Panama City Beach Favorites the Acoustix Look to Venture Further West
Chris Manson March 25, 2004 Issue

A glance at Dallas Griffin and Brian Smith’s song list at www.theacoustix.net offered some nice surprises. Mixed in with Jimmy Buffett and Eagles crowd pleasers were songs by Devo (Whip It), Marshall Crenshaw (Someday, Someway), Jackson Browne (Rosie) and Steely Dan (Doctor Wu).

“We both grew up listening to all different kinds of music. We’ve played in various types of bands all our lives,” guitarist and singer Griffin said. “When we put this duo together, we thought, ‘Let’s just do songs we enjoy playing, if it’s an odd artist, so what.’ We found it gets us a whole different clientele. If you stay, you’ll hear things you haven’t heard in a while. We didn’t categorize our song list. The only problem is when people ask ‘What kind of music do you play?’”

Their song list also includes a tune called Lost Highway, credited to the Acoustix. Is that the old Hank Williams standard? “No, but it’s the same kind of thing. Not influenced by his song, we just couldn’t think of a better title. We do very few original tunes. With the concentration on club dates, those people don’t want to hear songs they’ve never heard before. We do other people’s music, and try to do it well,” Griffin said.

Both men are accomplished players—Smith handles stand-up and electric bass—but Griffin thinks the vocals are their selling point. “People listen to the singing and what we’re doing vocal wise. We feature our vocals in everything we do. I sing most of the lead parts, Brian sings the harmony,” he said. Griffin plays a Stratocaster with an acoustic bridge—it enables him to switch between acoustic and electric sounds without having to change guitars all night.

I arrived late at Snapperhead’s where the guys are playing the next four Thursdays. Smith showed me his cumbersome stand-up bass and gave me a quick lesson before the Acoustix did impromptu renditions of James Taylor’s Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight and the Louis Armstrong version of Mack the Knife. There was a big St. Patrick’s Day party here last night. “We played about two sets for the dinner crowd. I guess everyone felt so bad after last night they didn’t come out tonight. It’s my first time in this part of the Panhandle. We just wanted to get our name out here,” Smith said.

Griffin and Smith grew up together in Dothan, Ala. Their musical collaboration dates back to their teenage years. “It’s been a wild ride. We’ve had a lot more fun on the job than 99 percent of the world. We really, really enjoy what we do. It’s what I wanted to do for a living. We’re not getting wealthy, but we still really enjoy it,” Griffin said. “We make a decent living. We worked 245 days last year.”

Acoustix was born about 12 years ago, and they are well known in Panama City Beach. Their dates are divided between the Treasure Ship (currently on weekends, then seven nights a week from Memorial Day through Labor Day) and Schooner’s (Tuesdays and Wednesdays). The gigs at Snapperhead’s are the first time the guys have ventured west. “We’d love to play some more over here. We’re hoping folks will want to come hear us,” Griffin said.

Griffin finds the acoustic duo format to his liking, although he occasionally misses the other instrumentation. “It helps that I have only one other guy I have to think about, and he’s gonna be there on time, be nice to people, sober—all the things musicians are notoriously bad at. We can play more jobs, private parties. We can play quieter if we need to. More kinds of venues are open to us,” he said.

“We use a drum machine for probably half of our song list. We played the first couple of years with just the guitar and bass—that’s where we developed our style. But you really can’t ask people to dance if you don’t have a drummer. If there’s no beat, you can’t get nightclub jobs. And if you’re gonna make a living, you’ve got to play nightclubs. We drew the line at the drum machine—none of the strings and vocals, so it still sounds like us. We do our own drum tracks, starting from scratch. We play the song the way we want to, and build the drum track around us. We don’t use it all the time, not on James Taylor, But if you’re gonna play I Want You to Want Me, you’d better have a drummer!”

Griffin grew up on James Taylor. “I’m dating myself, but I picked up the 8-track to Sweet Baby James as a kid. I loved Jackson Browne, Simon and Garfunkel, Dan Fogelberg—all the singer-songwriters of that era. As I got older, I got into southern rock and the Allman Brothers. Once I bought a jazz guitar and wouldn’t listen to anything but Wes Montgomery. Brian is really the same way. He played in an oldies band—Wooly Bully, stuff like that. Brian’s bass playing is very unique—he’s a really good bass player, but a lot of things he plays are very avant-garde. He incorporates that Jaco Pastorius style into what we play. He’s really, really talented.”

While many acts tend to burn out after a few years, the Acoustix display more energy on and off the stage than some musicians half their age. “I love to play music, through the good and the bad,” Smith said. “And brother, we’ve seen it all. Thirty years of doing it in the trenches—sometimes big stages and small stages, but mostly the trenches.”

Griffin also credits Smith’s telepathic gifts for their long run. “Sometimes he’ll know what I’m gonna do before I do it!”

SIDEBAR:

Dallas Griffin’s Five Desert Island CDs:

Allman Brothers, Live at Fillmore East
Dan Fogelberg, Souvenirs
Jaco Pastorius, Jaco
Joe Pass & Herb Ellis, Two for the Road (“They’re both jazz guitarists…an incredible album if you’re into jazz,” Griffin said.)
Anything by Bela Fleck & the Flecktones (“His music is so much fun to listen to. They have written such an eclectic bunch of music. It defies categorization. Every time I hear them, I find something new and interesting going on. Bela Fleck is without equal on the banjo.”)

Brian Smith’s Five Desert Island CDs:

The Beatles, The Beatles (a/k/a The White Album)
Jaco Pastorius (“He did for the electric bass what Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen did for electric guitar,” Smith said.)
James Brown, All-Time Greatest Hits!
The Allman Brothers, Live at Fillmore East (“Quintessential jam band.”)
Jimi Hendrix, Are You Experienced?

(Top)

Back to Musician Profiles