Biography
Smokey Hormel was born in Hollywood, California. He began playing guitar as a child and as a teenager studied with legendary Bob Wills guitarist Jimmy Wyble. He furthered his musical education hanging around his uncle’s celebrated recording studio the Village Recorders, home to such 70s stars as Sly Stone, Steely Dan and Fleetwood Mac.
Smokey abandoned music for acting in 1980 when he headed to New York to study with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Returning to Los Angeles in 1984, he acted in film and local theater productions while working in a diner. When his guitar playing past was discovered by his co-workers he was drafted into local Western Swing band the Radio Ranch Straightshooters and soon found himself opening for the likes of the Blasters and X. In 1988 he moved on to replace guitar great Hollywood Fats in the Blasters. Smokey spent 4 years touring the world in the Blasters alongside his mentor New Orleans tenor sax legend Lee Allen. In 1989 he started underground LA blues phenomenon the Blue Shadows (later the Red Devils) with harp player Lester Butler. Their celebrated weekly gigs at LA’s King King Club caught the attention of Mick Jagger and producer Rick Rubin, who hired the band to back up Jagger in the studio. Smokey began touring and recording with X’s John Doe in 1993, appearing alongside him in the 1995 film Georgia, and was musical director for actor Bruce Willis’ band the Accelerators from 1991 to 1995, performing at openings of Planet Hollywood restaurants worldwide.
In 1996 Radio Ranch Straightshooters alumni Joey Waronker invited Smokey to join rising star Beck’s band for the Odelay tour. Rolling Stone magazine called the Odelay tour “the best tour of 1997.” Smokey’s slide guitar and samba skills made his mark on Beck’s Grammy winning Mutations, as well as the Midnight Vultures and Sea Change albums, and their subsquent tours. In 1998 Tom Waits enlisted Smokey’s minimalist blues guitar for an LA concert and an appearance on VH1’s Storytellers. Smokey joined Waits again for the recording of the 1999 Mule Variations album, and subsequently played guitar, banjo and mandolin on the highly acclaimed Get Behind The Mule tour.
Relocating to New York City in the late 90s, Smokey played with both Sean Lennon and Cibo Matto and then formed a Bossa Nova duo with Cibo Matto’s Miho Hatori. Under the name Smokey and Miho they released two EPs that celebrated the music of Brazilian songwriter and guitarist Baden Powell, and played frequent live shows in New York City. In 2003 Smokey joined percussionist Mauro Refosco and accordionist Rob Corto to form Forro In the Dark, dedicated to the raucous Brazilian cowboy music of Bahian legend Luis Gonzaga and featuring Smokey’s African flavored baritone guitar playing. Forro in the Dark played regularly in New York City and released two CDs featuring guest vocalists Bebel Gilberto and David Byrne. In 2007 they backed up Steve Earle on his Grammy winning Washington Square Serenade album.
Since the mid 1990s Smokey has been a key player on numerous Rick Rubin produced recordings. He played guitar on Johnny Cash’s Hurt from the Grammy winning American 4: When the Man Comes Around , as well as on Cash’s American 5 : A Hundred Highways, Neil Diamond’s Home Before Dark and Twelve Songs, Justin Timberlake’s Future Sex/Love Sounds, and the Dixie Chicks’ Taking the Long Way. The sessions for American 4: When the Man Comes Around provided Smokey with an opportunity to collaborate with Clash frontman Joe Strummer. The song they wrote together for the session, The Long Shadow, later appeared on Strummer’s 2003 Streetcore album.
Smokey’s subtle guitar has enhanced many film scores, including Michael Mann’s Ali, David Lynch’s The Straight Story, Todd Haynes' I’m Not There, Miguel Arteta’s Chuck and Buck, and Michel Gondry’s Be Kind Rewind. He is currently a regular player and occasional composer on the Nickolodeon hit children’s television series The Backyardigans.
In 2006 he formed his Western Swing band Smokey’s Roundup, and plays live shows regularly in the New York City area.
