Midwest songwriter Rustin Smith creates indie/alternative and heartland rock songs influenced by 1960’s pop and country to 1980’s synth rock.
Having achieved accolades with Ardent Records band Satellite Soul and solo indie record Steering Wheel, Rustin Smith resurfaced with Soldier Songs, a collection of eight songs about war and peace, confession and absolution, desire and lament. The result is a haunting convergence of the intimate and the epic, what we fight for and what we fight about, dramatized in civil war love letters and space fantasies at the mall arcade. Soldier Songs evokes the self-doubt of the hero (Lovers in a Time of War, Soldier Song) as easily as the illusions of love (Evangeline) and rock-n-roll (I Believe in Tonight). Angels cautions taking matters into one’s own hands, while Still Hallelujah is a poignant surrender (“this is what is / so for what is, hallelujah…”). Chains is a first-person tale of the aftershock of liberation, and Last reveals the bitter longing for permanence (“Now that I’m older / it just hurts to dream”). Whether traveling by steamboat or rocket-ship, Soldier Songs will prove a faithful soundtrack. In 2023, Rustin Smith is performing in the Kansas City area a mixture of radio hits from past decades with some original songs while working on some new releases and collaborations. |
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