Introducing Smith And McClennan
Both highly valued artists in their own right with a plethora of accolades and achievements to their names, this UK based husband and wife roots duo consist of Scottish singer Emily Smith and New Zealand born songwriter/multi instrumentalist Jamie McClennan. They have been making music together for over 15 years and their influences include classic American harmony duos such as The Civil Wars as well as singer-songwriters like Miranda Lambert, Kacey Musgraves and Chris Stapleton.
15th November sees the release of their debut album, “Small Town Stories” on White Fall Records, an album created from their shared life experiences with Jamie writing eight of the ten tracks. They are deeply personal compositions written during, and influenced by, a period of flux in their lives which included moving houses and the birth of their second child (“The Sweetest Girl” being a love song to their baby daughter) exploring the universal themes of love, loss, hope, struggle and joy. Emily’s vocals are to the fore on the majority of the tracks, many of which feature Jamie’s virtuoso fiddle playing, and their stunning close knit harmonies throughout are testimony to the years they have spent working together. The vocals and main guitar accompaniment for each song were recorded live, before additional parts were added. Produced by Ross Hamilton at Rocket Science in Glasgow and mastered in Nashville , Ross also provided drums, bass, additional guitar and piano…. in fact it was just the three of them playing throughout the entire album, which has an Americana feel to it and which you can witness for yourselves on the lead single, the intense “Long Way Down” which tackles the tough subject of addiction
“Small Town Stories” can be pre-ordered here https://whitefallrecords.com/product/small-town-stories-preorder/
After an initial launch show in November at The Fullerton, Castle Douglas, the duo will tour the record in 2020, more details can be found at smithandmcclennan.com.
Article written by Lesley Hastings (twitter.com/lesleyhastings)
