Michael Buffalo Smith
Michael received his very first guitar at the age of seven, a toy Roy Rogers model. Apparently, Smith was less than interested at the time, since the instrument was left outside, leaning against a tall pine tree, and exposed to rain, sleet and snow for about a month. When Michael finally remembered the guitar, it was nothing more than a pile of warped wood and plastic.
At the age of ten, Michael was given a set of drums by his parents after begging for almost a year. Unfortunately, the begging lasted much longer than the drums did. After a weekend of trying to play them, Michael awoke one morning to find the drums had mysteriously disappeared. So much for pounding the skins around the Smith household!
His dad had an old Kay guitar he had purchased from someone overseas while he was in the Air Force. Mr. Smith never learned to play, so the instrument, strung with five out of six strings, stood propped up in the parental closet. One day, Michael, now 12, got the guitar out, and stood in front of a mirror imitating Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash. He decided to go outside and strum on the out-of-tune instrument. Heading up the porch steps, Michael tripped and fell. The guitar's neck broke in half. Needless to say, Michael was severely reprimanded.
When Michael was in the 8th grade, he once again became interested in music, and went through several instruments, including a Spanish guitar given to him by his Uncle Vic DeLaVega. But the action was set way to high, and at the time, Michael had no idea what action was. He thought it meant action like in gangster movies. He later got a Tiesco guitar and a small plastic amp from K-Mart, thanks to his sister and parents.
That instrument was the turning point for young Michael, as he fooled around with it, posing in front of the mirror, and learning a couple of barre chords. He would sit and watch TV with his dad, shows like "Hee Haw" and "Austin City Limits," trying to play along by ear. By now, he had learned how to tune a guitar, "kind of." At this time, Michael was introduced to the music of life long heroes like Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard.
In high school, Michael became friends with Doug Hooper, who would build Smith's confidence by leaps and bounds over the next couple of years. Hooper was a guitarist, and Michael had just received a Conrad bass guitar from his sister for his birthday. Doug spent hours with Michael, teaching him bass lines for songs by Kiss, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. While Michael never really mastered bass, he was given a major shot of confidence by Hooper, that would carry over for a long time to come.
In years to come, Michael would take some money from an insurance claim following a car wreck and buy a Yamaha acoustic guitar, and a Marshall Tucker Band Anthology songbook. Between learning the chords to several of the MTB songs from the iagrams, and being shown a couple of chords by Bobby Smith, a friend that worked with Michael at the grocery store, Smith learned to play "a little bit."
In 1982, Smith's list of songs he could play included MTB's "Fire On the Mountain," "Can't You See," "Blue Suede Shoes," Pete Townsend's"Let My Love Open the Door," "Key to the Highway," and "Deuce" by Kiss. That was it. Not exactly a set list to run to the local club and perform.
As a bit more time passed, Michael began to learn lead patterns from his albums, and spent an entire weekend learning the twin-lead from "Jessica" by The Allman Brothers Band. He was sincerely proud of that one.While working as sound man and songwriter for a local band in the early 1980's, Michael began to learn more and more guitar as he co-wrote songs with Steve Harvey. When an opportunity came to actually audition for the band as guitarist and singer, he was flatly turned down, due to inexperience. Around the same time, the band employed Stuart Swanlund (now a member of The Marshall Tucker Band) as guitarist. Stuart gave Michael lots of confidence, and it helped him through the rejection. Stuart's positive attitude caused Michael to pursue his guitar playing even more.
With a healthy dose of confidence surging through his system, Michael ventured out to the local music store to buy an Ibanez hollow-body guitar. With a brand new axe in hand, Smith began to really study guitar chords and scales. While attending college in Spartanburg, Michael ran across a guitar playing cat named Gregg Yeary, and the two started getting together to learn covers of everything from Johnny Rivers to The Cars, from The Stray Cats to Bruce Springsteen. The two also began to write together. Soon, Gregg met David Haddox, a legendary drummer who had been the teacher to a 15 year old red-headed wonder named Paul T. Riddle, who would go on to fame and fortune with The Marshall Tucker Band. David was also touring drummer with "The Killer," Jerry Lee Lewis. Pulling Michael's old friend Joey Parrish into the mix, the band set out to play their first gig, at an amphitheater in Pacolet Mills, S.C. Because they were playing both hard country and mainstream rock, the band decided to open for themselves, as the country band, Desperado. Later they would play the rock and roll show as Standard Deviation. About two months later, as the band took on a new bass player and solidified, they changed their name to The Buffalo Hut Coalition.
