By Davis Cohen
A musical detour through Lostville
MFS & The Smokes hold a local album release event in November
Beloved Oxford writer Michael Farris Smith is best known for over a half-dozen highly acclaimed novels and his screenplay adaptations of two, Desperation Road and The Fighter, to films starring the likes of Mel Gibson, Aaron Eckhart, and Bella Thorne.
Smith’s books, sometimes labeled Southern Noir, have appeared on ‘Best of the Year’ lists for Esquire, NPR, Southern Living, Garden & Gun, Oprah Magazine, and other publications. His style has been compared to William Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy.
But Smith’s latest venture is a musical journey through the world of Lostville, a vivid place that conjures up hopeful and personal reflection with a lyrical landscape that could only have been spawned by a seasoned wordsman.
The vibrant scenery of Smith’s excellent songs carry both a singular and communal spirit, and his voice delivers their short storylines nicely and with a bit of twang.
And whether it be the Delta or down on the southern border (as in the lead-off track Stranded), location plays a role throughout.
Stranded unravels the theme for the album, which Smith said could be the feeling of being “displaced” or “in a place you’re not familiar with.”
Readers of Smith’s novels and screenplays should ease right into this record like a warm bath, as Lostville is about as good a musical extension of his written work as any fans might bargain for.
MFS & The Smokes’ debut record is a six-song EP cut at the legendary Zebra Ranch Studio in Coldwater, MS, and produced by Grammy-nominated songwriter Jimbo Mathus, a close friend with Memphis-music icon Jim Dickinson, who established the studio with his family in 1995.
Dickinson, who passed in 2009 – and whose credits range from the Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan to a myriad of other rock, soul, R&B, and blues greats – was also a founding member of The Yalobushwhackers, the house band at Thacker Mountain Radio Hour.
Lostville was recorded over four days this past spring, and it all came together quicker than Smith might have expected when he and Mathus finally went ahead after months of casual talk.
A mix of getting to collaborate with producer/musician Mathus and at the historic Zebra Ranch was “a great opportunity,” he said.“It’s just hard to say no to that.”
It was right after they got the wheels in motion that local musicians Eric Carlton (Rocket 88, Neon Junkies) and Kell Kellum (The Great Dying) hopped on board with piano/pedal steel/guitar. The live sessions were shortly followed by overdubs, then mixing and mastering.
“We jumped right in,” he said. Also, the ever-enthusiastic Mathus felt the project came together “‘In ways that most don’t.’”
Smith remarked that in terms of efficiency, it was practically like conversations jumped from “Hey, let’s go record a couple of songs” to talks of making vinyl and then setting up a gig to go with the release.
Recording at Zebra Ranch has a palpable spiritual element, which did not go unnoticed by Smith during his own sessions.
“It’s just one of those places, where you know when you’re standing there you’re near somewhere special,” Smith said, “and that really interesting, creative, soulful, spiritual work has been done there. It’s got the grit and the charm – I mean, I think it’s churchlike in some ways to be in a place like that.”
Smith considers himself an artist who has always been driven by a “sense of place,” which, along with the strong mojo and nostalgia around the studio, made for great vibes.
“Very surreal for me, is the best way to describe being there and doing such a thing, and recording there,” he said.
Smith came up in South Mississippi in an era of popular bands like Whiskeytown and Uncle Tupelo, and is also influenced by storytellers like Lucinda Williams and Steve Earle, and in recent years sang with The Leisure Class, the band of the late Jack Sonni, of Dire Straits fame.
Being a novelist and a songwriter gives Smith a unique perspective, but he said “I think it’s the same in the emotions it conveys with you.” The upbeat and driving Dog and Wolf, shows the kind of the simple slice-of-life that’s familiar to other scenes in his stories.
In the writer’s words, one ongoing thread is, “sense of wonder, as in not knowing where you are or particularly where you are going.” Also, “a sense of looking for home,” and “recovering from things that have happened, then trying to find your way.”
He said, “Lostville is both everywhere and nowhere at the same time.”
As a full-time novelist, Smith is used to being holed up for months-on-end with each book, sometimes taking nearly a year to get any feedback on his writing. But in the case of music & songwriting he celebrates the immediate reaction.
“What I have loved about music, and getting involved in the Oxford music scene in the last few years, is the instant gratification it gives you,” said Smith. “The chance to sit in a room and write a song, and then maybe that weekend playing on stage in front of a crowd and get immediate feedback from it. And that’s something you don’t get in the novel-writing world. That’s something you don’t get in the screenwriting world.”
Michael also credits his roots in non-secular music. “You don’t grow up a Southern Baptist preacher’s kid and not get influenced by gospel music, in some way.”
MFS & The Smokes will perform at Proud Larry’s at 211 S Lamar Blvd. on Nov. 18, 8 p.m.
‘Lostville’ is available on all streaming media formats, and vinyl can be purchased at www.michaelfarrissmith.com.
