Biography

VALERIE SMITH----

“Her music has been received with widespread critical and popular acclaim in the world of bluegrass” –Joe Romano, Bluegrass Now

“Her recording and performance style has been described as ‘exuberant’ by John Hansen in the Brainerd Dispatch, in Brainerd, S.D.

Jeff Bahr of the American News said, "Watching Valerie Smith perform is like being a witness to a thermonuclear explosion.”

Valerie Smith has developed a unique style and sound that has rocked the bluegrass world for almost two decades with a string of national and international tours, critically acclaimed recordings, and Grammy, IBMA and Dove Award nominations. Val's vocals are impressive. She has a staggeringly expansive range and the ability to portray an amazing array of emotion. As NPR radio host Dave Higgs has noted, "She can be sassy, sultry, siren-like, sweet, smooth, soothing and smoldering---sometimes during the span of just one song!" Valerie Smith and her East Coast-based band, Liberty Pike featuring legendary Hall of Famer Tom Gray on bass, are consistent audience pleasers and skilled musicians. When Valerie walks onstage with her fabulous band, expect to be inspired, amused and thoroughly entertained.

Originally from Missouri and now based in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, a charming little historic town just southeast of Nashville, Valerie Smith is an award winning bluegrass and American roots artist and songwriter. Since 1998 Smith has made thousands of fans and friends with her music, on stages across the United States, as well as in Europe, Canada and the United Kingdom. Her band is named “Liberty Pike” after the road that connects Bell Buckle to Nashville.

When you list to Valerie’s unique voice, you can hear influences from bluegrass, blues, gospel music and even Broadway show tunes. Her personal background is just as interesting and varied. Valerie holds a Master’s degree in Music from the University of Missouri in Kansas City, and she taught music for seven years in her home state before marrying Craig Smith (another fine musician and songwriter) and moving to Nashville.

Her three years as an account executive for a marketing firm in Music City gave Val a valuable crash course in promotion, video and photography to go along with mer music degree. In the evening she was working on her songwriting and singing wherever she could. Country Music Hall of Fame member Charlie Louvin and the Nashville Bluegrass Band’s Alan O’Bryant became her music mentors in Nashville. Louvin invited Val onstage with him at the Grand Ole Opry, and O’Bryan produced her debut album, Patchwork Heart—which included a duet with Charlie on “My Baby’s Gone.”

Valerie’s hit single, “Red Clay Halo,” written by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, climbed the Bluegrass Unlimited, Country Music and Americana reporting charts, receiving heavy radio airplay for five years. BU included the song in their list of the top 60 songs of the decade.

The International Bluegrass Music Museum in Owensboro, Kentucky, commissioned Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike to create a special “Bluegrass in the Schools” program to share bluegrass music and its history with thousands of students in western Kentucky for 15 years. She later developed the “American Roots Music” program, which she continues to present in the United States and overseas. 

Smith was invited by producer Bil VornDick and the legendary Ralph Stanley to be a part of the Grammy-nominated album, Clinch Mountain Sweethearts. Val and Stanley sang “I’ll Remember You, Love in My Prayers.”

Country Music Hall of Famer Tom T. Hall made a special appearance on Valerie’s second album No Summer Storm. Tom T guested on “Sit Down and Cry,” a song written by Miss Dixie and Tom T Hall. The Halls also invited Valerie to participate in all three albums by the “Daughters of Bluegrass,” featuring an all-female cast of singers and musicians, on Blue Circle Records.

Smith recorded a CD of duets with Becky Buller called Here’s a Little Song, which received critical acclaim. After 10 years in Liberty Pike, Buller formed her own touring band and has become a respected singer, songwriter and band leader in her own right. And Val couldn’t be prouder of her! Andy Leftwich, fiddler with Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, also worked for five years in Liberty Pike. The list of incredibly talented musicians and singers who have stood in the Liberty Pike circle onstage with Valerie Smith is too numerous to list here.

Smith released her first gospel album, Wash Away Your Troubles, and her arrangement of “Wade in the Water” was included in the independent movie, Bell Witch: The Movie. Valerie, Kraig and Buller also co-wrote the song, “Ole John Bell,” which appeared in the sound track for the film.

Valerie and her band have appeared on several television shows, including Ronnie Reno’s television numerous times, including performances on Reno’s Old Time Country Music on RFD, Bluegrass Underground, and Song of the Mountains, both on PBS.

Valerie Smith’s new recording is called Home Town Heroes, which she was invited to showcase at the 2016 World of Bluegrass Business Conference in Raleigh, NC. Here’s a video preview:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JplbkipTbM0

In addition to national and international tour dates, Smith continues to write, produce and record music released by Bell Buckle Records.

 

For more info, please contact:

BuckleDown Booking & Productions
(931) 389-0223
bellbuckle@cafes.net
http://valeriesmith.net
 
For bookings: Nancy Cardwell at (615) 260-4807, or nancyk.cardwell@gmail.com
www.buckledownproduction.com


Listen to more Valerie Smith music on Airplay Direct with the following links.

"Blame It on the Bluegrass"
http://www.airplaydirect.com/music/blameitonthebluegrass/

“No Summer Storm”
http://www.airplaydirect.com/music/nosummerstorm/

“Wash Away Your Trouble”, Gospel
http://www.airplaydirect.com/music/washawayyourtroubles/

“Patchwork Heart”
AirPlayDirect.com/patchworkheart

“Turtle Wings”
http://www.airplaydirect.com/music/turtlewings/

To listen and download Valerie Smith's other CD's visit:

“That’s What Love Can Do”
AirPlayDirect.com/thatswhatlovecando

“Send Yourself Home for Christmas”
http://www.airplaydirect.com/music/SendYourselfHomeForChristmas/

Here’s A Little Song
http://www.airplaydirect.com/music/HeresALittleSong/


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.

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 bandmember 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.”

OTHER AIRPLAY RELEASES:

Wash Away Your Troubles
AirPlayDirect.com/washawayyourtroubles

Turtle Wings
AirPlayDirect.com/turtlewings

The Human Condition
AirPlayDirect.com/valeriesmiththehumancondition1

That’s What Love Can Do
AirPlayDirect.com/thatswhatlovecando

No Summer Storm
AirPlayDirect.com/nosummerstorm

Here’s A Little Song
AirPlayDirect.com/HeresALittleSong

Blame it on the Bluegrass
AirPlayDirect.com/blameitonthebluegrass

Patchwork Heart
http://www.airplaydirect.com/music/patchworkheart/