage, is his imposing, tall but tranquil stature, his gravelly, commanding voice and his superb ability to tell stories through his songs. He was doing an in-store at Amoeba on Wednesday night, the day of the anniversary of 9/11, a very appropriate date considering the themes of his songs. He was playing just by himself with his acoustic guitars – however he will play a full-band show at the El Rey here in Los Angeles on September 28th – and I had never heard a songwriter explaining his songs so much.
There was something so noble and authentic about him, something so tragic and broken in his eyes, and something so poignant about his songs, that it was impossible to not be completely captivated by his performance. He was channeling some of the greatest songwriters and the guy is only releasing his second album. He probably has been already compared to Dylan and Springsteen, and, because of his deep, bass voice and his themes navigating around sin, redemption, faith, mortality and love, to Johnny Cash, who obviously comes to mind – I am surely not the first one on this. But comparisons are too simplistic, and his new album, ‘Shadows, Greys & Evil Ways’, which just came out on September 10th via Unison Music, is a concept album, telling a dramatic love story between two young kids, Joe and Jolene, torn up by existence (Joe goes off to war to support her), dealing with post-war trauma, then realizing the power of love. Smith was explaining each one of his songs before playing them, carefully replacing them in context. ‘This is the 4th song of the album’ he said before playing the song describing his character’s military experience as a killing machine. He played ‘an interesting version of it’, as he said, because of some technical difficulties which actually didn’t stop him too much, as he started the song totally unplugged.
His performance was intense, as he was living each one of his lines with a real authenticity and a lot of heart. Then came the song about the hard road to redemption, and some bad choices on the way: ‘Suicide or Jesus, and it’s not gonna work’, he said with his grave voice. But in this fucked up crazy world, Smith believes in one thing, love, as he explained before his song ‘Redemption #2’, that the promise of the love of a woman can save you from everything. He broke a string during the last song, but didn’t even stop playing, too absorbed by his storytelling and his folk-americana music, which, even played with a single guitar, was resonating loudly inside the store.
I listened to a few part-autobiographical-part-storytelling songs off his first album, boldly entitled ‘Once Upon a Time in the West’, and they already were about pain, fights, violence, heavy drinking, death and survival. What I heard was really impressive, even outstanding, revealing a rare voice that will definitively count in the future. But this is probably old news for that young woman, who had come very early, planted herself in front of mic since the beginning, leaning against the edge of the stage; she didn’t move a bit or detach her eyes from Jake Smith during the whole time, demonstrating some quiet and fervent fandom in action if I have ever seen one.
