Having started out as a visual artist, Smith’s pieces were exhibited in galleries throughout Vancouver before he had even finished high school. When work began on his first complete album, Christopher retreated to his studio of choice—a bedroom. Modest in execution, the resulting recording, The Beckon Call, is a hushed and intimate affair.

“Gently Gently”, the first single from The Beckon Call, is available today with 2 b-sides via Smith’s website, thebeckoncall.com. The video, with shimmering snow globe landscapes designed by Hitoshi Okamoto, was created by the Vancouver-based collective SALAZAR. The feelings of loneliness and vulnerability that course through The Beckon Call are perfectly crystallized in this tale of a young adventurer lost in the wild.

May tour dates in New York and the Pacific Northwest will soon be announced. In the meantime Christopher Smith and his band, also The Beckon Call, will open for Lightning Dust at The Cultch in Vancouver on April 25.

While this one-upmanship may suggest that Smith and Woodpigeon’s Mark Hamilton have a competitive relationship (which may well be the case) the pair of them actually get along quite well and are collaborating on not 1 but 2 EPs to be released in 2010. Christopher Smith + The Beckon Call will also open Woodpigeon’s Vancouver CD release show on January 16th at the Biltmore in support of Die Stadt Muzikanten out earlier that week.

Smith’s debut album, The Beckon Call, will be released in the Spring of 2010. The Keepsake EP is available here, or through iTunes and emusic. While “Christmas Day” isn’t on either, you can download it free below.

• Downloads

• “Christmas Day” for Christmas
• “Piece by Piece” from Keepsake

Video

A Jason C Myers production in collaboration with Jon Morris and Todd M Duym of elevater.tv.
Special thanks to Monitor Digital Solutions, William F Whites, Grip Brothers, Filmgroup, Hearing Protection Required, Jen Gordon, Alexis and Eric Hoffman.

This Thursday afternoon Christopher Smith and his band, The Beckon Call, will board a BC Ferries vessel and will make their way to Victoria where they’ll play their first show ever outside of their hometown.  Smith will open for Final Fantasy in the Alix Goolden Performance Hall, an 800-seat theatre and former church sanctuary.  No pressure!

While Smith’s debut album (also called The Beckon Call) isn’t due out until February, we thought we should release something to commemorate Thursday’s show.  So yesterday afternoon 4 of us, Smith included, gathered ‘round to handmake 100 copies of the Keepsake EP.   This extremely short run of gocco-printed EPs will be available offstage and online through the Boompa shop. The EP will also be available digitally on November 3rd, minus the bonus cover song downloadable below.

Upcoming Shows

Sep 24: Victoria, BC - Alix Goolden Hall w. Final Fantasy, Timber Timbre
Sep 26: Vancouver, BC - Little Mountain w. Woodpigeon, Thighs

• Downloads

• “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’”
  from Keepsake

While Smith’s debut full length release, The Beckon Call, won’t be out until February, you can expect to hear a lot more of him in the months to come, starting with this live recording of “Piece By Piece”.

If you live in Vancouver you should put on your rubber boots and come down to the Grace Gallery tonight to see Christopher Smith and The Beckon Call. Doors are at 8, it costs $5 and Andy Dixon is opening.

Upcoming Shows

Aug 13: Vancouver, BC - Grace Gallery w. Andy Dixon
Sep 24: Victoria, BC - Alix Goolden Hall w. Final Fantasy, Timber Timbre

• Downloads

• “Piece By Piece” from Garage Sessions

There will be a few Canadian dates in June and July, including NXNE and Calgary’s Sled Island, and then the band is back to Europe again to play a bunch of festivals we all wish we could go to. Busy! And somehow there’s still time for Mark to work on a split EP with Chris Smith that we will tell you more about as soon as we can.

Check out the tour dates here, and then go visit the new Woodpigeon site that Boompa’s own Erin Nicholson designed, developed, and recently launched.

Here’s a video of “Oberkampf” from Woodpigeon’s show at the Botanique in Brussels this past February: