Steuart Smith of the Eagles - ASK ZAC EP 1

0:19
hey guys welcome to Ask Zack I'm Zack
0:23
child of course we're here to answer
0:26
guitar related questions and just
0:28
hopefully have fun let's be guitar nerds
0:32
together so today we wanted to answer
0:35
the question who is Stuart Smith some of
0:38
you may know about Stuart through his
0:41
work with the Eagles he's been with for
0:43
last 20 years but his history goes so a
0:47
lot further back than that so Stuart
0:50
started you know kind of hitting the
0:53
scene in Washington DC Maryland area and
0:58
you really got you know where his career
1:01
really started was playing on the Rodney
1:03
Crowell album Street language now the
1:06
album didn't really do a whole lot but
1:10
Rodney ended up also using Stuart on the
1:12
next album that he produced which was
1:14
for his wife Rozanne cash so in that
1:17
album was Kings record shop and that
1:20
album had a number of number-one hits on
1:23
it on the on the country charts and
1:25
Stuart really started to get noticed and
1:29
that's where I first heard him I was
1:32
watching Austin City Limits which was
1:34
kind of a religious thing especially in
1:37
Texas in the 70s and 80s was every
1:39
Saturday night
1:40
you watched Austin City Limits and and
1:44
then you you know of course when you're
1:45
older than he went out and you know
1:48
listen to some live music someplace but
1:50
I saw Stewart playing on on Austin City
1:55
Limits and his plane was very different
1:58
than the other players I had seen on the
2:01
show country or rock wise and but of
2:07
course this is pre-internet so wasn't
2:09
like you could just you know google him
2:11
and
2:12
find out more information so I wondered
2:16
about him but then about a year later I
2:18
saw him again on Austin City Limits and
2:20
this time it was with Rodney Crowell and
2:22
with Rodney he had played on his next
2:25
album which was called diamonds at dirt
2:26
diamonds and dirt was also another big
2:29
record it had a couple of number-one
2:33
hits on it and again Stewart played all
2:36
the electric guitar on it and and seeing
2:40
that performance was another kind of
2:41
electrifying in a moment of seeing some
2:45
great and unique guitar playing so a
2:48
couple of things that Stewart did that
2:52
were unique especially for the time was
2:57
you know when most guitar players would
3:00
play kind of a an Eve kind of shuffling
3:04
kind of boogie with them kind of thing
3:06
they might you know play something of
3:10
that sort
3:11
while Stewart because he's putting the
3:13
thumb pick he would really pluck the
3:16
strings aggressively
3:36
that kind of kind of rockabilly country
3:40
you know playing that he would do again
3:43
that was not super common
3:45
I don't think of maybe you know Reggie
3:47
Young and Billy Joel Walker jr. had
3:50
played you know something kind of plucky
3:53
like that on Reba McEntire's Little Rock
3:56
but that was a you know it was a neat
3:59
and identifiable you know part for that
4:02
song she's crazy for leaving by Rodney
4:04
Crowell was written by God Clark another
4:07
thing that he did that was unique and I
4:11
hadn't seen before was instead of
4:14
playing in an E chord like this like
4:19
this he would play chord shapes so and
4:25
then he would you know make small
4:28
movements that would give you you know
4:35
[Music]
4:55
that kind of thing also Stewart did a
4:58
lot of artificial harmonics along with
5:03
open strings and use some other
5:08
interesting you know chord shapes off of
5:13
this sometimes
5:19
really nice really nice clusters of
5:22
notes so after after working with Rodney
5:28
and rosanne Cash up until the early 90s
5:33
he he started working with Shawn Colvin
5:35
he played on the the fact CD record
5:39
probably the the cutoff there to really
5:42
hear his his best work is Round of Blues
5:45
and that's an amazing guitar solo that
5:48
he played on on that cut
5:50
then he produced the cover girl album
5:54
for Sean and then Sean started working
6:00
with John Leventhal again and they made
6:06
the a few small repairs album and of
6:09
course Leventhal played all the guitars
6:11
on there but then when it came time to
6:13
tour you know stewart was called in and
6:18
so there's all sorts of footage of
6:21
stewart playing live with with shawn
6:24
colvin in a trio format and it's great
6:29
suggest you look on youtube for Sean
6:33
Cole and a Lilith Fair and you'll find
6:36
some really neat clips of them playing
6:40
so through Colvin Stewart met Don Henley
6:46
and he started playing in Don Henley's
6:49
band and then of course when Don Felder
6:52
and the Eagles had a parting of the ways
6:55
Stewart was brought in and so Stewart's
6:58
been you know with the Eagles for over
7:01
20 years covering Don Felder and Bernie
7:04
lettings parts
7:05
he is the guy that's for our stage left
7:10
