Damon Smith is a virtuosic instrumentalist, singer, composer, music producer, writer, filmmaker and performer; a genuine artist driven to create.
He is also an active advocate for mental health, using his own experience of living with OCD and bipolar disorder to inform such works as his award-winning 2021 film Mental As Everything.
But when it comes to blues he is, first and foremost, an unabashed proponent of the piano.
“I am qualified to say this, because I spend just as much time on stage as a guitarist as I do a pianist, that there are too many guitars in this form of music,” Smith said.
“When you go to a blues festival or whatever, you’re going to see pretty much all guitars, maybe an organ or a keyboard backing one of the guitarists.
“There are so many great piano players out there of different genres, but particularly in blues, it tends to be a guitar-oriented thing.”
This month Smith will put his money where his mouth is when he comes to Geelong presenting a show featuring not one, but two electrifying pianists.
Smith and fellow virtuoso Ezra Lee will take the stage together at Beav’s Bar, backed by drummer Phil Collings and upright bassist Trent McKenzie, to deliver a show of boogie-woogie, blues, country and old-school rock ‘n’ roll.
Smith said he and Lee had very different styles, allowing them to complement each other in unexpected ways.
“(Ezra’s) definitely forged a path of this piano rocker, he sounds a lot like Jerry Lee Lewis and those 50s rock and rollers,” Smith said.
“He kicks arse, he’s amazing. When you see him in full flight, there’s nothing else you should be doing.
“I lean a lot more towards that New Orleans sort of swagger when it comes to piano… I’m almost soul, so I probably sound a bit closer to Donny Hathaway than Jerry Lee Lewis.
“So when we do our own brackets at these shows, people are often surprised and happy to hear we are actually polarisingly different on the piano. But when we play together, we’re playing the same riffs and it connects really quickly.”
Damon Smith and Ezra Lee are at Beav’s Bar from 2pm to 4pm on Sunday, August 10.
