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When it comes to
making music, there’s nothing wrong with playing by the rules, but
that’s never been the right way for Valerie Smith. While the
energetic singer/songwriter knows and respects the tried and true ways
of bluegrass—and knows the penalties that can follow a departure from
them—she’s held fast to one simple rule of her own: “I sing from
my heart,” she says. “I do my own thing.” And today, a dozen
years after her first album and on the eve of the release of her latest,
she can look back with pride at a musical path that’s all her own,
even as she looks ahead to the next dozen with the confidence of a
seasoned artist who’s built a devoted following in the best way it can
be done—just by being herself.
A Missouri native who grew up playing old-time fiddle and earned a
degree in music education, Valerie arrived in Nashville in the early
90s. “When you grow up in a town of 300 people in the Midwest
and you love country music,” she recalls, “Nashville’s where you
want to be. I had no idea of what I wanted to do, but I knew that
was where I wanted to do it.” Working for a marketing and
advertising agency by day, she began attending—and singing
at—songwriters’ nights, making friends over the years with everyone
from country icon Waylon Jennings to then up-and-coming songwriter Jim
Lauderdale. “If I went back home tomorrow and that was all I did
here, I’d be proud of that,” she says with a laugh, but those years
turned out to be a prelude to something much bigger, as a complicated
but fortuitous series of events and connections brought her into the
recording studio. With the Nashville Bluegrass Band’s Alan
O’Bryant acting as producer, Valerie completed work on her debut
album, Patchwork Heart; issued the project on a label she’d helped to
create, Bell Buckle Records; and formed a band, Liberty Pike, to take
her music on the road.
“I was an odd duck in an odd place,” Valerie recalls with a smile.
“I would sing country things, but every time I did, people would say,
‘you’re kind of bluegrass’—but then a lot of people felt that I
wasn’t really bluegrass, either. I wasn’t really aware that
you were supposed to play an instrument on stage; I thought, ‘I have a
great band, and they don’t need me to be something else, they need me
to be who I am, to be a singer and an entertainer.’ I felt
really strongly about that, and I didn’t back down for a long time.”
Being true to her own vision earned her criticism in some quarters, but
it also earned her respect and admiration—and an ever-growing legion
of fans—elsewhere (and, Smith adds with a grin, now she plays an
instrument on stage whenever she likes).
Over the next decade, Valerie released a series of acclaimed albums that
featured strong musicianship from band members and guests alike, paired
with songs from notable contributors like Lisa Aschmann, Mark Simos, and
featured bandmember Becky Buller—and, not coincidentally, she took an
active role in every aspect of the projects. “I don’t think
I’m a control freak,” she notes with a chuckle, “but I’m very
responsible. I’ve always felt that if you love what you do, you
should have a hand in running it. I’ve had longstanding
relationships with people I can count on, but I also know that only you
really know what you love to do, only you really know your audience.”
Yet paired with that take-charge attitude, she has a generosity and
warmth for fellow contributors that resulted in her most recent album
(Here’s A Little Song) being a full-fledged collaboration with
long-time band member Becky Buller. “She’s such a strong
artist that it would be silly not to recognize that,” Valerie points
out. “This music isn’t just about me as an artist, it’s
about the people who have worked with me, and what they’ve
contributed, too—and I didn’t want another day to go by without
having that documented.”
In much the same vein, Smith built a consistent touring schedule that
took her not only to major bluegrass festivals, but on increasingly
popular cruises, to concert halls and performing arts centers and, since
the turn of the century, to Europe, where she’s found a growing number
of fans who appreciate an artistry that transcends genre labels.
“When I’m over there, they could care less whether I’m country or
bluegrass,” she says. “The just care that the music makes them
feel a certain way.”
Still, an ongoing relationship with the bluegrass community, embodied in
a collaboration with the International Bluegrass Music Museum that’s
taken her and her group into dozens of elementary and secondary
classrooms, shaped Valerie’s decision to make bluegrass the
centerpiece of her latest release—an innovative “Six Pack” short
album of original songs that keeps up with the latest in music
marketing. Recorded live at the Museum, it not only presents her
dynamic show and compelling vocals, but fulfills an obligation she’s
felt for some time. “It’s a way to thank the people who were
patient with me,” she says with a laugh. “The people like
Claire Lynch and Lynn Morris who offered to teach me to play when I
wasn’t playing an instrument, and the people who really educated me
about bluegrass. It’s an art form that I’ll always love, and I
want young artists to be educated about the blueprint that Bill Monroe
and those who came after him created. The hard work that’s been
put into preserving that needs to be recognized—but beyond that,
there’s room for everybody!”
At the same time, she’s looking beyond bluegrass to another audience.
“I can’t speak for anyone else,” she says, “but for myself, I
would be bored if I never wanted to grow or change or learn or challenge
myself as a musician. And so I’ve really found a pocket for
myself in the Americana field, and the next album—it’s going to be
another ‘Six Pack,’ I think—is going to be an Americana one, and
I’m excited about that. Because in Americana, you can do
anything—you can fuse it all together, bluegrass, country, blues and
rock, all in one package, and have fun with that, just doing what you
want to do. I love bluegrass, and I understand and respect the
blueprint, but at the same time, it’s not all I want to do.
I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to put all of it together in a
way that’s been accepted, even by bluegrass radio.”
“I like to do different projects,” Valerie concludes with a
confidence inspired by a decade of pursuing her own musical path.
“I’d like for people to know that I’m all artist. I do what
I do because it’s me—it’s what I have to do to be true to myself.
Everything I do makes sense to me, and I hope that people like it, but
if they don’t, I get it; I understand. But I’m happy that
there are so many people who do like it, who do get it. I like to
dance, and I like to see people dance; I like bluegrass, I like country,
and sometimes I like what’s just a really heartfelt song that says
something about people, not just me. I try to find things that
everyone can relate to when they hear them—the kind of songs that you
hear and say to yourself, ‘that said what I was thinking.’ To me, an
artist has to be giving, an artist has to love an audience.
That’s the magic—being up there and saying, let me give the best
part of myself to you. When you’re doing that, you’re doing
everything you need to do.”
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