If times get tough for singer-songwriter Scott Smith, he can always move to Hawaii and impersonate Jack Johnson. Just like the surfing bard, Smith plays acoustic guitar-driven soft rock while crooning in a breathy, mush-mouthed delivery. Hell, he’s even influenced by the same black artists (Bob Marley and Ben Harper) that Johnson whitebreads into boring songs for boring Abercrombie-wearing fucks.

But while Johnson saps the life out of the music he copies, Smith retains the soul of those genres on his very lively and listenable debut. Smith plays nearly all the instruments on Quicksand Remedies — and plays them well. His excellent bass lines validate his forays into funk, and the same can be said of the horns on the Latin-tinged numbers “Comin’ Round” and “Lively.” Sure, Smith attempts a lame-ass honky-Bohemian rap on “Fat Crash,” but by that point, the man’s already buried Jack Johnson in the sand.

This article appears in Feb 21-27, 2007.