You may imagine that seeing a full-force, honky-tonk-loaded set from the great Connie Smith and her crack band is commonplace in Nashville, seeing as how she’s on this town’s Grand Ole Opry radio broadcasts regularly, and more recently is also seen doing a number or two on her husband’s lively Marty Stuart Show on RFD-TV every Saturday night. The fact is, though, seeing a show such as the one Smith let loose at the Station Inn this past Thursday has been more like a once-a-decade deal – a privilege, and a gas.
It’s been over 40 years since Smith suddenly topped the country charts with her plaintive, clean, powerful take on Bill Anderson’s “Once A Day”, but she made it clear this night that her cut-across-the-room voice and infectious timing have lost nothing along the way. If anything, her gift for bringing fresh clarity and force to a lyric with a minimum of fussiness and showiness has grown – and that’s all the clearer because she’s not much inclined to change the arrangements of her many memorable hits. The typical thing for county vocalists with such a substantial range, when they want to put an exclamation point on a line, is to leap higher and hit those high parts harder; by contrast, Connie tends to enrich and broaden her lower tones for the same ends, and that still thrills and surprises.
So the power this night was in the performance, and the songs. She gave full credit to the songmakers themselves throughout her two sets, identifying “The Hurtin’s All Over” as by Harlan Howard, “Run Away Little Tears” as by Dallas Frazier, and a quite touching and specific love song, “Looking For A Reason”, as one she wrote herself, for three out of dozens.
This was an evening dominated by ballads and ’60s county shuffles that really shuffled, which you could feel in the vibration of all those feet tapping right through your table and your chair. That tells you all you need to know about the rhythm section ( Rod Hamm on bass, Rick McClure on drums) of her polished and ready honky-tonk band the Sundowners, members of which have worked with her for many years. The “Connie Smith sound” has always had the steel guitar up-front, and does still, in the able and expressive hands of Gary Carter (also seen regularly accompanying Stuart’s band the Fabulous Superlatives on Marty’s TV show). The stinging guitar solos of Rick Wright punctuated the songs throughout the evening, and had some extra traction during the band’s instrumental salute to Jerry Reed.
Rated among the very best female country vocalists ever by many, Smith will no doubt, sooner or later, be joining in the Country Music Hall of Fame the near-contemporary she called, near the end of the first set, her “favorite girl singer,” Loretta Lynn. The occasion was Connie’s suddenly fully twangful rendering of “Once A Day” as it comes off in Loretta’s hands – a dead-on, knowing vocal impersonation – hilarious, and an extra moment of pleasure in a night with so many of them.
Connie Smith sings “Once A Day” at the Station Inn, 1-22-09
