Dirty River Boys / Shane Smith & the Saints | 10.25.19 | The Historic Scoot Inn
This show was a special one for me to capture for a few different reasons: I stumbled across Shane Smith’s music as an 18 year old college student when he was performing at Cheatham Street Warehouse opening for Turnpike Troubadours - I left the show a huge fan, and have followed his music ever since. There’s been a couple different lineup changes since then, but the soul, talent and genuine heart of Smith has been unwavering. It has absolutely been incredible to see how much his fan base has grown over this past decade, going from seeing him and his band play in sparse bars to sold out shows every time they play in Austin. Smith has worked incredibly hard at his craft and his recognition from the country music scene and success could honestly not happen to a better man.
I’ve photographed these guys plenty of times (Smith helped me on so many of my school projects, generously agreeing to be my photo subject countless times while I was studying photography), but nearly a decade later I’m happy to say I was finally able to properly photograph them and capture the energy that makes them such an incredible live band.
I also discovered The Dirty River Boys while I was in college and saw them countless times while I was in school… I hadn’t seen them since I was probably about 21 years old, and it was interesting to see them again after so many years. It made me quite nostalgic and at this risk of being “that person,” I missed hearing their older material.
This lineup was a dream of mine while I was a college student - and it was an honor to get to capture it and quite fitting that I got this opportunity all these years later.
