(tm)Terry Smith
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of Terry Smith |
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I trust that this holiday season affords you the opportunity to be with those who are dear to you and that peace and love will surround you as you celebrate the greatest Gift ever given.
At the very beginning of this year I completed a project that I had been working on for over a year, that of getting all the demos of my songs transferred from reel-to-reel tapes and cassettes onto CD’s. It took a great deal of time and energy, not to mention money, to get this done, but now my songs are on CD by category—all the Christmas songs together, all the love songs together, all the gospel songs together, etc. My songs are now much easier to find and access when I want to pitch some to artists. All I have to do is pull a CD from the shelf, go to the needed track, and make a copy.
I had begun work in December of last year to repress my Quilt of Memories album. We dressed up the artwork for the repressing, and I got the finished products right after the first of the year. I also had Look at My Hands, which was recorded in l979 and which is the first complete album that I did after coming to Nashville, transferred onto CD. This project had never been on CD before, and a lot of people had been asking that it be made available in that format. The CD’s were ready just in time for me to have them for the February South Texas Music Festival, one of the bigger festivals that I play.
On February 2nd, my roommate Fred’s mother went home to be with the Lord. She had been in a nursing home the last couple of years of her life, the victim of Alzheimer’s and/or a series of “little” strokes. Mom Warren, as I called her, was like a second mother to me. We shared a love for baseball and country music. Mom played the guitar and sang and was especially fond of the old gospel songs, and, when she wasn’t singing the lead, she had a natural talent for singing harmony. We spent lots of happy hours over the years picking and singing together.
Mom was the first of Fred’s immediate family to pass, and her leaving has not been easy on Fred. February brought some other challenges, including a major crisis faced by a dear friend of ours who needed our support during this time. Fred began to decide during this time that he needed some time alone to deal with all the issues that were coming down, so in June he moved into his own apartment, which he shares with his two dogs, Beau and Baldwin.
After over twenty-eight years of being roommates, things seem a little strange around here. My dog Sugar and I are holding down the fort. Fred and I talk almost daily. We go out to eat together and to the movies. Fred continues to cover my back side when I am out of town. He checks the mail for me, feeds Sugar, and fills product orders that come in. He was the practical, technical half of our team, so I rely on him for advice and help with practical, technical matters. He continues, as he has always done, to go way beyond the call of duty, and he remains my best soulmate.
In April I made a return trip to Ireland with Bill and Mary Lou True’s musical entourage. You may recall that last year the Trues planned to take two planeloads of musicians and fans to Ireland for ten days of sightseeing and playing music. The plane that Fred and I were on, along with my sister Jan and her friend Bonnie, left on September 10th. The second plane was scheduled to leave September 11th but did not get to make the trip because of the terrorists’ attacks. The trip in April of this year was to accommodate the people who had paid for their trip the previous September but didn’t get to go. Bill was able to get me a good deal for this return trip, so I decided to go again. Ireland is a beautiful country, and I enjoyed performing there again.
In July, I went into the studio to record a new album. I decided to cut a sacred/inspirational album since it had been twenty-three years since I had done a gospel project and since lots of fans had been requesting a new one. The album is titled Far-Side Banks of Jordan and Other Inspirational Songs Written by Terry Smith. It was produced by Bill Johnson, who was Marty Robbins’s steel guitar player for fourteen years and who also produced my Texas Roots and Spokes in the Wheel albums. I like Bill’s work because he is very precise about what he does and does a good job, I feel, of capturing the moods of the various songs. I re-recorded “Far-Side Banks of Jordan,” my most well-known song, for this album, but the other thirteen songs are songs of mine that I have never cut before.
Speaking of "Far-Side Banks of Jordan,” I have learned of several other recordings of it this year. A church friend of mine has become interested in researching “Jordan” on the Internet, and he has uncovered several new versions of the song that I was not aware of, most of them by relatively unknown artists. However, he did learn that the Statler Brothers included “Jordan” on their new gospel CD, Amen, which was released in September. Needless to say, I am excited about this cut.
My travels to “pick and grin” have taken me this year to Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Kentucky, Florida, North Carolina, Alabama, Missouri, and Ohio in addition to the picking I do here in Tennessee. In October, I made a couple of trips to Branson, Missouri, to play at Silver Dollar City. Performing there is always a thrill.
