About The White Buffalo
The White Buffalo is the stage name of American musician and singer-songwriter Jake Smith, a baritone from Oregon influenced by folk musicians like Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. Smith's songs, from an array of at least ten extended play and studio albums appearing since 2002, have provided songs for a variety of popular American media, including the television series Sons of Anarchy, Californication, The Punisher, Longmire, This Is Us, as well as the surfing movie, Shelter .
Smith is a baritone, and is known for a wide range in pitch within his singing, and for incorporating whistling into his music, i.e., in place of the harmonica often used in roots music, as well as for his references to God and war in his lyrics. His singing style has been compared to that of the late singer-songwriter Richie Havens. He is a singer/songwriter of compelling melody and intricate lyrics, straddling blurry lines of country, rock, folk and Americana along the way.
Smith grew up listening to country music and punk rock. His storytelling has been compared to that of folk musicians such as Townes Van Zandt and Steve Earle.
The White Buffalo's first full-length album, Hogtied Like a Rodeo, debuted in 2002. This was followed by The White Buffalo EP, produced by Eels' Koool G Murder, which Smith states is about "relationships, love, loss and booze with a little murder mixed in." This EP was musically grounded in acoustic folk and country blues. He re-recorded the first album in a friend's living room in 2008, renaming it Hogtied Revisited, in it blend of elements of the folk, modern rock, and alternative country genres.
In 2010, a second EP, again musically grounded in folk, Prepare for Black and Blue, was recorded in six days with producer Jimmy Messer, and released through Chad Stokes' Ruffshod imprint via Nettwerk Records. The music and the artist captured the attention of Unison Music's Bruce Witkin and Ryan Dorn, who then signed The White Buffalo and co-produced Once Upon a Time in the West, an album that transitioned to a more roots rock sound, with some songs still retaining a folk style.
In 2013, a fourth LP, a mix of folk and some blues rock, Shadows, Greys, and Evil Ways, was released on Unison Music Group to positive reviews. NY1 stated, "Not since Neil Young's Living with War has there been so strong an artistic statement about this country's occupations."
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