Charlie Smith Fund Raiser to Unite Local Blues Royalty April 2

(ALBANY)– McGeary’s Pub will be the host for an upcoming fundraiser for Charlie Smith, local blues singer and guitar legend. Smith passed away recently, and an all-star band of musicians plans to celebrate his life while raising funds to support his family’s expenses.

The surviving Charlie Smith Blues Band members will be featured along with Matt Mirabile that day, including Rob Aronstein on organ/keys, Mike Lawrence and Steve Aldi on bass, and Andy Hearn on drums. Mark Emanation, Soul Sky, Jeremy Walz, and Scotty Mac will also be performing, along with a few more surprises to please the crowd.

Band member and friend Rob Aronstein recalled Charlie’s playing with admiration. “Charlie got my immediate attention the first time I saw him play. I had never heard a guitar player be that dynamic and play the guitar like a horn. He did not just play high on lead; he used the whole range of the
guitar. And the tone he generated was unlike anyone else’s. It was a combination of a man, a guitar, and an amp. And then there was the voice. And then, there was the visual intensity of his performance. Altogether, he demanded your attention as an audience member,” Aronstein recalled.

He also demanded the full attention of musicians around him. “Charlie would roll over you like a steamroller in the middle of your solo and take over the lead. Now if you are a musician, you don’t usually take well to someone doing that; it interrupts your creative flow. But if you take
your own ego out of it, Charlie was right every time he did that: He took your starter and flew with it, took it higher somehow. And the flip side was that you had to be on your toes and ready to take the lead at any point in Charlie’s solo, or song for that matter,” Aronstein explained.

Charlie Smith was a legend in the Capital Region, both for great musicianship and using humor to get the best out of his friends. The fundraiser is one way the musicians look to give back to his family, covering expenses and raising further awareness of his name and gifts shared with our community.

Interested fans should plan to get to McGeary’s in Albany on Sunday, April 2nd, by 3 pm to grab a table, some great food, and reveal in music to honor Charlie.