I have not made it up to Pennsylvania this year to visit my sister Joy and her husband Randall. They live in a suburb of Pittsburgh, and three of their four children live in the area as well. One of their twin sons has been having some health challenges for more than a year. The last year has been a frustrating time for all of them regarding this issue, but things seem to be smoothing out, at least somewhat, now.
My sister Jan is trying to sell her ranch south of Waco, Texas. She’s had some nibbles, but has not sold it yet. She and her friend Bonnie are contemplating a move to Colorado after they find a buyer for the ranch.
That about covers the year—at least the high points. Again, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a new year that is filled with health, peace, happiness, and lots of pleasant surprises.
P.S. By the way, my new e-mail address is tsmith333@comcast.net
Best wishes from Music City,
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In addition to its appearing in the movie, "Far-Side Banks of Jordan" is included on The Apostle's soundtrack, which also features songs by a variety of artists, among them Patty Loveless, Steven Curtis Chapman, Lyle Lovett, Johnny Cash, Wynonna, the Gaither Vocal Band, Galy Chapman, and Emmylou Harris (in a duet with Duvall). For the soundtrack, the Smith composition is performed by the Carter Family.
Terry Smith wrote one of Roy Acuff's last singles, "I Can't Find a Train." The Oak Ridge Boys recorded his rousing gospel number, "Lord, I've Been Ready For Years." And Johnny and June Cash cut Terry's "Far-Side Banks of Jordan," a song you may have heard them do on television (June recorded it also with Mother Maybelle and the Carters). Anyone who intends to keep loving someone beyond this mortal life can relate to that song.
Kitty Wells recorded "It Doesn't Say" of Terry's, a song whose lyric narrates all that cannot be fitted into a tombstone's inscription. (It was inspired by a marble monument works on the left-hand side of Gallatin Road north of Nashville, right before the Opryland turnoff.) There's a man's version of the song, just crying to be recorded and to become a hit.
There have been dozens of Terry Smith songs recorded. They turned up on records by acts as diverse as Lonnie Lynne LaCour -- The Lewis Family -- or Smoky Dawson, an RCA artist from Australia.
Terry's "Ten Seconds in the Saddle" is in the Billboard chart book; recorded by rodeo champ Chris LeDoux, it received air play in such markets as Wyoming and Germany. Sometimes overseas seems closer than Music Row, just four miles away.
Terry has been on Ralph Emery's TV show from Nashville - and at Lonzo & Oscar's Singing Hills Park in Cave City, Kentucky. But like the character in the Statler Brother's classic "Class of '57," Terry Smith teaches school "and probably always will." The classrooms gain, however, is not Country music's loss. All those blackboards perhaps impose Terry a precision and care with words that make up for all those hours grading papers.
Many a "full-time" songwriter has a smaller catalogue than Terry Smith, whose file cabinet holds probably a thousand songs, "the good, the bad, and the ugly" as Terry sums them all up. His songwriting method assures there will be all three kinds written - and his formula might give pause to those would be bards waiting for "inspiration" to strike, while they order another beer and try to think of words to write on the paper napkin. Terry writes one song each Saturday morning. Over the years his subconscious has obediently trained itself to hold back, if possible, during the week, then break out on Saturday. Some of Terry's songs are written for nobody but Terry. As he says without exaggeration, "I've pitched songs to the Texas Rangers and to Captain Kangaroo." Terry has been around for a while, and will be for a long time to come. Terry Smith will definitely give you a "double dose of Country" anytime you let him!
~Steve Eng
Download a free copy of Real Player to play these sound bites
| Far-Side Banks of Jordan and Other Inspirational Songs | |
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| Texas Roots | |
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| ©1999 RRCD2-99 |
| Look At My Hands | |
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| Quilt Of Memories | |
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| Double Dose of Country | |
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Long before he became interested in writing and singing Country music, Terry Smith was concerned about hits, but not the kind that climb the charts in music magazines. He was interested in the hits that a person gets by slamming baseballs between infielders and outfielders. That was when he was playing baseball in his home town of Denton, Texas, and dreaming of someday donning the uniform of a major-league team. But towards the end of Terry's high-school days, he became more fascinated by the kind of hits that come from composing a good country song,and he began to turn his energies in that direction.
Finally, in the fall of 1972, Terry moved to Nashville. Terry is still living outside of Nashville, still teaching school, and still writing songs. In addition to his writing, Terry has released singles on his own label, T-Bone Records. One project is a re-recorded album of his self-penned gospel songs on New Horizon Records. The album is Country gospel, and in it Terry delivers the early lyrics of his songs convincingly. This album is "Look At My Hands." He has recorded a second album on the Rhinestone Rooster Record label, "A Double Dose of Country."
