First of all let me say thanks to all of you Substack readers who have been following my posts this year. When my old pal Dartanyan Brown first encouraged me to try out this platform I wasn’t sure what to write about, and decided to stay away from current events, and focus on the stories behind my songs and recordings. I have published forty song stories so far, and have had fun looking back over the last fifty years of songwriting. I feel lucky to be alive to tell the tales, and hope you find some amusement here, as well as enjoying the song files I have shared. Please hit the like button, leave a comment, and share with your friends.
It’s Late is from 1975, written while living near Mabel, Minnesota in a little farmhouse, “getting back to the land” as we called it. I was trying to establish myself as a performing songwriter around the Midwest, but spending most of my time working for a Norwegian farmer. I got to help bale hay, clean out barns, castrate pigs, and fix fences. The pay was terrible, but rent was free and on work days I got three giant meals per day. Those Norwegians work hard and love to eat. Sometime in July I wrote It’s Late, a nifty little blues tune with a fun little bridge section. The song setting was a late night bar, and theme was romance.
L to R Frank Wiewel, Kirk Kaufman, and SS Mixing at West Minist’r Sound
In January of 1976 I got the chance to record some of my original songs at a great little studio in Otho, Iowa. The place was built and owned by four enterprising young rock musicians….Frank Wiewel, Kirk Kaufman, Keith Brown, and Arnie Bodie, Jr. They called it West Minist’r Sound, named after their rock band which played all over the Midwest. They did their homework and had all the latest equipment, great microphones, a 24 track mixing board and multi-track tape machine which made overdubbing possible.
One of their former band mates was a guy named Chuck Henderson who had left the group and was doing a solo folksinger act. Chuck loved the blues, and ended up in Iowa City, which is where we met and started jamming occasionally. He had a great feel for folk, blues, and country, and could come up with amazing guitar parts and arrangements of songs. He talked his former bandmates into letting me make some demos at their studio….they were learning how to run all their equipment and needed some “guinea pigs” like us to practice on. Here’s what that first studio demo of It’s Late sounded like….with Chuck and myself on guitars, Keith Brown on bass, and Arnie Bodie, Jr. on drums.
1. It’s late, we’ve had a few, the bar is closing, our eyelids too…
It’s late, but not too late for love
2. The band is, packin’ up….it looks as though they’ve had enough
It’s late, but not too late for love…
BRIDGE:
Should we go to your place, or should we go to mine
Either or the other would be fine….so fine
3. It’s late, the stars are out, the streetlights weave, their way about
It’s late, but not too late for love…
Instrumental verse / Repeat BRIDGE
Repeat Verse 1 / Turnaround last line
© 1978 Shadric Smith All Rights Reserved. Supposed To Be Music
A couple years later I had the chance to record again at West Minist’r Sound, this time with an actual budget and backing from a small record label out of Minneapolis. Please check out my Yankee Cowboy Substack post for the whole story of that session. I was able to hire a great group of musicians that I now refer to as The Billy Buffalo Band. We cut fourteen songs in about two weeks, mostly “live” to 24 track tape, and you will find stories about most of them in my previous posts. A new version of It’s Late came out of these sessions, which featured Bruce McCabe on piano, Gary Durr on bass, and Dolor Adams on drums. I played electric guitar on the track.
L to R. SS, Gary Durr, Dolor Adams, Chuck Henderson & Bruce McCabe
West Minist’r Sound Otho, Iowa March 1978 Photo by Cliff ( Lauren ) Siegel.
It’s Late became a staple in the repertoire of various incarnations of The Billy Buffalo Band which emerged in the years since then. It is the perfect song for playing during the last set, to get people settled into a slow dance, or to remind them that last call is coming soon. All of the songs we recorded at Otho eventually found their way onto a CD release on my Out Of The Blue Music label, which is available on all the streaming services like Amazon, Apple, YouTube & Spotify these days. I have a few physical copies left, and will gladly send you one if you decide to become a paid subscriber.
Thanks again for reading and listening this far. Please let me know if you would like to re-record any of my songs, or use them for any project or film. I can arrange easy low cost licensing through my publishing company Supposed To Be Music.
Have a great Holiday Season and New Year.