he you see him play the music man double
7:15
neck on Hotel California and you know
7:18
great player how some some of his gear
7:23
that he uses before the Eagles he's
7:25
pretty pretty sparse you know gear wise
7:28
he
7:29
would he would mainly play two different
7:32
strats he had a 1966 strap sunburst
7:36
transition logo big headstock and a 1956
7:40
Stratocaster that was kind of a white
7:42
blonde look and he would play those
7:46
through a couple of boss pedals old
7:48
footage it looks like he's using a boss
7:50
compressor and a boss overdrive like a
7:53
cs2 compressor sd1 overdrive ce2 chorus
7:57
and a DM 2 or DM 3 analog delay so
8:01
that's not I was kind of his ad setup
8:03
with the two strats and a twin reverb
8:05
amplifier then by the time he was with
8:08
Colvin he was using vos digital delay
8:12
maybe a cs3 compressor and that added a
8:15
volume pedal and a limiter trim you
8:17
later but also this the 66 track got
8:21
black EMG pickups he started using and
8:26
that was kind of his rig that he used
8:28
all through the the 90s
8:32
another thing that occurred in the 90s
8:36
was he started playing on a lot of
8:37
sessions in Nashville and so he didn't
8:41
live in Nashville but he was flown in a
8:43
lot because he added a different flavor
8:46
so Vince Gill had Stewart you know come
8:51
in and play on his records and so there
8:54
are things on Vince's records that you
8:56
think are vents but are actually Stewart
8:58
so now just so we don't get off on the
9:02
wrong foot Vince always played his own
9:04
guitar solos you never you know no one
9:07
else ever played you know the guitar
9:08
solos on his records because this is a
9:10
great guitar player but if you take a
9:12
song like what the cowgirls do well that
9:15
low guitar thing that's on the intro let
9:18
Stewart Smith he was playing a 56
9:20
esquire tune down to C and played you
9:24
know the intro and the rhythm part that
9:26
you hear of course when it gets to the
9:27
guitar solo that's Vince Gill on a strap
9:30
another good example of Stewart playing
9:33
on Vince's records is the intro and most
9:36
of the guitar work on I still believe in
9:38
you and I'm very you know beautiful
9:43
sweet you know arpeggiated you know
9:45
guitar parts so also Stewart worked with
9:49
Winona Judd playing all the electric
9:50
guitars on her hits you know through the
9:53
90s now and kind of getting back on the
9:59
the big gear thing you know when he did
10:01
join the Eagles he had to started using
10:04
a lot more gear to cover again the
10:06
Bernie Leadon and Don Felder stuff so he
10:11
still plays the 66 strat but also has
10:15
the music man double neck for Hotel
10:17
California then has a music man
10:18
silhouette with humbuckers to cover the
10:21
humbucker type tones
10:23
he has another music man axis that has
10:26
p90s or excuse me
10:28
mm 90s that he uses to cover Telecaster
10:33
type work and then he has a 335 to cover
10:36
the I can't tell you why guitar solo
10:41
which was actually played by Glenn Frey
10:43
that was kind of a surprise I thought it
10:46
was Don Felder that played that solo but
10:48
it wasn't Glenn Frey that played that
10:49
believe on yes 3:30 into his Intuit
10:54
deluxe so I mean who you know Stuart
10:57
covers covers that also has a couple SG
11:01
juniors and specials that he uses some
11:03
also effects wise cs3 compressor minute
11:08
own red snapper rat distortion to dip in
11:14
a boss DD 3 digital delays a super
11:17
chorus and Ernie Ball volume pedal and a
11:22
wah-wah and that's his setup he's pretty
11:27
much used
11:28
aníbal strings his entire career 10
11:31
through 46 and of course uses a thumb
11:35
pick and that's that's kind of his gear
11:38
and setup I've created a Spotify
11:42
playlist just to to kind of spotlight
11:47
some of the sessions that he's that he's
11:49
done so on there there are songs that
11:52
Stewart asked that that
11:55
you know that he had indicated were some
11:58
of his favorite songs so there's a
12:01
interview that I did with with Stuart in
12:03
the February 20 2000 vintage guitar
12:06
magazine and so in that he had indicated
12:09
some of his favorite songs so I put
12:11
those in a Spotify playlist favorite
12:14
song that he had played on and then I
12:16
kind of filled it out with a couple
12:18
other tunes so you have everything from
12:22
you know rosanne Cash and Rodney Crowell
12:24
to Joni Mitchell and Vince Gill work and
12:31
all that's great so please check out
12:36
Stuart Smith read the article in the
12:39
February 20 20 of vintage guitar
12:42
magazine that I had the pleasure of
12:44
getting to write and I hope you enjoyed
12:48
this episode of ask Zack
12:51
so please subscribe please hit the bell
12:54
please comment and you can send me
12:57
emails too is Zack that is EAC at ask
13:01
Zack calm so thanks a lot and I'll see
13:04
you next time bye bye