Whit Smith (Guitar) & Jake Erwin (Bass)

Elana on Whit:

"Whit and I founded the Hot Club of Cowtown in 1996. We used to call it "Whit & Elana" but eventually decided that didn't really get the point across. We first met in NYC in 1994. During that time he was leading a Western Swing band called "Western Caravan" that used to play all over the East Village at places like Sine, the Rodeo Bar, Ansea, the Mercury Lounge, and, once but never again, Brownie's, among other places. Whit used to live in the East Village and be (to my mind) a total hipster. By the time I met him he had just played on a Patti Smith record and was also a regular in Tom Clark's band for many years and knew a ton of hip people. I met him through an ad in the Village Voice since he was looking for a fiddle player to play these super-arranged, twin fiddle parts. When I first met him I climbed the five flights of stairs to his 3" x 3" apartment and he opened the door in giant fuzzy slippers with a cup of coffee. We sat down and played a bunch of hoedowns and Carter Famiily songs and that day began an ongoing history together--first in Western Caravan, then when we moved to San Diego in 1996 and spent a year playing for tips for a year, and then on to Austin in 1998 where we started to really get Hot Club of Cowtown off the ground and released our first record together. We began playing shows together again in late 2006--the amazing Hot Club of Cowtown State Department tour to Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia, and the Bob Dylan ballparks tour. I am honored to get to be playing with him."

Whit on Whit:

"I've lived so many places, it's hard to say exactly where I'm from. I was born in Greenwich, CT and lived in New Canaan until I was nine or ten. I lived in Solvang, CA during junior high but moved to Cape Cod, MA by high school. I studied (if you want to call it that) guitar with Bill Connors in New York City for a winter, but I was a bad student. I'd make a tape of myself playing scales for half an hour then I'd just play the tape while I read comic books or took a nap. This way everyone downstairs thought I was really working hard. It's funny now but I'd tan my own hide if I'd caught myself doing that today!

I convinced some people I had real means of becoming a rock star in Japan during the 1980s. They sent me over armed with a list of coveted phone numbers and connections. I would make appointments with record company people based on enthusiastic goals and credentials veiled in a slight language barrier. But by the time lunch was served they usually had figured out that I was just a thoughtless kid with a single copy of his garage rock band cassette who somehow ended up lost on the other side of the world. It was great fun while it lasted.

I moved around a lot with no idea of what I wanted to do, play, or be. Several years of this found me working in Tower Records in New York City. That's where I heard my first Bob Wills records, also Jimmy Bryant, Hank Williams, Eddie Lang, Johnny Gimble, Bix Biederbecke, and Chet Atkins.

This music was all so different and exciting I wanted to play it all! At first it was the hot guitar breaks and early-style steel and pedal steel that roped me in, but over the next several years I began to listen to the singers and other soloists -- violin, trumpet, etc.--with interest. By 1996 I had decided to concentrate on western swing and the music that influenced its great soloists.

I've been lucky to meet a pantheon of fascinating, talented characters and friends who have all helped boost me along with their teaching and the opportunities they've given me. I played with Tom Clark's "Born in a Barn" band for years in New York City -- weekly gigs where he would egg me on to play faster and crazier. Lenny Kaye and Patti Smith invited me to play lead on a song for her "Gone Again" record. Guitarist/teacher Richard Lieberson in New York City gave me much insight on traditional and authentic playing styles and was my compass for finding rare and seminal recordings. Members of the original Western Caravan have made me feel legitimate, as have Cliff Bruner and Johnny Gimble through their inspiration and encouragement. Even now, living in Tulsa and traveling the around the country consistently as we do lends an abstract unity with the players of 70 years ago."