The SMOKIE LINKS

Since first joining forces a little over a year ago the musical collective known as The Smokie Links have rapidly been engaging new fans, filling nightclubs throughout the Great Lakes Bay Region, and concocting an impressive roster of original songs to showcase both the creative range of their talents and the uplifting blend of their personalities.

The musical textures and journey of this band of explorers is both cohesively focused, yet as diverse and divergent as the individual members comprising the group, which consists of lead singer and keyboardist Dion Mason, who hails from Brisbane, Australia, Milwaukee born yet Saginaw-based saxophonist Scott Summers, bassist Josh Jekel, drummer and percussionist Stevie Lee Kinzer, and is rounded out by the fiery, fluid, and emotive dexterity of their guitarist, Steven ‘Pogo’ Pogoreski.

The Smokie Links initially met one another through working with Rock-Hop Rapper Chris Redburn on different musical projects with his group REDBURN. One fateful night Josh Jekel posed the idea of jamming together with Dion and Stevie, followed by Scott, with Pogo the last member to join the group.  “We basically started playing a few shows together back in October of 2023, so at this point are about 15- months old and young, depending upon your perspective,” notes Stevie.

Lead guitarist Pogo says the turning point for him was playing a show at the Hamilton St. Pub with another band and catching their set. “I loved everything they did,” he explains. “I heard them perform one of their original songs called Redemption  that night and got goosebumps, and I’m an outsider who knew these guys only through REDBURN, so after that we had a long chat, and then we just started practicing like crazy.”

While Dion and Stevie still perform with REDBURN, their new project The Smokie Links should not be confused with another popular group circulating the dance clubs several years ago known as Mama Mokey & the Smokey Lynx, as the current group open to musical dissection in this profile is a completely different outfit entirely.   “A lot of the guys in the group were new to the area and didn’t realize Mama Mokey once had a group she disbanded that were called the Smokey Lynx when our new band first formed, explains Dion. “I ran into her at Maple Gardens and asked if it was okay to run with this name, and thanks to God’s grace she said it was cool to use, especially since we spell it differently.”

When asked what the band is striving to achieve musically, their goals run higher and deeper than the by now blasé’ almost satirical response of ‘sex, drugs, and rock-n’roll’  one might expect from an up-and-coming party & cover band roaming the mid-Michigan musical circuit.

“Musically, as a songwriter and a performer, and also collectively as a band our goal is to entertain; but for me personally,  especially with the original material, my goal is to save lives and inspire people and change lives and help people get through the hard times,” reflects Dion.

“I’d also like to write a couple wedding songs for couples, and whenever we’re performing on stage I try and say some inspirational stuff between songs. We’ve got a few new singles coming out soon that I’m really excited about.”

Considering The Smokie Links have a remarkable performance currently streaming online recorded at Papa Doc Studios as one of their SESSIONS broadcasts, along with close to ten original songs in the bag now, their level of output is a testament to their dedication given their track record of accomplishment over these past 15 months.  

“You can catch our original All American on the Papa Doc podcast, and currently have Redemption out there,  and we’ll also have two new singles coming out soon called Lucky Charm and  Lil’ Bit High,” notes Stevie. We’ve also got Changing Lanes out there, which can be found by searching under Dion Mason.”

Regarding their songwriting process, while Dion does most of the writing, Stevie Lee helps collaborate, and the other members flesh the songs out and animate the grooves by developing their own individual parts, plus they are also looking at recording some of Scott’s songs.  “I haven’t even started yet,” interjects Scott. “In terms of songwriting, the pipeline is working out real good right now the way it is, so I don’t want to mess with it right now because everything is working just fine.”

“The way we approach all our material is first and foremost, whether it’s an original or a cover song, we want to play songs we like and ones we can perform the best to use our experience to touch people and move them, as well as to make them move and come alive. Some of our songs make people dance and some make people cry, but our goal is to really make them feel it and get into it,” adds Stevie Lee.

With so many different styles and genres cross-breeding and populating the musical landscape, how do The Smokie Links define their own sound and perceive each member’s unique role in coloring its texture?

“I would place us in the Country/Rock/Soul category that explores older styles of R&B,” reflects Scott. “Our songs are based around rhythm, blues, and soul, and the sax mixes well with all of that and adds a jazzy element, which is where the Country Rock Soul comes in because to me everybody brings their own jambalaya to the pot.  We have the musical equivalent of jambalaya is the way I see it.”

