The heavy heart of Appalachia beats with each and every note of Dogwood Winter, the debut EP from Rev. J. Mikhael Smith & the Brimstone Miracle. It’s a sepia-toned collection of finely crafted storyteller songs from the pen and voice of East Tennessee’s Josh Smith. Recorded live, Dogwood Winter is a Southern Gothic short that puts listeners in the shoes and hearts of a collection of unforgettable characters. Each story comes alive thanks to what reviewer Matthew Everett called Smith’s “novelist’s eye for telling details and an ear for melodies that feel instantly familiar.”
From the mounting urgency of a man waiting for his family on a doomed train in 10:18 to the paralells between religion and addiction in Searching for Jesus, Smith deftly weaves his unique observational skills with guitar and fiddle driven intimate acoustic arrangements that frame the stories perfectly and invite the listeners to come along for every dusty, and utterly satisfying mile.
