Nashville.com Official Guide To Nashville, TN
Nashville troubadour Stuffy Shmitt’s latest video for his song “110 Shotguns” is a feast for the senses. From the moment the first frame appears on the screen, viewers are transported into a surreal and captivating world of artistic expression. With its dreamy images set against a spinning backdrop of a hotel room, the video takes viewers on a mesmerizing journey that is hard to look away from. The juxtaposition of eye balls and Barbie doll parts is particularly intriguing. It’s a clever way to explore themes of perception, identity, and the juxtaposition between innocence and darkness.
“110 Shotguns” is the latest single from Shmitt’s album Cherry. After a tornado leveled his East Nashville, Tennessee, neighborhood and a bomb took out two downtown Nashville city blocks, Shmitt released his last album, ironically titled Stuff Happens (2020). While that album was about purging past demons, once the world opened up again, Stuffy felt remarkably unstuck. “It was like we were emerging from a zombie apocalypse,” he says. “I had this incredible rush of freedom. C’mon, let’s go! Let’s color outside the lines. Let’s run and fly and lift this shit up and feel crazy good alive. I felt like everyone needed to remember how to have fun. Remember fun? I needed fun.”
That rush of freedom inspired Cherry, featuring some of the finest players in the Nashville, who are also some of his closest friends. “It was like somebody let the boys out,” Stuffy says. “We made our escape, and then cranked it up. Cherry is the sound of me and my gang being free and having a blast—not following any rules, trusting each other and being in the moment with the songs.”
“We all went to Dave Coleman’s place in Inglewood, Tennessee,” Stuffy says. “Its called Howard’s Apartment Studios; it’s not an apartment, and there’s no one there called Howard. Everybody was going by phony names—Dave Coleman was Benny Shapiro, and Michael Webb was Roger Wilco. It got really silly, but the tracks and the vibe blew me away. It felt like life. I felt fed.” They recorded two songs that day—The Hard-on Polka” and “The Little Man in the Boat”—one for the ladies, and one for the gentleman. “When we were finished, I thought, ‘Oh man, this just feels too good. Let’s do some more. I gotta do more.’ So, I sold three guitars, some old coins my dad left me, and emptied my checking account, and we all came back and did the record.”
There are a lot of people oozing with creativity and talent in Nashville but few who have the balls to do something completely different. You can always count on Stuffy Shmitt to do just that.
