Smiling Jack Smith

It has been a long and winding road, as the song goes, and the musical story is as changing and varied as the geographical. From crooner and tap-dancer in the 50's and folk-singer in the 60's in NY, to folk rocker in the 70's and 80's in Vancouver, a short stint as a country artist in Florida in the early 90's and, then in the last visit to NJ, the blues began to be the driving force in his music.

Some shows with Johnny Clyde Copeland and Charlie Musselwhite added energy to the transformation and so, in Spain, when asked for the first time what kind of music he played he had to answer truthfully, ?Blues?.
And so the last 15 years in Spain has been a kind of living experiment and distillation process, where all the influences of his early music have played a part in the ever-changing blues of Smiling Jack.
Four CD's later Jack is a well-known figure on the Spanish blues scene.
He has a core group of musicians that have been working with him for almost a decade, including drummer Quique Villafa?e and bassist Jesus Rodero, as well as some wonderful instrumentalists including Antonio Toledo and David Gwynn on guitar, Antonio Serrano and David Garcia on harmonica and Raul Marquez on violin.
More than 25 festivals in Spain, the Isle of Man and Australia have given him an international audience as well as the airplay his last two CD's have received on three continents, including Blues Deluxe, a syndicated show with more than two million listeners.