Chas Smith

Chas Smith (AKA Charles Vincent Smith) (1957 - 2007) was an author, musician, radio personality, and a Cleveland State University music professor.

Smith taught and explored the cultural aspects of American Roots music for over twenty years. He held both a Bachelor’s and a master's degree in music from Cleveland State University, where he offered “The Roots of Rock and Soul”, a class on American rock music and its roots, and he taught basic music composition to little kids through a program with the Cleveland Opera as a music mentor in grade schools.

Smith sang and played keyboards, bass guitar, and theremin for over 30 years in many different genres. He was in The Clocks (AKA Radio Alarm Clocks), a popular Cleveland punk band in the late 1970s and early '80s, then he was keyboardist for the latter-day version of The Pagans. In 1993 he formed the band Einstein's Secret Orchestra (later called Einstein's Secret Outlaws), voted Best Electronic/Instrumental Band at the Cleveland Free Times Music Awards in 2001, and produced two CDs of ESO's music, with others produced by the SubGenius Foundation. He also toured with Cobra Verde as keyboardist from 1997 through the early 2000s, and played with the country-blues Americana band The Fullbrights.

He and the band ESO often appeared on stage with Rev. Ivan Stang of the Church of the SubGenius, and perform on several of their CDs and DVDs. He spent over 20 years creating soundscapes on his weekly SwampRadio ESO radio show at WCSB in Cleveland. He performed live on-the-air comedy with Brain Rot Theater on Swamp Radio, and with Rev. Ivan Stang and the cast of The Hour of Slack, the Church of the SubGenius syndicated radio show. He was a board member of A.C.E. and appeared at both the Starwood Festival[1] and the WinterStar Symposium, offering both performances and classes on music history and electronic trance music, and hosted a dance event within the Starwood Festival called the "Rumble in the Jungle".

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