November’s Artscape features the veteran singer-songwriter Grant Maloy Smith. Smith works in the Roots/Americana niche of the country/folk scene, and over the past decade he’s produced a pair of impressive albums, most recently 2017’s release, called Dust Bowl – American Stories.
In the journal of American roots music, No Depression, the reviewer hailed this album as, “music as intense as Woody Guthrie.” And that’s appropriate, as the entire album is devoted to songs about that great human and natural disaster in the US in the 1930s, chronicled by Guthrie and others, when a severe drought, over-plowed lands and high winds conspired to create monstrous dust storms they called “black rollers”. “Old Black Roller” is the song that kicks off the Dust Bowl album, with a building sense of desperation in the face of devastation.
Smith’s latest work includes the song “Man of Steel”, a song chosen by the National Veterans Foundation as their new theme song. And Smith has written a Christmas novelty song called “Fly Possum Fly.” As if to prove Smith’s versatility, the song has been turned into a children’s book, which Smith has also done the illustrations for. The book recently won a Gold Award, from Mom’s Choice Awards, an organization that promotes family-friendly entertainment and educational materials. Another recent song from Smith, called “Man of Steel”, has been chosen as the official theme song for the National Veterans Foundation.