The Charleston City Paper recaps Truth and Salvage Co.’s early days as Asheville-based Scrappy Hamilton:
Check Truth and Salvage’s bio online and their progenitor, Scrappy Hamilton, is referred to as an L.A. band. The quartet of Bill “Smitty” Smith (drums), Joe Edel (bass), Scott Kinnebrew (guitar), and Walker Young (keys) packed up in 2005 and moved from N.C. to California, chasing the dream.
“For three years we were just picking up odd jobs,” says Kinnebrew, who at one point found himself donning a Lycra bodysuit covered in little Velcro balls, playing guitar while lasers captured his strumming, kicking, and twirling as a 3-D motion model for Guitar Hero 3. “There were humbling moments. We had a weekly gig at a club, and we’d get together every week just for the love of playing. Some nights it was the most magical thing, and some nights it was horrific.”
It wasn’t until the band settled into their own jobs and lives, putting aside the stress of trying to succeed as a national act, that fortune came calling.