Biographical Info

Whit Smith is a guitarist, singer, songwriter and founding member of the highly acclaimed Western swing trio, The Hot Club of Cowtown. He is known by guitarists for his driving rhythmic style, and for his ability to move through chord progressions employing endlessly creative variety harmonies. After nearly 30 years of vigorous touring, performing and recording, Whit has arrived at a style that pays clear homage to a variety of influential guitarists from the 1930’s and 40’s, while serving as the perfect vehicle for his own bracingly original ideas. His years with Hot Club of Cowtown have been vital to the creation of his unique style: “Playing in a trio setting left a lot of room to develop a bigger more animated sound, so through necessity I developed ways of harmonizing around the melody using double stops to make us sound like a much bigger band.” A native of New England, Whit has lived in several cities including New York and Tulsa before settling in Austin, Texas in 1997. He freely admits to suffering from Vintage Guitar and Amplifier Acquisition Syndrome.