Rick Shea: “Smoke Tree Road” (2026) CD Review

The southern California music scene is far and away the best in the country, and no small part of the credit for that is due to Rick Shea. He is an extraordinary singer and songwriter who has performed with people like Dave Alvin, Tony Gilkyson, Jon Langford, Patty Booker, Brantley Kearns, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore. I first became aware of him through Fur Dixon & Steve Werner more than twenty-five years ago, soon after I moved to this city and found this great music scene opening before me like a giant flower. Rick Shea’s name would come up over and over, on the tongues of so many of the artists I was being turned onto. He’s released several excellent albums including Shaky Ground, The Town Where I Live, Love & Desperation, and Sweet Bernadine. I’ve been looking forward to his new album, Smoke Tree Road, for a while, because some of its songs, including “A Week In Winnemucca” and “An Irishman’s A Laborer At Heart,” have been making it onto his set lists at performances over the last several months, especially at his regular music series at Maui Sugar Mill Saloon, "Swingin' Doors." And it’s no surprise that there is an incredible group of respected musicians lending their talents to these tracks, including guitarist Tony Gilkyson, bass player Jeff Turmes and drummer Dale Daniel, who make up The Losin’ End, Rick’s regular band. And also Chad Watson on bass, Shawn Nourse on drums, Eleanor Whitmore on fiddle and bass fiddle, Danny McGough electric piano, Celia Chavez on vocals, Tony Zamora on bass and guitarron, Cougar Estrada on drums and percussion, Roberto Rodriguez III on accordion, Skip Edwards on organ, David Jackson on acoustic bass, Doug Livingston on pedal steel guitar, and James Cruce on drums and percussion. As you can see, many of southern California’s finest have contributed to this album. It features mostly original material, written or co-written by Rick Shea, who also produced the album.

Rick Shea opens the album with “A Week In Winnemucca,” one of the new songs that he has been performing on occasion. This studio version has a wonderful vibe right from the start. “Like a breath of country air,” Rick sings early in the song, and that’s also a great description of the song’s feel. When I’ve mentioned this song in concert reviews, one line I’ve quoted is “The locals kept their distance, yeah, but not for very long,” and it again stands out here. This track features some beautiful guitar work, particularly that lead in the middle, which has a friendly vibe. This song is a perfect start to the album. It is followed by “Guardian Angel,” in which Rick sings of youth, “Some hard-headed kid, wild-eyed and restless/Out loose and running around/Chasing some dream or foolish adventure.” There is a wisdom to his voice, a wisdom earned through experience. His is a voice we trust, a voice we believe, a voice whose guidance we accept and want. “I took a lot of crazy chances/I was lucky that I pulled through/I must have had a guardian angel, baby/And she must have looked a lot like you.” This track contains some beautiful work on fiddle. This is one of the songs in particular I was excited to hear after seeing Rick perform it at a recent "Swingin’ Doors" show, and I love this studio rendition.

“An Irishman’s A Laborer At Heart” is another song I was looking forward to hearing on this album. I wish my dad were still around to hear this one. I know he would have loved it. Here are the first several lines: “My father was a simple man/Never one to boast/He paid no mind to lavish things/Or cared who had the most/He worked an honest day/And he got an early start/Because an Irishman’s a laborer at heart.” Would my dad have recognized himself in those lines? Perhaps, but he wouldn’t have said so. “Not one to show his feelings/Or speak of them out loud,” Rick sings. This a tender, touching song, and, yeah, I don’t mind saying it brings me to tears. “And in a world of broken promises that can tear your soul apart/An Irishman’s a laborer at heart.” Then “Georgia Bride” features some very cool guitar work right from the start, plus some delicious stuff on keys. There is an easygoing groove to this track, and a certain energy to the vocal approach. And if this song needed another layer of cool, we get some delicious touches on saxophone. Wonderful! Jeff Turmes, in addition to playing bass on this album, plays saxophone. The track contains a good sax lead halfway through, and more great stuff on guitar after that, all of which helps make this track a highlight of the album.

