Biography
Los Angeles native Smokey Hormel began his musical education as a teenager by studying with the great Bob Wills guitarist Jimmy Wyble. He also soaked up the decadent atmosphere of '70s superstar rock at his uncle's famed LA recording studio the Village Recorders. After a brief sojourn in New York studying acting with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse he returned to LA and began his career by playing guitar in Western Swing band The Radio Ranch Straight Shooters. Opening for the likes of X and the Blasters eventually led to Smokey being asked to replace the legendary Hollywood Fats in roots rockers the Blasters in 1988. Smokey spent four 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 for a studio session. Smokey began touring and recording a series of albums with X’s John Doe starting in 1993, and appeared alongside him in the 1995 feature film Georgia. Joining Blue Shadows alumni Lester Butler and Tom Waits drummer Stephen Hodges, Smokey acted as musical director for actor Bruce Willis’ band the Accelerators from 1991 to 1995, performing at openings of Planet Hollywood restaurants worldwide.
Beck and Tom Waits
In 1996 old friend and drummer Joey Waronker invited Smokey to join rising star Beck’s touring band. Rolling Stone magazine called the Odelay tour "the best tour of 1997." Smokey’s melancholy slide guitar and samba skills made his mark on Beck’s Grammy winning Mutations, as well as the later Midnight Vultures, Sea Change and Guero albums. Smokey and his arsenal of vintage instruments toured the world with Beck from 1996-1999, and again in 2002 and 2003. In 1998 Tom Waits enlisted Smokey’s minimalist blues guitar for an LA concert and an appearance on VH1’s Storytellers. Smokey joined Waits 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.
Rick Rubin and Johnny Cash
Since the mid 1990s Smokey has been a key player on numerous Rick Rubin produced recordings, most notably on Johnny Cash's haunting version of Nine Inch Nails' Hurt. He played on Johnny Cash’s Grammy winning American 4: When the Man Comes Around as well as on Cash’s American 5: A Hundred Highways and American 6: Ain’t No Grave. He is also featured on Neil Diamond’s Home Before Dark and Twelve Songs, Justin Timberlake’s Future Sex/Love Sounds, the Dixie Chicks’ Taking the Long Way, Josh Groban's Illuminations, Kid Rock's Born Free and Adele's 21. 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.
Recording sessions and Film & TV
Smokey's versatile style is highly sought after in the studio both in New York and Los Angeles. He has appeared on recordings by Norah Jones, Marianne Faithfull, Rufus Wainwright, Bernie Worrell, David Lynch, RL Burnside, kd Lang and Beth Orton, among many others. He can be heard on 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, Michel Gondry’s Be Kind Rewind and Kelly Reichardt's Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy. He has been a regular player and occasional composer on the musically inventive Nickolodeon children's television show The Backyardigans. Smokey's recording of his original instrumental composition Blues For Tiny was used in a Coca Cola black history month television commercial in 2007.
New York city
After relocating to New York City in the late 1990's, Smokey played in Sean Lennon's band as well as with downtown duo Cibo Matto. Cibo Matto’s Miho Hatori and Smokey then formed a Bossa Nova combo under the name Smokey & Miho. They released two EPs that celebrated the music of Brazilian songwriter and guitarist Baden Powell and played regular live shows at avant garde outpost Tonic on New York's lower east side. 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 Luis Gonzaga and featuring Smokey’s African flavored baritone guitar playing. Forro in the Dark built up a following playing to enthusiastic dancers in packed New York clubs and released two CDs featuring guest vocalists Bebel Gilberto and David Byrne, as well as backing up Steve Earle on his Grammy winning Washington Square Serenade album.
Smokey's Secret Family and Smokey's Round-up
Since parting ways with Forro in the Dark in 2007 Smokey has continued the exploration of his longtime interest in African guitar with his own group Smokey's Secret Family. He played a series of New York live shows from 2006 thru 2008 with a varying lineup, eventually producing a nine song studio CD that was released on the Afro Sambas label in 2009. Showcasing Smokey's free flowing yet sharply melodic guitar playing, Smokey's Secret Family is a tribute to 1950s Congolese guitar greats Franco, Dr. Nico and Papa Noel, featuring a number of their Rumba and Afro-Cuban flavored songs as well as original Smokey compositions. Concurrent to the Smokey's Secret Family project is Smokey's Round-up, begun in 2006 as a return to his early love of Western Swing music. From 2008 thru 2010 the four piece Round-up has played weekly shows in Brooklyn and New York City, amazing audiences with a vast repertoire of great old American songs and virtuoso guitar.
After appearing on Norah Jones' 2009 album The Fall Smokey spent the better part of 2009 and 2010 as guitarist in her band on her world tour while continuing to find time for recording sessions in Los Angeles and his own projects at home in New York.