He’s Singin’ Those Sad Songs --but With Sense of Humor

Darden Smith had just broken his sixth string of the evening on stage at a nightclub here and he couldn’t help but joke about it. “Yeah, we’re going for the world’s record,” he cracked in exasperation, “and we’ve only got 324 more to go, and I think we’ve got it.”

With that pronouncement, Smith flashed a grin that could light up his home town of Austin, Tex., on a Saturday night. Though he sings almost wrenching songs about the human condition, Smith, who will play at the Crazy Horse in Santa Ana on Thursday, refuses to lose his sense of humor, even when the situation has gone from the trying to the ridiculous.

“When you write the kind of songs I do,” Smith, 26, said the day after the performance, “you got to make people laugh to break the tension. After all, when people in your songs are having such a hard time and you’re all deathly serious on stage, people are going to get bummed out. And the way I look at it, if you’re going to do that, you might as well just pass out the razor blades at the door and save yourself a bunch of time.”

The acoustic guitar-wielding singer and songwriter comes across as something of a Lone Star Tom Waits, weaving tales about some fairly left-of-center people. Whether he is singing from the woman’s point of view in the defiantly pleading “Talk to Me” or the drifting ex-husband and father in “Another Place in Time,” Smith keeps the pace moving briskly as he adopts his characters’ point of view.

“I guess you could say that the songs I write are basically fiction based on reality,” Smith said, eyes twinkling. “I try to get a character that people can identify with and picture in their minds, going through the same kinds of things they go through in their own lives. And I do try to come at it from a position of empathy.”

Some might argue that Smith was born with an old soul that gives him an insight far beyond his years. Smith gently illuminates the sorts of emotions most people have felt, yet are often hesitant to acknowledge.

“I come from a long line of businessmen,” Smith said. “And I’ve seen how hard they work, how they beat themselves to death only to die of a heart attack. It makes me wonder, watching my father and my brothers and the life they lead.”

Smith’s disenchantment with life in the business world is also apparent in the way he came to writing.

“I’d written some poetry when I was young and there was a guitar lying around, so it seemed natural,” he said. “Then when I was 13, we moved from the farm I was growing up on in Brenham into Houston, and there was something about the move to the big city that really sparked that.”

At 21, after graduating from the University of Texas at Austin, Smith began pursuing a music career full force. He released “Native Soil” on his own Redi-Mix label and began touring as a solo artist with his acoustic guitar.

While appearing at Los Angeles’ Anticlub two years ago, Smith secured a publishing deal for his songs. After that, he signed as a recording artist with Epic Records of Nashville and his major label debut, produced by Asleep at the Wheel’s Ray Benson, was released in January.

“It’s nice to know that where I am now is the result of something I’d started with my own energy. Back when I’d put out my (first) album, I was doing all my own bookings and trying to run the label and things got pretty crazy. But, in the long run, it paid off--and that’s a good feeling.”

Hard work isn’t something Smith is afraid of. Since the release of “Darden Smith,” he has been crisscrossing the country, opening for acts from Rosanne Cash to the Pogues. And the live show seems to be Smith’s strongest suit. On stage he strums with conviction, shifting from bluesy to swing to country weeper like he’s changing his shirt.

With Roland Denney on upright bass and Paul Pearcy on drums, they are pioneering the concept of the acoustic power trio--dubbed the Big Guns band. And though the music they are making is considered country, it holds appeal for anyone who enjoys stories well told or music that draws on a variety of styles.

“I guess you could say that what I want people to know is that I’m not trying to pull (anything) over on folks,” Smith said. “What I’m writing about is things I really feel. I hope people get that from the songs--and that I’m not just some plastic creation made by some record company to rake in the bucks. That’s not what this is about.

“This is real--it’s my life, and I hope people can tell that.”

Darden Smith will play the Crazy Horse Steak House in Santa Ana on Thursday at 8 p.m. Tickets: $2.94. Doors open at 6 p.m. Information: (714) 549-1512.