The White Buffalo

The White Buffalo

Saturday, August 1st 2026

Outside in the Courtyard 

Genre - Americana / Folk Rock

Doors @ 6PM - Show Starts @ 7PM

Presale - $25  Door - $35

For The White Buffalo – aka singer / songwriter / guitarist Jake Smith, Oregon-born, Southern California-raised – it was time to take the less travelled path; to assemble notions for studio album Number 8, the follow-up to ‘On The Widow’s Walk’ (Snakefarm, 2020), and embark on a voyage of discovery.

Out with the old, the organic, the expected, the tried; in with the new – new producer, new studio, new location, no distractions, no looking back.

Enter ‘Year Of The Dark Horse’.

When Jake, flanked by regular touring / recording compadres, bassist / keyboard player / guitarist Christopher Hoffee and drummer Matt Lynott, crossed the threshold of East Nashville’s Neon Cross Studio, a converted Southern Baptist Church, he wasn’t chapter an’ verse prepared, as usual.

The time before recording had been a crazy one, so there were a bunch of loose ends to be tied (“I’m a perpetual procrastinator” – Jake), plus only three of the 12 songs had been completely written. Jake had maps in his head, but most were mere bones of compositions with only a few key lyrics penned. This allowed producer / studio owner Jay Joyce – plus trusted assistant, Jason Hall – the wiggle room to really get involved, to guide and explore new frontiers.

With an impressive clientele numbering Eric Church, Brothers Osborne, Fidlar, Ashley McBryde, Halestorm, Little Big Town, Cage The Elephant, to name just a few, multi-instrumentalist Joyce has a reputation for working at an intense level.

He’s a Grammy Award-winning Producer of the Year (2018), has 4 CMA and 5 ACM Awards, and when it comes to making music, the Ohio native is never one to take the obvious route – perfect for an album featuring a dozen musical vignettes, individual yet constant in flow; an album loosely based around the shifting of the seasons and the shifting of a relationship; an album showing off the complete scope of Jake’s song-writing craft, from the stripped back to the fully loaded.

To keep the storyline as clear as possible, the 12 songs were recorded in sequence, with every square inch of Neon Cross brought into play; a new sonic palette was required, a unique set of sounds, and if it meant pushing the musicians into new, sometimes uncomfortable, areas, well, that was the price to pay.

But what about the vocal recording? Surely Jake’s signature baritone, a much-revered calling card, required nothing more elaborate than a candle-lit corner, some honey, cigarettes and coffee.

For ‘Year Of The Dark Horse’ to achieve its full potential, Jake knew the experience had to be immersive, which is why the Nashville location proved crucial. Not only were the three musicians away from the lures of home, but the house they all stayed in was just a block from the studio, and filled with a variety of instruments. Wherever they were, they could hone in on the project, and some of the songs came together while the clock was ticking.

As for Jake, he was happy to embrace a project where new boxes were being ticked on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis. This time around, it was all about building on glories past, adding fresh, exciting, more left-field moments to a style and a sound that has seen his music growing in stature worldwide, supported by key placements in the worlds of TV and film (‘Sons Of Anarchy’, ‘Californication’, ‘The Punisher’, ‘The Terminal List’, etc.).

Over the years, Jake has built a second-to-none reputation for the emotional weight of his music, and here this core element dramatically underpins a body of work that allows the imagination of the listener to play an important part throughout, building on a tale of debauchery (of the drunken variety) and blame, of love and loss, a life lived against the odds, the whole thing set in one lunar year, following our anti-hero through the highs and lows of the seasons. 

And who is this mysterious Donna? And what was she doing in the bar? And in the bathroom?!  (‘She Don’t Know That I Lie’). She’s right there at the heart of the action, and the song that bears her name is probably the most propulsive on the album – an open display of Jake’s deep regard for the great Jeff Lynne.

Hard on the stiletto’d heels of ‘Donna’ comes album closer ‘Life Goes On’, which bring things to a conclusion in gentle, reflective tones. Jake felt his way through the song in the studio, then when he stepped up to do it for real, was told by Joyce that his first take was ‘the one’.

Which effectively sums up ‘YOTDH’ as a whole, The White Buffalo’s most unpredictable and inventive work to date, the most well-rounded, too – surprising, spontaneous and spectacularly genre resistant.