First love

G.E. Smith turns to the blues

by Don Fluckinger

Everybody recognizes George Edward "G.E." Smith, the guitarist who threw down hot licks on Saturday Night Live from 1985 to '95, blond locks swaying, constantly smiling, skillfully trading bars with guests like Buddy Guy, David Gilmour, Eddie Van Halen, and Charlie Musselwhite. He was never outclassed by his very classy company and always seemed as if he were having a great time. Putting his Rolodex and impresario charm to work this year, Smith put together a crack road band, who he brings to the Call next Friday.

The group include original Wings drummer Steve Holley, SNL bassist Paul Ossola, and a dream rhythm-guitar player in Smith's estimation, Tom Cosgrove, who played in Brethren, a late-'70s band who weren't commercially successful but a favorite among musicians.

That group will back singer/songwriter Taylor Barton for a 40-minute set, in which she'll play material from her two albums, including "One Man Down" -- a tune which can be seen performed on VH-1. Then "me and the boys will come out, and we do our blues thing," Smith says.

Smith is a sought-after free agent who hits homers wherever he goes, beginning with the dozen-plus Top 10 hits he had with Hall & Oates -- he played lead guitar on the group's biggest albums and tours, including Voices, Private Eyes, H2O, and Big Bam Boom. He backed several acts at Live Aid, including Mick Jagger and Tina Turner, and toured with Bob Dylan for four years. Did we mention he won an Emmy for his stint with SNL, and recorded with Jagger, David Bowie, Tracy Chapman, Jimmy Buffett, and Peter Wolf?

"I always put everything in my career down to luck -- right place, right time," the quietly upbeat Smith says. "Time and again since I was a kid, someone I met knew a guy who needed a guitar player, and I'd be in that band for a while and someone else would hear about me."

Smith got his big break touring with Dan Hartman in 1977. He married Gilda Radner after a stint playing guitar for her Gilda Live Broadway show. Ever since, he's been working the web of connections he made with those two events. Now, after marrying Barton, he's stopped being a sideman for a while to focus on his first love: the blues.

"Unless you're in a band like Aerosmith or the Rolling Stones that's existed since you were young, I always think it doesn't ring true to play a certain kind of rock and roll," he says. "To me, it's a young-man's music. Most guitar players go to either jazz or blues, wherever their heart and intellect is. . . . If you listen to what I played even while I was with Daryl Hall and John Oates, I was playing blues over their music."

G.E. Smith specializes in the steamy, electric, horn-drenched blues-rock the SNL band played during his tenure at the helm. Not many fans can name the influences that shaped the band's sound, but they know it's great. For the record, Smith modeled it after the Five Royales (an early-'50s gospel/R&B group) and Big Joe Liggett, a New Orleans bandleader of the same era. Throw in a little "Booker T. & the MG's . . . with horns," he says, and there you have it.

As the General Electric era rolled into NBC, the atmosphere on the SNL set became more "bottom-line-oriented," Smith says. He was discouraged from bringing in guest musicians to sit in with the band. Soon after, Smith left along with many people in the cast and backstage crew who were relieved of their jobs.

After that, Smith and the SNL band went looking for a another recording deal (they had released an album on Liberty in 1992 and had backed up Buddy Guy on his The Real Deal live album on Silvertone in 1996). Despite his studio experience, skills as an arranger, and a wide-reaching contacts, the major labels surprisingly told Smith, "no dice.

"I've had major labels tell me over the last couple years, `We're only signing women, and nobody over 18,' or `We're only signing bands, and nobody over 23'," Smith says. "That's from two different labels. I don't fit either of those categories. It's a tough scene."

So this year he and Barton started their own label. In her first move as vice-president, Barton put together A Private Collection, an EP of material Smith recorded with the SNL band. Smith will record a new, full-length album next year, with release scheduled for May. Barton plans a new album of her own for next fall.

"Being involved with a major label is not very interesting at this point," Smith says. "With the technology the way it is, it's so easy to make CDs. Anyone can make CDs right now -- right in their apartment, right now. You can spend $1200 and make quality CDs. You don't need a major label right now, you just need distribution."

G.E. Smith and Taylor Barton appear at the Call, in Providence, on December 19. Call 401-751-2255.