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Within your twenties you have five years to go from being young and drunk to being grown up,” says the 24-year-old Ryan Smith, talking on the phone while driving to his parents’ home. Smith’s current location - somewhere between home and his home - echoes much of what he sings about on his latest work, Someone Please Take Me Home. Life between college graduation and the real world, between your mother bringing you soup and you serving soup for a living. And it could be easy to discard Smith as a plain named man imitating other blandly named rock stars (see Ryan Adams and Elliott Smith) with songs of the lonely - were it not for the intriguing word play and satire of his work. Someone Please Take Me Home manages to stay energized without complicating things, underscoring that songs can be quirky and fun solely based on words. “Saturday Night,” inspired by a 29-year-old friend’s realization that rock stardom isn’t in his future, meanders through what real life means, from getting a day job to checking in with your mother everyday. “It’s a rock star’s coming of age,” says Smith. “You’re a star but you have to get a day job. You see these people on TV, they used to be big but they’ve got real lives.” In an example of some of the mocking lyrics seen through the album, the chorus switches from “So far to the left, you know it ain’t right” to “So far from the left, you know it ain’t right.” It’s not exactly Randy Newman’s “Political Science,” but it does add bite to an already fascinating song. Add in some harmonica and a Neil Young or early Bruce Springsteen feel and you’ve got quite a tune. “When people age they get a little more conservative. The passage of time just naturally does it to you I guess,” Smith explains. “It’s nothing I’m trying to express politically. I don’t think my political views come into the music.” Just as “Saturday Night” talks about growing up, “Walk of Shame” is its antithesis. Yes, that walk of shame, and it’s something Smith thinks hits a common nerve among young people, calling it his “ode to college life”. “I wanted to write a great drinking song that everyone in my age group could relate to. Not just people who went to college, everyone has that story.” “Shame” delivers one of the albums best observational one-liners, “We’re not friends we just know the same people” – an idea that resonates with anyone in that situation. Someone also deals with the more introspective in “November,” “Stay the Night” and “Where the Lights Are Low.” “It’s easy to write sad songs, but sometimes you have to do it. It’s really hard to say my songs are happy. A lot of my stuff falls in the middle. I see these songs more of a commentary on life.” About “November,” (“I don’t blame anyone, but I blame everyone but myself. It don’t help the way or hide the way I felt,” Smith croons in the chorus.): “I had the worst month of my life. ‘If we make it through November’ – it was a joke. I pieced it together from there.” “I think, un-intentionally, my songs come off very lonely; much more so than I wanted it to be. I write in more a sarcastic sense. People might look at the music and think I’m depressed. That’s not the case. They’re observational.” If the album is about transitions, then the music follows the same course. The transitions – specifically bridges – are where you’ll find some of Smith’s best work musically, especially in “November” and “Stay the Night.” In addition to layered guitar work, you’ll also find the occasional harmonicas and bells. “I’ve always liked playing with various instrumentations, it was funny because the studio always had all kind of musical toys. The producer had to stop me a few times.” |
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Uncommon Ground Past Show Dates | |
| 2005-04-08 (1284 days) | Ryan Smith |
| Matt Minchew | |
| Dark Green Bottles | |