Joel LaRue Smith

Joel LaRue Smith: The Motorman's Son

by Dan Bilawsky
February 18, 2017

The impact that parents can have on their children is absolutely incalculable. They're responsible for rearing and guiding, instilling and imprinting a series of attitudes and virtues on what essentially amounts to a human blank slate. Their acts inspire the actions and beliefs that come to largely define their progeny. That's an idea that pianist Joel LaRue Smith clearly understands and embraces with The Motorman's Son. Smith's parents left New Orleans in the '40s, joining The Great ...