Eli Smith is a folk singer, banjo player and guitarist who grew up
in New York’s Greenwich Village. Smith
has recorded for Smithsonian Folkways Recordings and Jalopy Records. He regularly performs as a solo
musician and with the string band the Down Hill Strugglers.
Eli has performed and recorded with John Cohen
(New Lost City Ramblers) and Peter Stampfel (The Holy Modal Rounders and The Fugs), and has opened for songwriters Patti
Smith and Steve Earle. He can be heard singing "The Roving Gambler" on the soundtrack to the Coen Brothers film Inside Llewyn Davis. Eli Smith has
performed at festivals and venues including the Kennedy Center, Library of
Congress, Newport Folk Festival, Vancouver Folk Festival, The Jalopy Theatre
and many more.
Eli is also a music producer, heading the annual Brooklyn Folk Festival and Washington Square Park Folk Festival and has curated releases of historic archival recordings, including the Harry Smith B-Sides for Dust-to-Digital and numerous albums for Jalopy Records.
Eli is also a music producer, heading the annual Brooklyn Folk Festival and Washington Square Park Folk Festival and has curated releases of historic archival recordings, including the Harry Smith B-Sides for Dust-to-Digital and numerous albums for Jalopy Records.
Eli Smith served as Traditional Music Consultant for the video game Red Dead Redemption 2 from Rockstar Games and can be seen playing a roller skating fiddler in the film "Tesla" with Ethan Hawke. Smith also hosts the Down Home Radio Show podcast, which is available at www.DownHomeRadioShow.com.
- Elijah Wald
"Eli has found resonance with the intensity of rural music, while delighting in the nuances that preserve the individual uniqueness of the genre. He is a rare, special person because he’s the only one of his age who knows about the old concerns of the folklorists and the ethnomusicologists. He knows about the politics of it. He respects that history.
- Elijah Wald
"Eli has found resonance with the intensity of rural music, while delighting in the nuances that preserve the individual uniqueness of the genre. He is a rare, special person because he’s the only one of his age who knows about the old concerns of the folklorists and the ethnomusicologists. He knows about the politics of it. He respects that history.
Eli contributes a high, clear voice and solid musicianship on banjo, banjo mandolin, guitar, mouth harp, Jew’s harp, and pump organ. He has a deep knowledge of folk music and the past, not only of early hillbilly music. He knows about the Almanac Singers and the folk song movements of the 1940s and 1950s. He knows Woody Guthrie’s music and his views were shaped by his experience with Henrietta Yurchenco, a fine ethnomusicologist who worked in Mexico and also knew Guthrie, Lead Belly, Pete Seeger, and many other musicians. He has organized and presented the Brooklyn Folk Festival and Washington Square Park Folk Festival, and has played with Peter Stampfel’s Ether Frolic Mob and other bands. He is a passionate and cool performer and is the lynchpin of the Down Hill Strugglers."
- John Cohen
New Lost City Ramblers
Articles about Eli Smith:
The New Yorker Magazine
Ozy.com
Folklife Today
Brooklyn Magazine
The Indypendent
The Village Voice
- John Cohen
New Lost City Ramblers
The New Yorker Magazine
Ozy.com
Folklife Today
Brooklyn Magazine
The Indypendent
The Village Voice
Photos by Reuben Radding