Samantha Savage Smith and Damase Elis take the stage for the National Music Centre’s CIBC Summer Series at the legendary King Eddy on July 31.
About Samantha Savage Smith
Samantha Savage Smith is a singer, songwriter and guitarist based in Calgary, Alberta. Over the course of the last decade, she's released a string of lush, catchy, and critically acclaimed albums that track her progression from bedroom songwriter to her current auteur-like role as co- producer and arranger for her latest work. Her last album Fake Nice was hailed as a “compelling, nuanced pop album” by Exclaim! magazine, and, while these are clearly tunes that exist within a tradition of pop songwriting, closer inspection will reveal that Smith's songs truly sound only like themselves. One may find traces of songwriting titans like Kurt Vile, Stephen Malkmus, and Land of Talk's Elizabeth Powell, but between her rich, expressive voice (weaned on jazz legends Anita O'Day and Ella Fitzgerald as a teenager) and her unique approach to instrumentation and sonic architecture, it's clearly Smith's realm we find ourselves in. Aided and abetted by longtime multi-instrumentalist bandmates Brock Geiger (solo, Michael Bernard Fitzgerald), Nate Waters (Eye of Newt, Ryan Bourne & The Plant City Band), and Chris Dadge (co-producer, Chad Van Gaalen, Alvvays), Smith is currently at work on her latest album, shaping up to be her best yet, and slated for release in late 2025.
About Damase Elis
Damase Elis is singer-songwriter & multi instrumentalist hailing from Calgary, Alberta. Her music is the result of a possibly obsessive adoration of indie, folk, blues, and jazz, and the impulse to translate queer stories into these genres. Her varied vocal style has earned her occasional comparisons to Tracy Chapman & Florence Welch.
Elis began playing for audiences in 2014, and since then has performed at venues throughout Canada and the United States. In 2017, she released her first EP, entitled Into the Waves, under the pseudonym Riel.
Her latest EP, The Gas Station Affair, is available to stream anywhere now.