Growing up 40 minutes west of Dallas but rocking out on Austin’s legendary Sixth Street as part of the nucleus of subgenre-defining Americana acts to emerge from Texas’ outlaw country outpost is an acceptable way to define Shane Smith’s career so far.
On Thursday and Friday, he and his band, Shane Smith and the Saints, will appear at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium.
This will close a one-year cycle in which Charley Crockett, the Randy Rogers Band, Silverada (formerly Mike and the Moonpies) and Turnpike Troubadours also played at the venue. All were raucous affairs where energies similar to acts played in rooms half the Ryman’s size a decade ago were being mimicked in Music City.
Thus, Smith is in a chapter of his career where his legacy is being redefined.
A career-redefining era
“It’s like you can’t help but feel like you’ve paid your dues to get to a certain spot, but once you get there, you realize you’re just starting to touch the surface of the bigger picture,” Smith said, via a press statement.