~Ralph Compton
Terry Smith, who was voted by the Traditional Music Association as its Songwriter of the Year in both 1995 and 1996, wrote "Far-Side Banks of Jordan," which is featured twice in Robert Duvall's movie, The Apostle, and is included on the film's soundtrack CD. June Carter Cash, who plays Duvall's mother, sings the song at the close of the opening scene, and later in the film, when she dies, an instrumental version provides background music. The song was also recorded by the Cox Family and Alison Krauss on their l995 Grammy-winning project, I Know Who Holds Tomorrow. Johnny and June Cash cut the first version of this song in the seventies, and June also recorded it with Mother Maybelle and her sisters as part of a Carter Family album. In fact, it is the Carter Family version that is used on The Apostle CD. The song, fast becoming a gospel and bluegrass standard, has also been recorded by several other artists. Anyone who hopes to keep loving someone beyond this mortal life can relate to this song.
Terry also wrote one of Roy Acuff's last singles, "I Can't Find a Train," and the Oak Ridge Boys recorded his rousing gospel number, "Lord, I've Been Ready for Years." Kitty Wells cut "It Doesn't Say," a song of Terry's whose lyrics narrates all that cannot be fitted into a tombstone's inscription. Terry's "Ten Seconds in the Saddle" is in the Billboard chart book; recorded by rodeo champ Chris LeDoux, it received airplay in markets as far apart as Wyoming and Germany. There have been dozens of other Terry Smith songs cut, turning up on records by acts as diverse as Bluegrass Brigade, the Lewis Family, Lonnie Lynne LaCour, Elayne Otterson, the Singing Echoes, and Smoky Dawson-Australia's equivalent to Roy Rogers.
A traditional country singer in his own right, Terry has released three albums of original material to date. His first was a country gospel project, Look at My Hands, which features his version of "Far-Side Banks of Jordan." He followed that with A Double Dose of Country, a collection of country selections including his ever-popular "The Little Brown Dog and the Little Green Frog." His most recent recording project is Quilt of Memories, a concept project filled with nostalgic songs about the past. As a singer, Terry has steadily built a following over the years in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, where his recordings of his own songs are played regularly. When more traditional country radio stations in the US began to air Quilt of Memories, that following began to spread to areas where his music was being programmed.
For several years, Terry-who was born in Cordell, Oklahoma, and reared in Denton, Texas-taught English and sometimes coached baseball as well in public school systems in Texas and Tennessee. The classroom's gain, however, was not country music's loss. All those blackboards perhaps imposed on Terry a precision and care with words that made up for all those hours grading papers.
Many a "full-time" songwriter has a smaller catalog than Terry Smith, whose file cabinet holds almost two thousand songs-"the good, the bad, and the ugly" as Terry sums them all up. The songwriting method he has used over the years has probably assured that all three kinds were written-and his formula might give pause to those would-be bards waiting for "inspiration" to strike, while they order another beer and try to think of words to write on a paper napkin. While teaching, Terry wrote one song each Saturday. Over the years, his subconscious obediently trained itself to hold back, if possible, during the week, then break out on Saturday. Now that his days in the classroom are behind him, Terry plans to spend even more time writing, performing, and promoting his own recordings.
Terry has written songs for a wide range of audiences, and some he admits were written solely for himself. He says without exaggeration, "I've pitched songs to everyone from the country artists of the day to the Texas Rangers and Captain Kangaroo." Terry has been around for a while and hopes to be for a long time to come. He is proud to be a writer and singer of traditional country music, and he will definitely give you a "double dose of country" anytime you let him!
--Steve Eng, author of A Satisfied Mind, a biography of Porter Wagoner
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Terry Smith 1404 Huffine St. Nashville, Tenn. 37216 U.S.A. (1-615-226-0540) Email Terry |
Application for Membership:
Membership fee: $5.00 per year in the US and $9.00 per year for overseas membership. Members will receive and 8 x 10 picture of Terry and four (4) newsletters per year to keep you up with Terry and his activities in music. Make check payable to "Terry Smith & Friends". Please be sure to include your full name and address!
Send application and membership fee to:
Terry Smith & Friends C/o Fred Warren 1404 Huffine St. Nashville, TN 37216
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