The spirit of classic American rock is alive and well, manifesting itself within a five-man band, the result of a love affair with music. ‘The Great Affair’ in fact. Though only a few months in the making, the stages of Nashville, Tennessee are shaking to their sound.

"My name is Denny Smith, and I’m the singer/guitarist of The Great Affairs. We’re a good, old-fashioned Rock n’ Roll band in the spirit of Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, and the Kings of Leon," introduces the native from the heart of Illinois. "Also in the band are guitarist Patrick Miller, Keyboardist/guitarist/utility player Lee Coram, Bassist Matt Andersen and drummer Tim Good."

What you get when you bring them all together are "Five guys trying to make sense of little bits and pieces we pull from the ether, and translating them into ear candy."

"You might wanna sit down." Denny advises.

"I was the classic weird kid. I was into sci-fi, reading all the time, had a paper route, excelled in school – until I got my first guitar and adopted the philosophy that I no longer had the need for education. I was wrong… sorry Mom. Out went sports, classes, etc. In came rock n’ roll 101.” He adds, “I got caught shoplifting when I was around twelve, skated it and never did anything of the sort ever again. Never cheated or stole a thing after. Honest. That’s pretty life altering. I might have gone on to a life of petty crime, had it not been for that plain-clothes security lady at Kmart."

"I joined a local cover band when I was 17.We played at the Knights of Columbus hall in my hometown. Fifty bucks was our take split seven ways." Denny recalls. "The notion of writing my own songs had never even occurred to me. That changed real quick when I realized how much more interesting that was than learning Pearl Jam or Poison tunes, so it was off to the races. While I’ve never proven to be the most adept player, I am pretty handy with lyrics and melodies. Folks seem to enjoy my songs, so I guess somewhere along the way I must’ve figured out this was the thing for me. I’ve had my heart broken more often by songs than by girls.”

The race for recognition took him to the musical scene of the west, where he took lessons in the hard knocks school of music. In California he gained the wisdom and knowledge that would further his journey for fame. "Probably the single greatest life-changing event for me music wise would be getting the opportunity to join a band based out of Los Angeles, being a part of that for three years and getting a crash course in how the music industry really works; eye opening to say the least for a kid that grew up surrounded by corn fields and cover bands."

"When I came up with the idea to form The Great Affairs, it was as a side project to keep my self busy when my other band Former had to scale back our gigging to accommodate some of the guys’ schedules. It’s in the infant stage. We’ve only played a handful of shows, but we are releasing a 5-song EP that we’ll have available at shows and we’re starting on some new material with another producer, so it’s really just starting to come together. We’ve only been a band for three or four months." Denny admits, but is optimistic in its survival. "Patrick and Lee came with me from Former, while we drafted Matt; who we’d utilized as a sub for our regular bass player a couple of times. Tim was a Craigslist find and luckily, the first guy we tried out. Before we knew it, this thing had rocketed off the tracks, and we had a mess of songs and a bunch of gigs. So Former became the backburner thing. Time will tell."

"I’m not even sure what genre we are. We’re not really anchored to any specific genre. A good song’s a good song, whatever it happens to be classified as. Wish I knew; it would make explaining our sound to people way easier," he says with a laugh.

Whatever name you pin to it, it'll defy the label. Rock? Pop? Americana? It is simply the sound of The Great Affairs.

"I thought the imagery of classic affairs throughout history, particularly Hollywood romances, would lend itself to some cool artwork and images. The name just stuck," Denny says. "Nothing else really fascinates me the way a great song does. I’m happiest when I’m working on my music. It’s who I am, and it feels right. I wouldn’t trade this road for another regardless."