CANCELLED: The Lil Smokies

Andy Dunnigan: dobro, vocals
The Reverend Matthew Rieger: guitar, vocals
Jake Simpson: fiddle, guitar, vocals
Jean Luc Davis: bass
Sam Armstrong Zickefoose: banjo

“Under Big Sky/Big Mountain stand/Keep watchful eye/On my Montana Flower”

Even though often called a “newgrass” or jam band, the Lil Smokies’ high-energy acoustic music has evolved into its own distinctive sound on their fourth and latest studio album, Break of the Tide, which finds them emerging from the Covid lockdown stronger than ever.

“Sort of a fusion of lyric-driven folk music, pop harmonies and bluegrass instruments” is the way Montana native and band founder Andy Dunnigan describes the Lil Smokies music, which also evokes contemporary country-folk-rock groups like Mumford & Sons and the Avett Brothers.

With a nearly five-year gap from their last album, 2020’s Tornillo, the band has added two new members in bassist Jean Luc Davis and banjo player Sam Armstrong Zickefoose to the core trio of dobro player Dunnigan, Seattle-based lead guitarist Matthew Rieger and fiddler Jake Simpson, now dividing his time between Montana and Oklahoma.

Dunnigan was a creative writing and poetry student at the University of Montana in Missoula (birthplace of the late film auteur David Lynch) back in 2009 when he stumbled on a campus bluegrass jam, joining in on his dobro, which he learned to play from his father, a professional guitarist. 

Returning to Texas (where they recorded Tornillo), the Lil Smokies cut Break of the Tide at a Dallas-Fort Worth studio with local producer Robert Ellis, the album title representing, according to Andy, “a turning point, a pivot… the old world vs. the new world. It’s about having to get a fresh start after Covid. It’s like a bug set in amber, an artifact from that period of time. We didn’t drown under the tide.”

“One of the biggest differences between this album and Tornillo is we hadn’t played these songs live before we recorded them,” added Jake. “These tracks really took shape in the studio. For the most part, we used whole takes, rather than overdubs and edits.  It’s a vibey record.”

The album finds the band expanding beyond the bluegrass genre with a spacious, airy, contemplative set of “more introspective, nuanced” songs which slow down to reflect the wide-open spaces and natural beauty of the state where they first took shape. The first single, “Montana Flower,” according to Simpson, is a love song to a local Whitefish girl, comparing her beauty to the geographical marvels of the area, including Big Mountain.

“That’s the imagery that was going through my head when I wrote the song,” acknowledged Jake. “There’s a lot of mystery in Whitefish.  It’s an interesting mix of people there from all over the world alongside the locals who have been there forever. Lots of cosmic energy keeping an eye out for my love when I’m not there.”

Another Simpson-penned track, “Keep Me Down” offers the touring musician’s lament of choosing between what you left at home and the call of the road. “It’s a real love-hate relationship,” laughed Jake. “I’ve been doing a lot of therapy on this issue, and I think I’m improving in that area.”

Rev’s “Sycamore Dreams” is “a break-up song about sometimes love alone isn’t enough” to keep a relationship together (“It shines on paper/Torn from the start/Frayed at the seams”). “There are divine forces that are sometimes out of our control,” said Rev. “And sometimes you have to trust and surrender to them.” 

“Fire in the Rain” is a Dunnigan-penned folk song that offers a vocal homage to one of his favorite singer/songwriters in James Taylor, evoking his similarly titled “Fire and Rain.”

“My father played his records for me when I was just three years old,” said Andy.  

Break of the Tide marks a turning point for the Lil Smokies, who are ready to hit the road running this year, reinventing themselves for the long haul.

“This is a more pensive, delicate record than we’ve done in the past,” explained Rev. “It’s about being able to turn to art to deal with hardship, the encouragement to know we’re not alone in this. It’s about looking to the future, figuring out a way to move ahead.”

Added Andy, “We’re just more confident in ourselves as songwriters now. We don’t have anything to prove at this point. We’re comfortable where we are as a band.”

“We’re older, but maybe not wiser,” joked Rev. “This is who we are right now.”

From their humble beginnings playing the “holy trinity” of Missoula, Whitefish and Bozeman in Montana, the Lil Smokies have toured all over the U.S. and abroad in Iceland, Mexico and Canada, performing at such prestigious venues as Red Rocks and festivals like Telluride, High Sierra, LOCKN’, Freshgrass and FloydFest. The group earned top prize at the Northwest String Summit outside of Portland in 2013 and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Colorado in 2015, which proved the catalyst for more touring success through the end of the decade.