The White Buffalo - Once Upon a Time in the West (2012)

The White Buffalo - Once Upon a Time in the West (2012)

Tracklist front / back album covers download

1 Ballad Of A Dead Man 3:36

2 How The West Was Won 3:44

3 The Pilot 3:45

4 One Lone Night 3:29

5 Sleepy Little Town 2:24

6 BB Guns And Dirt Bikes 3:28

7 The Bowery 3:26

8 Wish It Was True 3:47

9 Hold The Line 3:37

10 Good Ol' Day To Die 2:19

11 Stunt Driver 4:28

12 The Witch 2:48

13 I Am The Light 5:42

Banjo – Cooper McBean (tracks: 2, 4, 12)

Baritone Guitar – Bruce Witkin (tracks: 3, 7)

Bass – Bruce Witkin (tracks: 3, 4, 12, 13), Tommy Andrews (tracks: 1, 2, 6, 7, 9 to 11)

Dobro – Tim Walker (4) (tracks: 2)

Drums – Matt Lynott

Electric Guitar – Bruce Witkin (tracks: 1, 4, 13)

Engineer [Assistant Engineering By] – Carlos "Apple Bees" Orellana*

Horns – Jordan Katz (tracks: 12)

Lap Steel Guitar – Joey Malone (tracks: 2, 11)

Mastered By – Stephen Marcussen

Pedal Steel Guitar – Tim Walker (4) (tracks: 1, 3, 7)

Piano – Benmont Tench (tracks: 6), Bruce Witkin (tracks: 4, 13)

Producer – Bruce Witkin, Ryan Dorn

Recorded By, Engineer, Mixed By – Bruce Witkin, Ryan Dorn

Strings [String Arrangement] – Bruce Witkin (tracks: 8)

Vocals, Acoustic Guitar – Jake Smith (8)

Written-By – Jake Smith (8)

 The White Buffalo is the professional moniker and stage name of American musician and singer/songwriter Jake Smith, who was heavily influenced by Irish Traveller, Manor Donohue — and his poetic nature.

Born in Oregon in 1974/1975, and raised in California, Jake Smith grew up listening to country music and punk rock. He studied history at university. The largest influences on his songwriting are folk singers such as Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen.

A baritone, Smith is known for his wide range in pitch within his singing, incorporation of whistling into his music (in place of the harmonica often used in roots music) and his lyrical references to God and war. His singing style has been compared to that of late singer-songwriter Richie Havens.

The White Buffalo's first full-length album, Hogtied Like a Rodeo, debuted in 2002. This was followed by The White Buffalo EP, produced by Eels' Koool G Murder, which Smith states is about "relationships, love, loss and booze with a little murder mixed in." This EP was musically grounded in acoustic folk and country blues. In a friend's living room in 2008, he re-recorded the first album, dubbing it Hogtied Revisited. Musically, this 2008 album was a blend of folk, modern rock, and alternative country.

When a bootleg tape of Smith's music made it into the hands of pro surfer Chris Malloy, one of his songs, "Wrong," was featured in his popular surf movie, Shelter. This eventually led to further film scoring and composing work, with many of his songs featured in FX's hit show Sons of Anarchy and Showtime's Californication.

In 2010, a second EP, Prepare for Black and Blue, was recorded in six days by producer Jimmy Messer and released through Chad Stokes' Ruffshod imprint via Nettwerk Records earlier that year. Again, this was musically grounded in folk. The music and the artist captured the attention of Unison Music's Bruce Witkin and Ryan Dorn, who then signed The White Buffalo and co-produced Once Upon a Time in the West. This album transitioned to a more roots rock sound, whilst some songs still retained a folk style.

In 2013, a fourth LP, Shadows, Greys, and Evil Ways, was released on Unison Music Group. This was musically a mixture of folk rock and some blues rock. The LP saw positive reviews including NY1 which stated, "Not since Neil Young's Living with War has there been so strong an artistic statement about this country's occupations."

Jake Smith performed several songs on the crime drama television series Sons of Anarchy. Most notably, in 2014, he and The Forest Rangers performed the Season 7 finale song, "Come Join The Murder", written by the show's creator Kurt Sutter. Other songs appearing on Sons of Anarchy include "Matador", "Damned", "Wish It Was True", "House of The Rising Sun" (with The Forest Rangers), "The Whistler", "Set My Body Free", "Sweet Hereafter", "Oh Darling, what have I done" and "Bohemian Rhapsody" (with The Forest Rangers).

In 2015, the album Love and the Death of Damnation was released. Musically this was very varied, with several songs being grounded in roots rock, whilst the song "Chico" incorporated Latin music, "Last Call To Heaven" fused folk, blues and jazz, and "Come On Love, Come On In" was a soul song.

In August 2017 Smith released two tracks from his then-upcoming album Darkest Darks, Lightest Lights, the singles "Avalon" and "The Observatory". 

The single "Avalon" was described by Billboard as an "expansive country-tinged rock song" and tells the story of a wayward man's trip to peace."The Observatory" was a blend of soft-rock and country-folk.

Darkest Darks, Lightest Lights was released in October 2017 to positive reviews, and was Smith's most electrified rock album yet. Musically, the album was a blend of alternative rock, blues, country and folk. The song “The Observatory” was featured in This Is Us episode “The 5th Wheel”.

With the placement of "Wrong" in Chris Malloy's movie Shelter, The White Buffalo has gained further film scoring and composing success with three of his songs featured in FX's hit show Sons of Anarchy and Showtime's Californication, as well as commercials for Wal-Mart. His song “Wish It Was True” was also featured in the Netflix original series Marvel's The Punisher, season 1, episode 3 "Kandahar". "The Observatory" was also featured on season 2, episode 11 of NBC's This Is Us. His song "Where Dirt and Water Collide" was featured in the Netflix series Longmire, season 6, episode 7, "Opiates and Antibiotics". "The Woods" was featured in The Punisher, season 2 episode 8 "My Brother's Keeper".