Fayetteville

A Dividing Line

Smokey and the Mirror reveal new studio album

The "Thin Black Line" in the title of the forthcoming Smokey and the Mirror album pulls from many sources. It talks about the placement of pencil on paper, a reference to the Fayetteville-based roots act's emphasis on songwriting. It speaks to long, thin strips of asphalt in a wide world, an acknowledgment of the band's time on the road. It hints at separation, the kind of narrow dividing line between love and loss that emerged in many of the songs.

And there's also the very real thin black spools of tape on which the songs was recorded during a three-day session at the Breathing Rhythm Studio in Norman, Okla.

FAQ

Tony Furtado

With Smokey and the Mirror

WHEN — 8:30 p.m. Tuesday

WHERE — George’s Majestic Lounge in Fayetteville

COST — $10 via stubs.net

INFO — smokeyandthemirror.…

"All of this kind of converges together," Bryan Hembree says.

That versatility in phrasing runs parallel to the versatility of Smokey and the Mirror, sometimes a duo but sometimes much more. Bernice and Bryan Hembree formed the band in 2013 after cohort Bayard Blain opted to leave their trio, 3 Penny Acre, to focus on his guitar-making business.

That left the Hembrees in search of their own direction, one that formed while touring in support of the 3 Penny Acre album "Rag & Bone" from earlier that year. Smokey and the Mirror played many of those songs, eventually folding newer cuts into the sets. Importantly, they also added tour guests and collaborators in the process, first cutting a live album that was released last year. At the end of that tour, the band recorded "Thin Black Line" live with a full band. The result will be released April 15.

"That's part of Smokey and the Mirror we've been enjoying," Hembree says. "The duo is the foundation. But we can add to it."

For "Thin Black Line," that's exactly what happened. Guests on the album include frequent tour member Daniel Walker on keyboards and longtime Ray Wylie Hubbard collaborator Terry Buffalo Ware on guitar. Live, Smokey and the Mirror maintains the mantra of being based on the duo but frequently something else, too. When the Hembrees serve as opening act for Tony Furtado on Tuesday at George's Majestic Lounge, they will be a duo. They've also been frequently performing as a trio with Fayetteville-based songwriter Ryan Pickop on drums and have performed live with Ware on guitar, as they did during last fall's Fayetteville Roots Festival, an event the Hembrees developed with local chef Jerrmy Gawthrop.

That festival continues to grow, selling tickets for the late August event at the Fayetteville Town Center at a faster rate than ever before. And even as Hembree continues to tell people 3 Penny Acre is no more, he assures them his new group is growing, too.

The name has changed, and so has the direction of the music. The newest album "is more of a character study in human emotion, instead of human history," Hembree says.

But the passion central to the project has not.

"We're in this for the long haul," Hembree says. "We want to keep feeding this part of our lives. If they get that, they'll get the album."

And Smokey and the Mirror will continue that pursuit, wherever that thin black line may take them.

NAN What's Up on 02/20/2015

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