Guitarist and music producer Ross O’Reilly is based in London and divides his time between production projects and his new alternative country influenced duo, Cash & Carter, where he works with vocalist and lyricist Shaun Smith, who often operates under the moniker Stealth. This mainly acoustic-based duo is a departure for both musicians. “I’ve known Shaun for about 10 years now and we’ve worked together since,” Ross begins.
“If you gave us a pop quiz on the background of Americana and country music then we might be in the bottom half, but we just love the sound of it. And Shaun is a big Johnny Cash fan.” What’s In A Name Cash & Carter feels like a bold name to slap onto a “boxfresh” (as Ross describes them) country duo, but Ross seems unfazed.
“It was quite handy that nobody else had [the name],” he says. “Picking a unique name now is nearly impossible and it was either that or we end up drawing names out of a hat and then all sorts of trouble can happen. But we just felt it fitted.
“And we didn’t think too much about the names associated with it...
Not in a bad way, we just thought it would be cool and those two were in the right bracket. Fingers crossed it goes well with the EP.” The Western Sound Both Ross and Shaun come across as audiophiles, with Ross being a successful producer and Shaun an accomplished musician, so it’s no surprise that this endeavour was well thought out.
“I love old Western music and find it so interesting,” Ros.