Jonah Smith

Biography

JUST RELEASED AUG. 28th! Jonah’s newest album Lights On. Like his earlier albums, Smith’s latest work defies easy categorization; he pulls from the deep well of American blues and many of its offshoots, including soul, country, and folk. Still, his raw talents as a writer and performer shine on stage irrespective of his unclassifiable style. Smith is essentially a songwriter with the voice of a soul singer.

Seeking an aesthetic consistency for his songs, Smith traveled to Kingston, NY to meet with producer Malcolm Burn. Burn’s idea was to make a record where every song contrasted the one preceding, resulting in an album with great breadth that gains its continuity from Smith’s woody, rich voice and Burn’s compelling production aesthetic. The album pulls in diverging directions, finding the tension between hope and cynicism, the beauty of both blitheness and despair. From the opening song “Love Gets Lost,” which slowly fades in with a repeating guitar motif, we have the feeling that we’ve wandered midway into someone else’s dream.