Over the course of a decade, Shane Smith & the Saints built up a loyal fan base through playing hundreds of shows a year, as the Texas band showcased its blend of country, folk, rock, Americana and Celtic music all over the country.

And then came an appearance on “Yellowstone,” the Paramount Network’s popular Western drama, in 2021.

“It was massive. It was massive for us because we’ve been doing this since almost 2010 as a band — I think that feature happened in 2021 — and so, it’s like go play for a decade and build up all the fans you can on your own and this and that. … We were well over 200 shows per year, been out for a decade, and then all of a sudden, whoa,” Shane Smith said.

“Being on a show like that, and it’s just like everybody has a cousin that’s like your biggest fan. It just connected tons of dots for us.”

In Season 4, an episode was titled “All I See Is You” after the band’s 2015 song which was featured in the show. And in Season 5’s first episode, Shane Smith & the Saints played three songs.

“We just appreciate it at the end of the day. It just makes things easier,” Smith said. “And it definitely opens you up to a ton more exposure and all the above. We honestly just kind of see it as a blessing. And I don’t know that we would have the career that we’ve had now had it not been for (‘Yellowstone’ co-creator) Taylor Sheridan including us in those shows. It’s been a really cool thing.”

Riding high, the band — Smith (vocals/acoustic guitar), Bennett Brown (fiddle), Chase Satterwhite (bass), Dustin Schaefer (lead guitar) and Zach Stover (drums) — released their fourth studio album, “Norther,” last March. The band is currently touring in support of the well-reviewed album, including a stop Saturday at the Roxian Theatre in McKees Rocks.

The band has persevered through other setbacks, like an IRS audit, discovering a crew member had been stealing from the band and a bus fire that destroyed all of their equipment and merchandise.

“We’ve definitely been known to hit some low points. And I think it’s definitely made us stronger as a live act, but I think everybody in this business goes through some really difficult times,” Smith said. “There’s no way around it. I just think it depends on whether you hit those early in your career or late in your career. This is just one of those industries that you’re going to see that. It just depends on what time that you do.”

In a call last week from Key West, Florida, Smith talked about the band’s strong live show, their Grand Ole Opry debut and more:

When people listen to the new album, how different is the live experience versus the recording?

Well, I think our live experience is the best thing that you have to offer as a band. Personally, we’ve been one of those acts for years and years and years and all we’ve done is put all of our eggs in that one basket, which is the live show. A lot of bands, they won’t tour as much. They’ll put so much emphasis on this one single that they’re working on, and it’ll be like months and months and months of being in the studio, getting it perfect, and it’s flawless as they can edit it to be.

We’ve been just the opposite of that. It was always like, at a point in time that we’d be doing like 230, 240 shows in a year out of an RV, and it’s like, hey, we need to record an album, we’ve got to make a new record, it’s been years. And we’d go in and literally track everything pretty much live. But I mean, it’s just totally different than what most people would do on their recordings. And then we would get back on the road. We’re trying really hard to put more of an emphasis on the recording stuff these days. But yeah, the results of all of that, we got pretty strong for the live performance and just leaving everything out there on the table. And so I personally feel like it’s a really strong live show. And it’s just we’ve had to lean on it so much throughout the years.

That’s probably a little bit more fun than going into the studio where everything has to be perfect.

Absolutely. And I think subconsciously, we’re like, yeah, this is easier. (laughs) This is easier for us to get in there and leave it all out (on the stage). I think with the album stuff, in the recording studio process, it was always like, there was very limited time, in years past, that we gave ourselves to accomplish any good recording. It always costs a lot of money, and it was just a whole thing. And so I feel like we were always under the gun, moving as quick as we could. And as a result of that, I think it made us lean in much harder on our live performance.

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You made your debut at the Grand Ole Opry last year. How did that go and was it daunting at all?

I didn’t think it was gonna be all that big of a deal honestly when we got there. Then once we were there and you’re sitting in the waiting room and you’re listening to the feed and watching the feed and then kind of the history of the whole production starts to build up on you a little bit. It kind of reminds me of how of a thing it is, and it was great. It was great. I really just tried to take it in and absorb it and be in the moment. I was thankful for that. It’s a beautiful thing.

When I was listening to the song “All The Way,” it evoked the sound of later Johnny Cash. Do you hear comparisons like that a lot?

Yes. I don’t know, there’s always going to be that and I’ve definitely had that as one of the things and as one of the comparisons. That’s a great one (laughs) from my perspective. If you can have that as a comparison, it’s a good thing

What does 2025 hold for the band? It feels like there’s a lot more touring.

Yeah, there is, but we’re trying to find a good balance with all of it. My wife and I have our first-born who’s seven months old right now. So I think there’s a big part of us that we’ve done this, we’ve shot from the hip for a long time. We tried to do this in a lot of different ways, and I think we’re just trying to do it as smart as possible and really make it count if we’re gonna be out. There’s a lot of great shows in 2025. There’s a lot of great festivals and some support opening opportunities as well that we’re looking forward to, and there’s a lot of new music also that we’re trying to get in and take our time and make new recordings of, so it’s going to be a great year.

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