Shane Smith & The Saints
with Red Shahan and The Lowdown Drifters (10/24) and Hayes Carll and Suzanne Santo (10/25)
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Date & TimeOctober 24-25, 20248:00 PM
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On SaleOn Sale Now
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Ticket Pricing$26.00 - $161.00
Norther is anything but monochromatic. Written and recorded during breaks in the band's touring schedule, the album captures Shane Smith and the Saints at their most colorful, offering up a hard-hitting version of American roots music that's influenced by country, folk, and roadhouse rock & roll. It's a sound that's been shaped by the road, where the Saints spent the past decade on tour, building a cult audience with each gig. Those years of raw, redemptive performances are now paying off — not only with headlining concerts at bucket-list venues like Red Rocks Amphitheater (which the group sold out in 36 hours) and the Ryman Auditorium, but also with an appearance on the hit TV show Yellowstone, where the Saints premiered Norther's final track, "Fire in the Ocean," with an onscreen performance.
"If you spend 10 years playing dive bars and small clubs almost every single night, and you go to the merch booth after every show and hang out with the fans until the staff literally kicks you out, you get to turn those fans into friends," says Smith, who grew up in Terrell, Texas, before launching his band in Austin. "That's how we built this thing. We've done as many as 240 shows in a single year. We've worked so hard to get there, and that hard work has created a beautiful, meaningful audience."
Beautiful, indeed. Named after the northern winds that blow across Texas during the winter, Norther begins with the haunting "Book of Joe." Bennett Brown's fiddle gives the song plenty of orchestral atmosphere, Dustin Schaefer's electric guitar adds anthemic punch, and Zach Stover's percussion — which builds toward a pummeling finish, locking in with Chase Satterwhite's bass along the way — rolls like thunder. At the center of that sound is Smith's voice: a husky baritone that's been textured by countless gigs in smoky bars and loud dance halls. It's a gorgeously raw instrument, caught halfway between tender and tough, and it's there — somewhere in the middle — that the Saints shine their brightest.
"When you're in a band like ours, everyone gets their turn to play their music in the van," Smith explains. "Bennett grew up listening to Appalachian and Celtic-inspired folk and bluegrass music, and you can hear that in the way he plays fiddle. Dustin grew up loving classic rock. When I met my wife, she introduced me to music like Arcade Fire, Alberta Cross, and First Aid Kit — bands that I'd categorize as cinematic folk or cinematic indie-rock — and that had a massive impact on my writing, too. Everybody in this band has their own influences, and we've spent years together, letting our sound evolve into something really unique."
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Venue Information
Ryman Auditorium
Ryman Auditorium, located at 116 Rep. John Lewis Way North, in Nashville, Tennessee, is one of the most celebrated venues in modern music. Built in 1892, the historic 2,362-seat live performance venue is the most famous former home of the Grand Ole Opry and is revered by artists and music fans for its world-class acoustics. A bucket list moment for both fans and artists alike, her iconic stage has hosted performers from across genres, such as Elvis Presley, Bruce Springsteen, Charley Pride, Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, Harry Styles, Wu-Tang Clan, Lizzo, and thousands more. While offering a diverse lineup and thriving concert schedule with over 200 shows per year, the venue is also open for daytime tours year-round. Along with best-in-class production technologies and livestream capabilities, the Ryman has been named Pollstar’s Theater of the Year for 13 years through 2021.
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