The BHC played everywhere, from clubs to festivals and private parties, and went through a series of bass players, while Smith, Yeary and Haddox held together.
In years to come, there would be several other bands in Michael B's future, including The Rockland Tramps and Frontline (both of which featured future country starlett Vikki McMillan) , a regrouping of The Buffalo Hut, and Michael B. & The Stingers. Smith also performed as a duet in several configurations, including parings with guitarist Michael Merck, singer Donna Orzonno, bassist Joey Parrish, guitarist David Windhorst and guitarist Travis Brown. Smith also appeared solo in the singer-songwriter mode.
Michael Buffalo released a cassette only ep called "Fairytales" in 1992 with Donna Orzonno and in 1997 released a full length cd of original songs called "Happy To Be Here" on the Dreaming Buffalo label, with his old Buffalo Hut bandmates and a guest shot from Toy Caldwell Band drummer Mark Burrell.
In December 2000, Smith released "Midwest Carolina Blues," a nine-song cd of classic blues and rockabilly on the Rockabilly Hall of Fame Blues imprint. The cd was dedicated to the memory of Nebraska's original rocker, Bobby Lowell, who died of cancer in October, 2000. An all-star cast from Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska backed Michael on the album, as well as Bob Timmers, curator of The Rockabilly Hall of Fame, on guitar. Dave Robel, Bob Timmers, Pinky Semrad, Bobby Lowell, Buffalo, Sean Benjamin.
After dual surgeries and an extended hospital stay to battle a life-threatening bacterial infection during the summer of '98, and into '99, Smith announced in April that he was again healthy enough to return to the stage, playing festivals, clubs and coffee houses all around the country, sharing the stage with folks like The Charlie Daniels Band, The Marshall Tucker Band, Molly Hatchet, Southern Rock Allstars, Jerry LaCroix, George McCorkle, The Crawlers, John Wyker, Jimmy Hall, Stephen Foster, True Blues, Hulk and Brooke Hogan, Montgomery Gentry, and more.
In July 2002, Smith recorded a new album called "Southern Lights" with friends in Huntsville, Alabama at Mill Kids/Howler Studio. The album was co-produced by Stephen Foster, Billy Teichmiller and Michael B. Smith. Sitting in on the album were friends Bonnie Bramlett (Delaney & Bonnie); Tommy Crain (Charlie Daniels Band); Pete Carr (Hourglass; also studio session genius on records by Bob Seger, Rod Stewart, and many more); Johnny Wyker (Sailcat); The Crawlers; Stephen Foster; Hays Clark; and a cast of thousands.
Returning home from the session, Michael suffered a second onset of bacterial infection that landed him back in the hospital for a month, more surgeries, more miracles, and he was back out and performing again, returning to the stage with The Crawlers to open for Marshall Tucker and Steppenwolf in Muscle Shoals.
Beginning in late 2004, Buffalo returned to Mill Kids Studios to begin recording a new album called SOMETHING HEAVY, released in January 2006. The record was produced by Billy Teichmiller and Ray Brand with Buffalo. The album features The Crawlers, Danny Hall, John Wyker and Pete "Guitar" Carr, as well as George McCorkle (MTB), Jo Jo Billingsley (Skynyrd), Rodeo Jan Rocket and Larry Perkins. Sadly, just months after the recording, Crawlers guitarist and co-producer Ray Brand passed away from cancer. Ray had co-written several of the tracks with Buffalo, and was a close, dear friend. He will never ever be forgotten
Buffalo holds a degree in Theatrical Arts, and has acted in many stage plays including Sam Shepard's TRUE WEST and FOOL FOR LOVE, as well as in TV commercials and film extra parts.
Michael is Publisher of GRITZ: The Magazine of Southern Music (www.gritz.net), and a free lance writer and author. He has one book published -"Carolina Dreams: The Musical Legacy of Upstate South Carolina" (Marshall Tucker Entertainment). And has been a regular contributor to magazines such as Goldmine, All Music Guide, Mojo, Bands of Dixie, Hittin the Note, Relix, and Sandlapper.