2018 – Dreaming Buffalo
Music
By Phillip Smith;
July 13, 2018
Makin’
it Back to Macon follows closely on the heels of his recent EP
The Austin Sessions, released earlier
this Spring. The “Ambassador of Southern
Rock” and founder of Kudzoo Magazine Michael
Buffalo Smith reveals he has even more up his sleeve with this first full
length album since 2005. Buffalo holds
down the vocals and acoustic guitar with the rest of the band being composed of
Greg Yeary (rhythm/lead guitar) Billy Eli (acoustic guitar), Joey
Parrish (bass), and Towson Engsburg (drums/percussion). Paul Hornsby (Charlie Daniels,
Marshall Tucker Band) produced the album, which also features Tommy Talton
(Cowboy) on guitar, E.G. Kight on backing vocals, and the one and
only Billy Bob Thornton narrating the prologue and epilogue.
For the introduction, Buffalo wrote a soulful
dedication to the town of Macon, Georgia, making note to mention the
music, the food, and the people. Read by
Thornton, this spoken piece is a wonderful tribute to set the table for
the music which follows.
Buffalo brings
a sense of optimism to his song of mortality in “Both Feet on the Ground” which
features guitarist Daniel Jackson and bassist Joey Parrish, both
from the Silver Travis Band. Topped
off with some very cool slide-work from Tommy Talton and featuring Paul
Hornsby on the Wurlitzer piano, “My Baby Drives a Mercedes Benz” was co-written with Smith’s longtime
collaborator Greg Yeary. Smith explains
it was part of the set list when he and Yeary performed as Buffalo
Hut Coalition in the Eighties. Talton
also appears on the fantastic and melancholy “Tired of Living Blues”. Adding pops and scratches to be infused into
the recording, Smith bestows a vintage sound to this bona fide blues
tune. Smith invokes a style reminiscent
of the great John Prine into his music. A perfect example is “On a Still
Cold Saturday” inspired by a trippy recurring dream. Ripples of melancholy washes over when I hear
Smith bare his soul on “Woman in the Moon (It Comes in Waves)”, a very
personal song he wrote after the passing of the love of his life.
The record concludes with a beautifully written
self-reflective spoken word piece, “Epilogue: Reflections at 60”. With a gripping delivery, this mini-bio
written by Smith is read aloud by Billy Bob Thornton. It honestly ties everything together.
---
Click the following link to read the PhillyCheeze Review of Michael Buffalo Smith's EP, The Austin Sessions :
https://phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com/2018/05/332-michael-buffalo-smith-austin.html
