The Oakville Beaver, Friday October 26, 2007 - 35www.oakvillebeaver.com

ArtsceneOakvilleBeaver

• FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2007

■ By Ann CopeSPECIAL TO THE BEAVER

When Oakville-based guitarist Curtis RaySmith was growing up in 1950’s LubbockTexas, Sunday dinner was usually either friedchicken or chicken fried steak, but in all like-lihood the dinner music emanating from hismom’s record player was Ray Charles.

The music for those Sunday dinners, com-bined with the other blues, soul and R&B thatpermeated the southern airwaves during thatera, left an indelible imprint on the youngster.

Now in various Oakville restaurants(Trattoria Timone at present) Smith is provid-ing the dinner music.

Although ‘soul food’ isn’t on the menu,those early soul influences can certainly beheard in his guitar style and repertoire.

“I guess growing up ‘in the center of thestorm’ so to speak really had an impact on me,so I’ve always gravitated towards blues, souland R&B performers, as well as contemporaryartists that were clearly influenced by them,”said Smith. “You get a fairly broad spectrum ofage groups in a high quality restaurant likeTrattoria Timone, so I structure my repertoireto include songs in each set that appeal to allage groups, but my favorites are from the souland R&B era, along with material by GeorgeBenson, Carole King, and blues artists likeB.B. King and Stevie Ray Vaughn.”

If the response Smith receives to his guitarinstrumental arrangements of classic and con-temporary melodies is any indication, he’s cer-tainly not alone in his love of those genres.

“I’ve found over the years that people lovethe classic melodies. Since my repertoire isexclusively guitar instrumental, I’ve doneinstrumental arrangements of many songsthat people have never heard instrumentalarrangements of before,” he said.

“In terms of repertoire selection, I’m con-stantly scanning the audience for what I callthe smile factor and tweaking the repertoireaccordingly. When I play the guitar intro toMy Girl, or Just My Imagination, or some-thing like George Benson’s Breezin orAffirmation, the big smiles tell me I’m on theright track.”

Despite having played in trios and quartets

for most of his recent career, the realities ofthe restaurant/lounge music scene forcedSmith to take a different approach so that costand stage size could be reduced without com-promising the quality of the music.

“Most restaurant owners I know would loveto provide their guests with a live trio or quar-tet, but space in a busy restaurant is anextremely valuable commodity, so sacrificingthree or four tables for a stage simply isn’t fea-sible,” Smith said. “I was asked to scale thingsdown to a single, but still produce the fullsound of a quartet, so I spent a couple of yearsarranging bass, keyboard and percussion partsin a very sophisticated electronic sequencer,

which I now use to provide the backgroundparts for my live performances. The real chal-lenge in that approach is ensuring that thosesequenced parts sound and feel like real musi-cians, which I accomplish by using real musi-cians to play the parts into the sequencer.”

During the ‘80s Smith became a guitar cli-nician and product specialist for YamahaCanada Music, an activity that led to a crossCanada concert tour with classical guitar vir-tuoso Norbert Craft.

Smith’s activities in guitar product devel-opment and artist endorsements also led toclose relationships with several prominentCanadian guitarists, including Bruce

Cockburn, Bob Mann (James Taylor’s gui-tarist), Liona Boyd and Rik Emmett.

“The real highlight of that work for me washelping to design custom guitars for BruceCockburn. During the ‘70s my main specialtywas acoustic finger-style guitar, and I played alot of Bruce’s material in lounges and folkclubs,” he said. “Working with him on newguitar and pickup designs was a real treat forme. Working with Rik Emmett was also ablast, especially since I was able to accompanyhim through his transition from Triumph to asuccessful solo career as a highly respectedjazz musician.”

Smith’s first foray into the music produc-tion arena came in the mid ‘80s, when he wasplaying with Quebec based blues master BrianMonty Smith.

He produced a four-song demo for Brianthat led to one of his most memorable gigs,when he and Brian — supported by severalLong John Baldry band members – played twonights with blues legend Albert King at TheBrunswick in Toronto.

The most fortunate chance meeting inSmith’s musical career occurred in the mid‘80s when he was fulfilling a friend’s request toadd a guitar solo to a demo he was recordingfor GRT Records. The producer on that sessionwas former Ronnie Hawkins keyboardist andproducer / engineer, Glen Johansen.

Smith ended up doing most of the guitarwork on that project, as well as countless oth-ers at Johansen’s Toronto studio, includingJohansen’s first solo album, Walkin’ A Finelinealongside the late Canadian guitar iconDomenic Troiano.

Their musical collaborations have contin-ued over the years – the most recent beingJohansen’s production of Smith’s latestrelease, the EP Masquerade – an all-instru-mental collection of classics from the ‘50s, ‘60sand ‘70s by writers such as Leon Russell,Kenny Burrell, Tony Joe White, and VanMorrison.

These days Smith divides his time betweenperforming three nights a week (Thursday-Saturday) at Trattoria Timone in Oakville, anddoing corporate work in Toronto. Informationregarding Smith’s latest CD – Masquerade isavailable at www.curtisraysmith.com.

Guitarist provides sizzle with your steak

Guitarist Curtis Ray Smith