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Josh Smith & The Frost

"Too Damn cold"

Maddog Music

It's only natural to compare the new breed of young guitar slingers on the blues scene today with our own favorites. This guy sounds like a young clapton, that guy sounds like Albert collins, he plays that like Hendrix did, everybody sounds like the next Stevie Ray. Josh Smith has certainly invited the comparisons to Stevie Ray with both his playing style and his appearance. But with the release of his latest cD its time to start comparing him with someone else - himself.

At the young age of 18, this is already his 3rd release - his first with his current band, The Frost. With each subsequent release he has matured - honing his chops and strengthening his voice. Nearly all of the music on Too Damn cold was written by Josh while the lyrics were written by his father/manager, Joel. The opening track, Wicked and Evil, rock & rolls out of the station harmlessly enough, but by the second break the train is a runaway. The disc's title tune hurtles down the track full speed and barely slows up for an instrumental curve called Booty, a nice little shuffling diddie reminiscent of Ronnie Earl (see, can't help it). A couple more hard driving blues tunes in Natural Disaster and Hard World and we come to another shuffle, Packing Her Bags, that apparently had B.B. King rocking while The Frost toured with him last year. The rhythm section of Al Rich on drums (who has since been replaced by Tony Peterson) and Mike Nadaoka on bass make this one jump. In 32°, Josh lets loose some very cool slide work. This tune got some national exposure last season on cBS's chicago Hope. Josh shows off his improving vocals in Driver but they're quickly overshadowed by some vicious fret work. One of only two non-originals on the disc, Lights Are On But Nobody's Home is a slow, smoky blues tune that finds Josh getting personal with his wawa. The closer is an old standard, Shake & Bake, which leaves you hanging on and wanting for more. Ironically, Shake & Bake is the tune that The Frost have been using to open their gigs during the past year during their coast to coast tour.

This kid's got it all going on. I've seen him live three times over the past 13 months and his progress is sensational. Hell, he's only one year out of high school. In the future, it's quite possible we'll be hearing some new kid's licks and saying, "Sounds a lot like Josh Smith."

Jay Hudak

Visit Josh Smith & The Frost's Web Site for audio samples, tour dates and merchandise info @ http://www.joshsmithandthefrost.com.