Gonzalez Smith Serves Up Classic AM Gold for the 21st Century

'Roll Up a Song' harkens back to the glory days of power pop.

Jay Gonzalez and Pete Smith

Originally published on January 18, 2024.

Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe, Bacharach and David, Gamble and Huff, Goffin and King, Taupin and John – the music world is filled with legendary pairings of talented lyricists and their musical counterparts. We can now add Pete Smith and Jay Gonzalez to those sacred ranks.

Pete Smith is a retired comedy writer who helped steer both Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast and its spinoff, the Brak Show, to classic status during the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim programming block. Jay Gonzalez handles keys and contributes guitar to one of the best rock bands in America, the Drive-By Truckers. The pair have now joined forces, as Gonzalez Smith, to deliver Roll Up a Song, a full-length album’s worth of some of the best straight-up power pop of the last few years.

Smith’s lyrics rest somewhere between irreverent and touchingly melancholy, a difficult trick to pull off successfully. An air of innocence here and a wink there, the songs on Roll Up a Song provide a delicate balance to keep the lyrics from veering too far either way. Such balance is underlined by Gonzalez, who gives Smith’s lyrics memorable and sugar-sweet melodies throughout while adding the perfect musical accompaniment.

Gonzalez provides all the vocals and instrumentation except for Sean Percell who handles the drums on “She’s My Girl” and “Gelato”; DBT drummer Brad Morgan, who adds his kit to the driving title track; and Eddie Gilkin, who contributes congas to “She’s My Girl”. Chris Grehan mixed while adding acoustic guitar and Danelectro 6-string bass, horns were handled by E. Clay White, while Brent Cash provided string arrangements.

The pristine power pop on Roll Up a Song offers a cushion for lyrics that force a smile when describing a girl with “Farrah Fawcett hair” or that wish the narrator could sing like “Lindsey Buckingham” (while successfully aping the song’s namesake’s singular style). “Good Morning, Irene” answers the unasked question of what may have happened the morning after Leadbelly bid her goodnight. “Did We Make Love?” gets so silly that Gonzalez cracks himself up on a line that finds us laughing along at the same time.

Moments like that, simple yet charming, can be found all over Roll Up a Song. It’s an album that offers a glimpse into a time when great pop music could be found blasting from AM radios all over when smiles and singalongs didn’t seem as hard to come by.