Calib Smith

Before Blue Mafia he played guitar with the Indiana band New Balance, and he also worked with Zach Top & Modern Tradition. Banjo had been his first instrument in bluegrass. In December 2015 Blue Mafia announced that Cody Looper was leaving after five years on banjo and that Smith would take over in January. He joined Tony Wray on guitar, Dara Wray on mandolin, Kent Todd on fiddle and Mike Gregory on bass.

That lineup recorded Hanging Tree. Smith plays banjo throughout, including “Loneliness and Desperation” and the title song. He announced in the fall of 2016 that he was leaving, and in November the band named Curtis Bumgarner as his replacement. Pinecastle released the album on 9 December 2016, with Smith’s “Like a Mining Man” already out to radio as its first single.

In October 2021 he joined Caleb Daugherty’s touring band after Zach Collier left for Volume Five. The rest of the band was Daugherty on guitar, Zion Napier on mandolin, Kyle Clerking on banjo and Kyle Ramey on fiddle. By then he had played bass in both classical and bluegrass settings. Daugherty said Smith had already sent him four or five songs he had written.