WHEN THE MINSTREL PASSES by BRODERICK SMITH. Reflection by Luke Davies.

Uranquinty to Wangaratta. A while ago.

I was driving back to Wangaratta from the Uranquinty Folk Festival some years back, listening to a CD that Diane Wolfe had given me of her blues album by the Wolfe Gang.

I had to pull over and look at the cover to see who played the great harmonica on it.

Broderick Smith. Tasty, soulful and never over-played.

I had heard of Broderick Smith mainly as the harp player from the early 1970s band Carson.

When I started my own harmonica quest/obsession back in the late 1980s, playing in a blues and boogie band was what I was about.

Smith’s work in bands like the ground breaking Dingoes was not on my radar. In those days the kinds of music I sought out weren’t on the radio. I kinda missed a whole era of Aussie music.

Years later I would come to see and hear what a talent Broderick Smith was, mixing various music styles into his sound, always with some nice blues influenced harmonica licks thrown in.

His recent passing has made me look a bit closer. A friend lent me Smith’s 2018 book, Man Out of Time. It’s a musical journey/ memoir: very funny in parts, informative, full of yarns, interesting pictures of bands and poster art and old newspaper clips too.

As a fellow blues traveller and harp player it was interesting to read about his early influences and even though I am some 15 years younger than Brod Smith, our tastes were still very similar. One of my favourite musicians, Paul Butterfield, gets a mention in the book, along with many others.

Do yourself a favour and take a YouTube rabbit hole dive looking at Broderick Smith clips.

Stereo Story #715

Broderick Smith website