We recently connected with Jen and Scott Smith and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jen and Scott thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

We’ve both been huge fans of best-selling author Lee Child and his iconic Jack Reacher character for decades. He came to one of our gigs in the 2000s after we sent him a fan letter, and it turned out he was already a fan of ours and had all of our music. We were all delighted by the coincidence. Years later (2018) we got together with him to try songwriting together. It ended up being an extraordinary collaboration based around Jack Reacher entitled ‘Just the Clothes on My Back’. It was fascinating to get inside the mind of the author and create a new medium for his character. All of us were nervous as we had no idea how it would go (he tells a story in over 100,000 words while we tell ours in ~200) but we knew by the end of the first day we were onto some great stuff.

We did some touring together with headline shows including City Winery in NYC and Nashville, Firehouse Saloon – Houston, The Hamilton Live – DC, World Cafe Live – Philly, Red Clay Theatre – Duluth, and more. Lee Child, on stage with our band, would discuss his books, do some Q & A, and share stories about how each song came about. Charming and brilliant guy.

While we were touring, Lee was fielding offers from streaming television for the Jack Reacher character. This past February, Amazon Prime TV released the first season of ‘Reacher’ and it was wildly successful. One of the tracks from ‘Just the Clothes on My Back’ was featured and is still seeing strong streaming. 2nd season starts filming soon for a 2023 release. The whole thing was delightful.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

We met in a music store in 1989 and began collaborating right away. We were able to quit our day jobs in 1991 to tour full time, starting out playing bars and colleges and anyplace, really, with ~30 shows/month. Eventually, we were lucky enough (thank you, fans!) to transition to concert-type performances and festivals and have shared stages with some wonderful artists including John Mayer, Joe Cocker, and Dan Fogelberg. We’ve toured US, UK, & Germany, and have released 7 full-length albums and a handful of singles. We’ve enjoyed lots of indie & major film and tv placements over the years, and have a couple of song cuts: We Will Fly on Evangeline’s – ‘French Quarter Moon’ (MCA), and World Without Fear on Troy Turner’s – ‘Blues on My Back’ (Telarc).

Scott produces other artists at our Wood and Stone Room recording studio in Baltimore County, MD, and we hold an annual 4.5-day songwriting retreat that began in 2013 – The Wood and Stone Retreat.

Scott’s main instrument is guitar but he does play just about everything. He also enjoys producing other artists. I play guitar (acoustic and electric), sing, and play cello, and like to help artist-friends out with publishing admin stuff, graphic design, release planning, and music marketing. We both enjoy co-writing and collaborating.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

We generally get to see people at their best, enthusiastic to be at the venue/in the studio/at the retreat, and with their hearts open. We get to emotionally connect with people. We’ve found deep friendships and attachments are made so quickly when music is the thing bringing us together.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

It’s been a true sacrifice of financial security – the type of risk a lot of us can’t tolerate. But in every realm of business, some of the best success stories begin with taking major risks. Our desire to continue our creative work has always been much stronger than our desire for big money. We thrive on the freedom we’ve earned by not judging our success on material wealth. Yes, we’ve been lucky, and worked hard, to have kept a roof over our heads all these years; but the journey has been much richer by leaning on the joy of the work itself.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.nakedblue.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottandjensmith
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdMyu74S2kTbR9QGamt-oAw
• Other: www.thewoodandstoneroom.com www.woodandstoneretreat.com

Image Credits
selfie Beth Harrison selfie selfie selfie Arnie Goodman selfie