Darden Smith

STUDIO SHOW
DS + ROB BAIRD
Saturday 7.25.26
7:30 doors / 8:00 show
Reservations at https://bit.ly/44gyi8K

Yes, my buddy Rob Baird is coming back to the Studio for another show. He'll be singing songs from his new album, 'Smoke On The Breeze,' and we'll be trading songs and stories that will make you go home feeling slightly better about yourself and the world in general.

I blame David Hockney --
In the spring of 2015 I went to the Royal Academy in London to see the Richard Diebenkorn show. Being sufficiently awestruck and bewildered by those paintings, I stumbled into the RA's bookstore before heading out into the wilds of Piccadilly. A copy of David Hockney’s 'Bigger Book" was open in one corner of the room. A steal at £2500, the book was so big that it had its own stand. I stood there, leafing through the pages thinking about how color was an absolute mystery to me. I'd been drawing for years, but only in my notebooks with a pen. And the story that I'd been telling myself all those years is that I didn't understand color, so I shouldn't use it. Don't go there. Stick with my pens. Black and white.

But seeing page after page of Hockney's crazy palette of everyday life and the simple objects rendered in colors that in many ways weren't even close to what one might describe as "the right color," the idea hit me that color was like music – or at least my approach to it. You don't need to know all the rules, just some of them. You need a bit of knowledge of the basics, how things fit together. Then you have to just go off somewhere and work it out on your own. There was a Hockney quote in the book where he said something to this effect. I thought, yes, that's for me.

I turned around and there was a little box of watercolors on a table in the gift shop, something you might give a 10-year-old for their birthday. Without hesitation I picked up the box, found a couple of brushes and a small pad of paper, paid for them and walked out of the shop. The next day I was driving to a show and passed a man in a raincoat waiting to cross a street. The image stuck in my brain. I can still see him there. When I got to the hotel that afternoon, I opened up the little box of watercolors, got the paper and brush out and started painting.

And though I still don't know what I'm doing, I'm still doing it.
For this, I blame David Hockney.

– On the occasion of Hockney's death, June 2026

DS + Graham Maby; 6.14.26; Austin, TX

It was so great to connect with my friend Graham Maby after the Joe Jackson show here in Austin last night (which was amazing, by the way).

Graham played on my albums 'Little Victories' and 'Deep Fantastic Blue.' At the sessions for 'Loving Arms,' I could not believe I was in the same room with the guy who did all those Joe Jackson records. I'd never been around that kind of a groove. He replaced the bass (from another rather famous player) and it's one of the things that made the song sound the way it does.

Three of my oldest musical friends, Graham, Sammy Merendino and Knox Chandler were all on that album. Music is such a beautiful thing. A connector.

Graham, Ron Pangborn and I traveled cross country doing shows around the 'Little Victories' album. He was there the night in Portland when the guy from the label told me that 'Loving Arms' had hit top 10 on the Billboard A/C chart. Later, we walked onstage to a crowd of 10 people. Such a cruel play on numbers. But by the time we hit NYC for a show at the Bottom Line it was a magnificent power trio.

Last night we marveled at how music brings people together and the friendships travel across decades. It's a small town where some of the best people you ever will meet all know each other and speak a secret language.
It starts with music, just a gig, and leads to a life.

Studio Show with Miles Zuniga.
Thursday June 25th
Austin, TX
8:00pm show
Reservations at https://bit.ly/4dZqgFC

Usually I don't do Studio Shows in the summer, but I couldn't help it. This show will be fantastic; a crazy night of music and stories that will definitely restore your faith in humanity, or at least some of it. Miles is ridiculously talented. He's a great writer, player, interpreter of every pop song you've ever loved, and is genuinely one of the funniest people I know.
Don't miss it.

I'll be back in Houston on Friday June 12 for a show at the Duck.
You should be there too.
Just saying.

Tickets at: https://www.mcgonigels.com/shows/darden-smith-6pm/

If you're in Houston tomorrow afternoon, you should be at the Koelsch Gallery. I'll be talking a bit about how songs, drawings, photography and printmaking all fit together in my sometimes quite scattered brain. Come check it out just to see if I make sense.

Also, the show closes on the 30th, so it's your last chance to see it.

Koelsch Gallery
1020 Peden, Houston, TX
4:00-6:00pm



Flatbed Center for Contemporary Printmaking

"The Sky Is Bluer Than You Think"
On view through May 30
Koelsch Gallery
1020 Peden, Houston TX 77066

On Saturday May 30 I'll be at the gallery from 4:00-6:00pm talking a bit about the work in the show, and singing a few things that go along with what's on the walls.

To see the works online, go to koelschgallery.com





Images:
Riot 19, Riot 3 - 22 x 30 inches; monoprint lithograph with chine collé
Printed in collaboration with Flatbed Press, Austin, TX

"The Sky Is Bluer Than You Think"
On view through May 30
Koelsch Gallery
1020 Peden, Houston TX 77066

On Saturday May 30 I'll be at the gallery from 4:00-6:00pm talking a bit about the work in the show, and singing a few things that go along with what's on the walls.

To see the works online, go to koelschgallery.com





Images:
Riot 10, Riot 16 - 22 x 30 inches; monoprint lithograph with chine collé
Printed in collaboration with Flatbed Press, Austin, TX

I think you should meet me at Koelsch Gallery in Houston on Saturday May 30 from 4:00-6:00. I'll be talking about the work in my show there, "The Sky Is Bluer Than You Think," as well singing a few things that go along with what's on the walls.

What else do you have to do that day that's so important?
Exactly.
And it's air-conditioned. In Houston. That's a big deal.

Koelsch Gallery
1020 Peden, Houston TX 77066
For more info on the gallery or to see the works online, go to koelschgallery.com