“In terms of my specific contributions to our sound, I bring in the rock & blues elements,” states guitarist Pogo. “From the test of time if you want to be good at playing Rock guitar you need to be good at Blues guitar.  My major musical influence is Larry McCray - 100 percent. He’s one of the top five Bluesmen in the world and stays true to his roots and that’s another important thing in this group - they’re realistic. That’s what resonates with people.  We’re doing it for fun, but when we play a song it’s 100 percent.  We don’t stop, we don’t take it for granted, and we don’t get lazy. We hold each other accountable for our performance, which is another important dynamic that’s great about this band. We continue to elevate each other and I’ve grown tremendously with the thanks and help of these gentlemen.”

As for Dion Mason, his goals for the band and role in shaping its sound is focused, lofty, and reaching for the stars as well as the high notes, especially given that as  vocalist and front man, he needs to give voice to their collective vision while in performance.  “My goal is to make great music all over the world and play cover music that will get us on more stages for bigger audiences in order to get our originals out there,” he honestly asserts. 

“I was born in Australia so bring a lot of the look of Australia into the band - I’ve got the Aborigine hair going on, and when I’m onstage I adopt the flair of an Aborigine,” smiles Dion. “My job is to read the audience. Sometimes we’re playing to a dinner crowd and everybody is nice and sitting down, so these guys have to keep me pumped up because my jokes aren’t very good; but I try to make people laugh sometimes between songs, and when addressing the crowd, I always try to say something positive, or make a light-hearted joke about something.”

“Seriously though, I started playing music really young as a classical piano player when I was about three-years old,” he continues. “My piano teacher said by the time I was five-years old I would be playing my first Sonata and I ended up learning it in a few weeks.  I studied classical music until I was about 13 or 14 years-old and did competitions at The Temple Theatre, and have also played at Panda House. It’s very gratifying to have people come up to you at every bar we go to and say, ‘Man, you’re the best band in the valley.’”

As for Josh Jekel, his goal is to bring emotion to both their shows and their music. While many remember him as guitarist and co-founder of both The Banana Convention and The Thunderchickens back in the early 2000s, with The Smokie Links his instrument of choice is the bass.

“There’s a lot of dynamics to playing the bass so I like to keep things moving, and set the movement and flow to the music. While I’m known as a guitarist, I’ve played bass before in The Mongrels, and still play acoustic guitar in solo shows, but playing bass is really interesting because it’s cool learning songs on two different instruments and shows you different ways to go in terms of progressions and tempos.”

Lastly, as the drummer Stevie Lee Kinzer sees his role as setting the pocket. “I’ve got the chops to flex here and there, but mainly I let the song speak for itself,” he states.  “Being the drummer I try to stay out of the way of everything except holding the fort down, so to speak. Drums form the foundation and keep the beat going and what I enjoy about this band is how depending upon what the crowd is like, we can piggy back on their emotions and mood.”

“Sometimes we get loose and real wild, and other times we pull it back - not just me - but  instinctively as a band we know when to bring it up or take it down. We’re very good at playing on the fly in a constructive manner and knowing the crowd.”

Throughout the course of their 15-month journey, at what point did the group notice their fan-base expanding?   “It’s kind of hard to track because we’ve been at it so furiously, but I would say after the firt few shows more and more people started coming out to our shows, and I noticed it when we were playing in Bay City and people from other cities started showing up as well,” reflects Pogo. “Like Stevie said, we stay in the pocket and play to the crowd and are really tuned into the audience. If we see people are already dancing we keep ‘em going for the entire set if the place is rocking.”

“It’s not just the music, though, its also about the energy,” he continues. “We feed off the energy of the audience and that’s how you know you’re making a connection. It’s about the energy as much as the music I would say at this point The Smokie Links is a vibe at this point - we’re playing music we enjoy that people also enjoy and we pay attention to keeping the cover songs fresh. Right now we have close to 60 songs to work into our setlists.”

Currently The Smokie Links perform live at Flannigan’s Irish Pub every Tuesday from 6-9 pm, and will also be doing a show at Perchville on February 8^th, and then will be at The Vault in Saginaw on February 14^th, doing a Valentine’s Day show opening for The Wallflowers Tribute Band to Tom Petty. The group will also be performing at White’s Bar on February 28^th from 10 to close, where they perform once a month and consider their home base.

While no release date is set yet for their new singles, the group says they’d like to get them out there by early Spring. They also have a new jam on the backburner called Good Times they hope to release by this summer; and with Scott’s connections to Milwaukee they also hope to make a return to the famous Milwaukee SummerFest Music Festival, where they made their debut last summer.

To learn more about The Smokie Links you can visit their facebook page, and also check out their PapaDoc Studios SESSIONS video on YouTube and other streaming platforms.

Click this Link to listen to their original tune, Redemption.