ALBUM:
Hard Earned Smile
TAYLOR USED:
912-CE
SONG CLIPS:
Dark and Deep
28k | 56K
Hard Earned Smile
28k | 56K
CONTACT INFO:
Lower Dryad Music
P.O. Box 551
Montreat, NC 28757
(800) 995-6825
Web:
www. david lamotte .com
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North Carolina singer-songwriter David LaMotte kissed his day job goodbye in 1991 to embrace
the winding road of full-time musicianship. Five albums and 39 states later… he has shared
the stage with the likes of Arlo Guthrie, John McCutcheon, Gillian Welch, Shawn Mullins,
Sara Hickman, David Wilcox, Buddy Miles and the Austin Lounge Lizards.
Raised in Sarasota, Florida, LaMotte discovered his musical calling in the Carolina
mountains during annual family vacations in the small town of Montreat, NC. During his
college days, he hitchhiked and busked around Europe, and after graduation, moved to Western
North Carolina to join the region's emerging acoustic scene. Music, LaMotte discovered,
was a natural extension of his spirituality.
Lately, LaMotte has found unique outlets for sharing his musical talents. In each of the
last three years, he has spent four to six weeks as an Artist in Residence in the Gillette
Wyoming school system, teaching classes in creative writing, guitar, video production,
studio recording, and photography. He also recently gave a two-week workshop for at-risk
high school students that integrates Ropes Course experience with creative writing. The Arts
Alliance of Asheville (NC) recently rewarded his songwriting talent with a Professional
Development Grant.
LaMotte's fourth album, Hard Earned Smile, blends folk, rock, blues and bluegrass influences,
percussive acoustic grooves, and tender, toasty vocals that make as soothing a listening
companion as James Taylor's. "…And there's nothing so true as the hope in a hard earned
smile," LaMotte sings knowingly on the title track, reflecting a complicated romantic
breakup that inspired some of the album's material. In fact, LaMotte found himself staring
down several demons during this period, and said in an interview with Frank Rabey of
Mountain Xpress, that as a songwriter who wants his music to be, above all, honest, he was
glad his rough journey was captured in his songs. He spoke of emerging from the pain and
healing process with an "honest optimism," "a choice of hope… based in hard reality."
"What a versatile instrument!" LaMotte wrote of his 912-C, which he uses on every track. "I
love how even the tone is, top to bottom, and the fact that even though it's really a
fingerstyle guitar, it can rock."
"When someone enjoys music as much as David, it is heard in every note he sings and plays. He makes the music that your ears are hungry to hear."
— Moorcroft Leader,
Moorcroft, WY
"David LaMotte makes music as timeless and beautiful as his native Smoky Mountains."
— Neil Fagan,
Performing Songwriter Magazine
"David sings songs from his heart, from the heart of the North Carolina mountains, with style, wit, and old-fashioned charm."
— Jan Brick,
WERS-FM, Boston, MA
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