Biography
He was born Steven Paul Smith (August 6th, 1969 - October 21, 2003) in Omaha, Nebraska. His father, Gary Smith, is a psychiatrist and his mother, Bunny Welch, is a singer. He grew up living with his mother in Duncanville, a suburb of Dallas, Texas before moving to live with his father in Portland during high school where he attended Lincoln High School.Smith learned to play both the piano and guitar as a child and wrote his first song when he was 13. He began calling himself Elliott in middle school because he thought 'Steve' made him sound like a "jock". Smith graduated from Hampshire College with a degree in philosophy before joining a Portland band called Heatmiser. He recorded three solo albums on independent labels and two more on DreamWorks Records.
Initially, Smith's music comprised primarily acoustic songs. His later records, however, notably XO and Figure 8, tended to feature more full and orchestrated songs, some drawing influence from The Beatles whom Smith admired. With his final album (From a Basement on the Hill), he was apparently trying to recapture the grittier and less-produced feel of his earlier albums.
Listening to Smith's roster of tunes from the six albums already mentioned suggests a rapid maturity to full songwriting mastery. With few exceptions, the songs are remarkably complete, concise and enduring. From the first recordings of his solo work on Roman Candle and Elliott Smith, and evolving through Either/Or, XO and Figure 8, his work had an uncanny maturity and sophistication despite the quick-to-label reviewers who cast him in the Indie singer/songwriter mix. His work is powerful. The melodies and musicianship that distinguish his songwriting are quite unique. He avoided many of the chord progression cliches and easy-way-outs of other guitarists working in the soft/underground and instead built songs with high, original integrity referencing Beatles' artistry, and with a lyrical originality that was at once heart-felt and yet alienated hipster in perspective, perhaps some of the earlier Neil Young.
Towards the end of his life, he was a regular in the Largo nightclub subculture along with Jon Brion, Aimee Mann and others. The club has an enormous portrait of Smith hanging in tribute.
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