Hammer hits the Central Coast with his harmonica

Chris ‘Hammer’ Smith brings his band to Grover Beach

By Patrick S. Pemberton

A surf trip to Malibu normally entails hours in the water at one of California’s most legendary point breaks.

But when Chris “Hammer” Smith took a surf trip there at age 17, he couldn’t even think about the waves. A friend had let him borrow a harmonica, and Smith couldn’t pull himself away from the instrument.

“I got so into it, I didn’t even wind up going surfing,” Smith said. “And I was pretty into my surfing back then.”

It wasn’t long before Smith became completely consumed.

“I just started playing like eight hours a day and started buying different keys and sitting in with people.”

Eventually, Smith, who had once planned on becoming a math teacher, became a session player, performing on songs recorded by stars such as Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney, Sammy Hagar, Dolly Parton and Smokey Robinson.

Along the way he formed his own band, The Hammer Smith Band, a rocking blues group that performs in Grover Beach on Friday.

After taking up the harmonica in the late ’60s, Smith studied under Rick Epping, who excelled in Irish harmonica, and found a mentor in bluesman Sonny Terry.

One night, while sitting in with Terry, Smith actually performed before one of his idols, Stevie Wonder, who was in the audience.

“I heard that he was doing the Ray Charles thing, moving back and forth, when I was playing,” Smith said.

As his skills improved, Smith picked up several session gigs, including one with “Dream Weaver” performer Gary Wright.

“At first he called me up to do it, and I quoted him a price,” Smith said. “He balked at it and got another guy. And about an hour later, he calls me back because the guy couldn’t do it.”

Smith was living in Venice Beach in the early ’80s when he got a call to record on “Say Say Say,” a duet between Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney. He got that gig with the help of Lee Oskar, a harmonica player from the band War.

“At the time I wasn’t doing that much, so I was pretty excited about it,” he said. “My car wasn’t even running, and I had to borrow a friend’s motorcycle to get over to the session.”

When he arrived at the studio, Jackson was there with a pretty clear idea of what he wanted.

“He had a few specific lines in mind,” Smith said. “And he actually sang them to me.”

Smith’s harmonica part, with an improvised ending, is a distinctive feature of the song, which appeared on McCartney’s “Pipes of Peace” album.

Smith also recorded for television shows like “Murphy Brown” and “Remington Steele” and movies like “Country Bears.”

But eventually session work became more difficult to obtain.

“The session field in general is way down from where it used to be,” he said. “I know players who used to do tons of session work that are hardly doing anythingnow— with everything being automated and all the advances in keyboards and recording with ProTools.”

Fortunately for Smith, his band has had success, opening for legends like B. B. King, Bonnie Raitt and Big Joe Turner.

The L. A.-based Hammer Smith Band features Smith on harmonica, guitar and lead vocals (which have been compared to those of the gravelly-voiced Paul Butterfield). Chris Stefanetti plays bass and Joey Finger is the drummer. The trio will play original blues songs written by Smith, plus a healthy share of covers.

“I don’t have to prove myself so much that I can’t do other people’s stuff,” said Smith, who covers lots of Beatles songs. “It’s all about doing stuff the audience likes. I was at a Springsteen concert, and he said the whole reason he does the show is for his cover songs. Which may be a little bit too far in the realm of false modesty there.

“But I sort of get what he means by that. The whole reason they’re up there is to have a party experience, where the whole audience just has a great time.”