Hitting the road: Shane Smith & The Saints snag opening slot on Dierks Bentley's stop in ABQ

Shane Smith is used to the grind of touring and making music.

The Terrell, Texas-native cut his teeth around town before moving to Austin, Texas, and now he’s making waves alongside his band mates – Bennett Brow, Dustin Schaefer, Chase Satterwhite and Zach Stover – who make up The Saints.

Shane Smith & The Saints snagged an opening slot on Dierks Bentley’s Gravel & Gold Tour, which makes a stop at Isleta Amphitheater on Saturday, Aug. 12.

Smith says life on the road is a force of its own.

“Over the years, we’ve kind of constantly been in a state of full-time, week-to-week touring … but runs/tours like this one are much more condensed with more shows in a shorter period of time, so I personally see it as a good opportunity to get into more of a consistent schedule,” Smith says. “I try to make sure I’m pretty healthy going into it and my voice is ready to go multiple nights in a row without getting worn out. “

With nearly 10 years of music to choose from, Smith admits it can be difficult to create a set list, but he likes to keep it simple.

“We’ve kept a fairly consistent set list over the years, solely based on what seems to get the best live reaction from our audience,” he says. “We try to alternate a few songs here and there to keep it fresh, but keep a general setlist consistently.”

As Smith and the band have grown over the years, so has the writing process.

He says it’s evolved since he first started.

“Originally, everything was solely based around the words, I wasn’t leaning very hard on the melody or instrumental development of the song,” he says. “While the words are still most important to me, I think I’m finding a happy medium with both of those now, from the very beginning of writing a new song.”

Because Smith is writing from a personal place, there has been one point where he had to hold a song.

“There was a song called ‘The Hardest Part’ that we had to pull from an album for that exact reason,” he says. “It just hit too close to home at the time.”

Smith enjoys feeling the energy from a crowd – something that’s never changed over the years.

“We have a brand new song named ‘Adeline’ that we’ve been playing at shows lately,” he says. “I think that’s my favorite song to play live right now. It just has an awesome energy to it and is obviously very fresh to our regular set.”