HIGH HOPES
Shane Smith & The Saints
When the going got tough, the Texans kept going, and are now reaping some rewards.
The Blue Norther is a fast-moving cold front that becomes a tempest when it hits Texas. The storm is marked by violent changes in temperature. “It’s a really powerful thing to witness and feel,” says singer, songwriter and Lone Star native Shane Smith. “You see this whole weather wall coming, and then it’s like, ‘boom!’ It’s scary, but there’s also something really romantic to it at the same time.”
Norther is a fitting title for Shane Smith & The Saints’ fourth album. Not only does it signify the Austin, Texas quintet’s eruptive, inclement mix of red dirt country, folk, bluegrass and embattled rock, it also serves as a metaphor for their difficult journey over the past decade or so.
“It’s that combination of massive energy building and building, then finally releasing and getting to this place we’re at now,” Smith explains. “We’ve been doing this for so long, but it feels like this is the first time we’ve ever been heard. So calling it Norther makes perfect sense.”
Indeed, the band’s story is testament to both talent and sheer durability. In 2019, following an appalling run of ill fortune after third album Hail Mary, they almost quit altogether.
“We’d been audited by the IRS,” says Smith, “then we discovered a crew member had been slowly stealing around $25,000 from me, with a credit card. And our tour bus caught fire as we were travelling to Lubbock. Long story short, we lost everything: all of our guitars, merch and equipment,
