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Damon Smith
Drums
Damon Smith was born in Okinawa Japan, and had seen most
of the US before turning 8 and shipping out to Africa. Damon’s
folks had a country band in Africa with a few like-minded
servicemen called “The Buffalo Chips”. Moving
all the time gave Damon access to a wide spectrum of music
from traditional and indigenous, to contemporary and counter
cultural. Mostly, thought he just wanted to rock. Damon taught
him self to play the drums while listening to Foreigner. “It
was hard. You couldn’t play too loud or the record would
skip”.
It’s been rock, rock and more rock since 1989. Touring
the U.S. several times with punk groups Abaisser, and Someday
I … ,Damon has satisfied a need to keep moving. Always
lurking in the shadows were those memories of country music.
They finally came flooding out and now Damon is rediscovering
the music of his parents. Playing with Halden Wofford and
the Hi-Beams, he’s been able to study the roots of country,
from Bob Wills to Earnest Tubb, Honky-tonk to Gospel. Rounding
out this musical journey is Turn4, allowing Damon to write
in his own country voice and explore modern country artists
like Uncle Tupelo, the Back Sliders and John Wayne.
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