“Midnight Shift” is the first of two covers on the album, this one written by Jimmie Ainsworth and Earl Lee, and recorded by Buddy Holly and also by The Hollies. Rick Shea gives us a delightful rendition, with a jazzy sense of cool, and featuring some wonderful work on guitar and a really good vocal performance. “So if you’ve got a good woman/Who’s staying at home/Man, you’d better enjoy/It might not last long.” The fiddle plays an important part from the start of “Maria,” a fun song written by Jennie Moyeda and Rick Shea. This one is sung in Spanish, and has a delightful vibe. It’s not the first song that Rick Shea has delivered in Spanish, and it has a natural flavor and flow. Rick is joined by Celia Chavez on vocals. “El Diablo Manda” also has a delicious Spanish flavor, though this one is delivered in English. This track features some really nice work on guitar and on percussion, as well as on accordion. “Walk softly where the light grows dim/Whisper a familiar hymn/You can never know what’s hiding in the night.” And what a great vocal performance. There is sort of nervous edge at moments, which is totally fitting. It’s a vocal performance that helps immerse us in the song’s world, in the story. Celia Chavez adds some wonderful backing vocal work. “The thief, he wears a rich man’s clothes/The center’s cracked, it cannot hold/Old friendships fall/And crumble in the sand.” This is a song I love more and more each time I listen to it.

The album’s second cover is “Long Black Veil.” I’ve heard a lot of versions of this one over the years, and Rick Shea puts his own spin on it. There is a kind of rockin’ vibe to this rendition, a good energy, which works in some contrast to the song’s theme. I love the guitar here, and there is a delightful saxophone lead in the second half. There is also an interesting section at the end, with the repeated line “Nobody knows but me” becoming a sort of echo in the darkness as he fades away. Wow, that is unexpected and fantastic. “Long Black Veil” is followed by “Delia,” a song that grabs me right from the start. There is a lonesome vibe, a sense of melancholy to it, to that instrumental section at the beginning. “Delia was the only one/The one and only one/Who saw the emptiness inside of me/She was always there for me/Always there to care for me/I always knew that Delia was the one.” There is a great haunted quality to this song, particularly to his vocal performance. This is a captivating and quietly powerful number, one hell of a good song. “The ravens call out endlessly/Leaving only memories/Of all we had and all that’s left behind.”

“One More Night” is a lovely song with a classic, familiar, timeless vibe, a song of being on the road, a traveling musician. “One more night, one more city/Too many towns, too many names/All these miles and miles of highway signs/These days all seem the same.” And the lines “And the road runs endlessly/And as far as I can see/I’m no closer to that dream” hit hard for many of us, don’t they? As we get older, and see our goals, our dreams still far in the distance. This song features one of the album’s best vocal performances. I also love that guitar work, so simple and yet it hits us just right. This song was written by Rick Shea and Wyman Reese and is another of the disc’s highlights. The energy then picks up on “Trailrider,” also written by Rick Shea and Wyman Reese. This is the album’s only instrumental track, taking us out on the trails of the wild west, and featuring some nice work on pedal steel. It is the final track that is listed. However, there is a twelfth track, not listed on the CD case. It begins with the sound of birds, and then Rick Shea begins to sing a cappella. “I got a lot of birds in the Juniper tree/I got a lot of birds in the Juniper tree/I got a lot of birds in the Juniper tree/Birdie, birdie, birdie birdie bird.” And for the dog verse, a barking dog is added to the sound of the birds, and so on. And we’re left with the sounds of nature. A sweet children's folk song, and an interesting and surprising conclusion to this excellent album.

CD Track List

1. A Week In Winnemucca
2. Guardian Angel
3. An Irishman’s A Laborer At Heart
4. Georgia Bride
5. Midnight Shift
6. Maria
7. El Diablo Manda
8. Long Black Veil
9. Delia
10. One More Night
11. Trailrider
12. Juniper Tree

Smoke Tree Road was released on February 24, 2026 through Tres Pescadores.