TAHLEQUAH, Okla. -- LittleOkieLand was able to catch up with Shane Smith and the Saints at Medicine stone this year and see what the guys were up to. This was the second year the band played the Tahlequah music festival, and the first year to be playing the main stage, which they were very excited about. They wowed the fans with their fantastic live performance, no doubt earning them even more new fans in the process.

“We’re glad to be back. It’s a really unique festival, it’s really outdoorsy and everybody's camping out, it's just a cool thing,” said Smith.

This last year has been a busy one for this band, and there doesn’t seem to be any end to that momentum in sight either. After releasing their sophomore album Geronimo in September of last year, things quickly started moving forward for the band in big ways.

“It has been such a cool thing. We’re not a veteran type of band. We don't have tons and tons of albums, this is our second album, but it has done so much for us this year,” explained Smith. “We've had the opportunity this year to play just about every single lineup that we were trying to get on for Texas and red dirt and that scene. So that's been awesome. We’ve played about half the United States this year and since July of last year and it's just been a really great experience for us, getting to do all of that stuff and I think that album is the reason for it.”

Some of the more recent exciting things Smith and the Saints have gotten to do have been to play Austin City Limits on the same day as Mumford and Sons and Chris Stapleton, which was a big deal to the guys. They also got to headline Billy Bob’s last month which was also a milestone for them. But that’s certainly not all that they have lined up either.

“We’re getting to play in Dublin Ireland and a couple other cities in Ireland with the Red Dirt Pub Crawl in December. We got to do it last year but it was acoustic and this year we’re actually getting to bring our full band, our sound engineer, just everybody and play,” said Smith.

After that trip it will be time for Steamboat Music Fest in Colorado, and then in February they get to play a music festival in Malaysia. Talk about getting to travel around, these guys are hopping from country to country.

Smith says he owes all of these doors opening up to the fan’s reactions to the new album. Geronimo has a unique sound and vibe to it which sets it apart from most everyone else in many different ways. It is a synthesis of country, Americana and Irish music in a unique concoction all of its own. The songs tell detailed stories and take you on adventures that you aren’t necessarily expecting an album to do. With 15 tracks it’s an impressive album all the way through.

“That was our goal. We were genuinely trying to put something out there that was a bit different. As time goes on, with the amount of music that’s getting produced on the level it is getting produced at, there's just a lot more people pursuing music now,” explained Smith. “It's more accepted for a person to choose music as a career as it was even 20 years ago or  30-40 years ago, whatever. So that makes for a lot of difficulty when it comes to trying to stand out and be completely unique to yourself.”

Be sure you check out more information and tour dates for the band on their website at www.shanesmithmusic.com as well as follow them on their various social media sites to keep up to date.