Canadian band Gunner & Smith have a new album – their third – called ‘Hear You In My Head’ (it is out Sept 16th on DevilDuck Records). Having always recorded close to home in Saskatchewan this album was created in a much different way from Gunner & Smith’s past records. In August 2021 Geoff Smith (the songwriter and frontman for the band) flew South to work with producer Andrija Tokic (Alabama Shakes, Benjamin Booker) and a collection of talented session musicians at the Bombshelter Studio in East Nashville. Over the following 6 days at Tokic’s analog studio ‘Hear You in My Head‘ was put to tape. The album was constructed around the steady performances of the rhythm section of Dave Raccine on drums and Jack Lawerence (The Greenhornes, The Raconteurs) on bass combined with layers of sound including guitars, dobro, pedal steel, and fiddle created by multi-instrumentalist John James Tourville (The Deslondes) and meletrone, organs, and pianos played by Peter Keys (Lynyrd Skynyrd).
That’s the sound and the album – what about this song? It’s a dark tale of wrestling with the attractions of alcohol, with Geoff Smith’s deep baritone shading between a wish for release and a deep desire to sink down another bottle. Geoff Smith has said of the song “This is about the relationship of musicians to alcohol and how it’s so closely tied to what we do. Music and alcohol are linked and separating them is a challenge. It’s about struggling to find balance with it and seeing friends either find a way through it or struggle with it.”
