Constance June Stuart (née Meador; born August 14, 1941), known professionally as Connie Smith, is an American country music singer and songwriter. Her contralto vocals have been described by music writers as significant and influential to the women of country music.

Discovered in 1963, Smith signed with RCA Victor Records the following year and remained with the label until 1973. Her debut single "Once a Day" was nominated at the Grammy Awards for Best Female Country Vocal Performance and reached number one on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in November 1964 and remained at the top position for eight weeks. In 1991, Trisha Yearwood's debut single went to number one for two weeks, but Smith still held the record for the most number of weeks at number one by any female country artist in history. Taylor Swift's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" broke Smith's 48-year record in 2012. Smith's success continued through 1960s and mid-1970s, with 19 more top-10 hits (including "Then and Only Then", "Ain't Had No Lovin'", "Cincinnati, Ohio", "I Never Once Stopped Loving You", and "Ain't Love a Good Thing") on the country songs chart.

In the early 1970s, Smith began to record gospel music more frequently as she became more serious in her Christianity. As she focused more heavily on religion, Smith became known for her outspoken religious demeanor at concerts and music venues. At the same time, she spent more time raising her five children than focusing on music. She eventually went into semiretirement in 1979 and returned to recording briefly in the mid-1980s with Epic Records. In the 1990s, though, she returned to music permanently with her collaboration with Marty Stuart. Their musical friendship became romantic, leading to their marriage in 1997, and to Connie Smith, her first studio album in 20 years. Critically acclaimed, Smith began performing again and has recorded two more studio albums.

Smith has been nominated for 11 Grammy Awards, including eight nominations for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. She has also been nominated for one Academy of Country Music award and three Country Music Association awards. Rolling Stone included her on its list of the 100 greatest country music artists and CMT ranked her among the top 10 in its list of the 40 greatest women of country music. She has been a member of the Grand Ole Opry cast since 1965. In 2012, Smith was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Early life

Constance June Meador was born to Wilma and Hobart Meador in Elkhart, Indiana. Her parents were originally from West Virginia, and the family returned there when Smith was five months old. They later moved to Dungannon, Ohio. Her biological father was an abusive alcoholic. "There were some tough times that I went through as a young child," she told an interviewer. Wilma Meador eventually divorced Hobart Meador and remarried to Tom Clark, who brought eight children into the marriage to join Meador's five; the couple had two children, totaling 15 children.

Smith was influenced by music in her childhood. Her stepfather played mandolin, one brother played fiddle, and another brother played guitar. On Saturday nights, the family tuned into the Grand Ole Opry radio broadcast. She took up the guitar following a lawnmower accident that nearly cut off her leg. While she was recovering in the hospital, she was given a guitar and learned how to play different chords. Smith did not perform publicly until high school, when a friend invited her to sing Connie Francis's pop hit "My Happiness".

With only one-tenth of a point behind the valedictorian, Smith graduated from Salem-Liberty High School in 1959 as the class salutatorian. Following graduation, she worked as telephone operator in Lowell, Ohio. She also worked in a grocery story, as a drugstore clerk, and as a dental assistant. At the age of 19, she married her first husband, Jerry Smith, who encouraged her singing, and she began performing with more frequency. Her first professional performance was at the 1962 Washington County Fair. She then briefly joined the cast of Saturday Night Jamboree, a local country-music television program, but was fired after her first performance, later theorizing it was because she was pregnant. She then successfully auditioned for and landed a spot on a similar program for WSAZ-TV.

Despite performance opportunities, Smith intended to remain a homemaker and mother. Judging the contest was country singer-songwriter Bill Anderson, who was instantly impressed by her voice. "At first I thought they were playing a record and she was lip sync'ing it," he later explained.

In January 1964, Smith ran into Anderson again at a country-music package concert in Canton, Ohio. He invited her to perform with him on Ernest Tubb's Midnite Jamboree program in Nashville, Tennessee. When Smith performed on the program in March 1964, she found out that she would not be performing with Anderson, but with Tubb. Impressed by her performance, Loretta Lynn introduced herself after the show and gave her career advice. After performing on the program, Smith returned to Nashville that May to make demonstration records by Anderson that he planned on pitching to other country artists. Anderson's manager, Hubert Long, brought the demo recording to the RCA Victor label, where producer Chet Atkins heard it. Also impressed by her vocals, Atkins offered Smith a recording contract, and she signed on June 24, 1964.

Career

1964–1967: "Once a Day" and peak success

thumb|right|200px|Smith performed for a crowd of 5,000 people, August 1964.

After signing Smith to RCA, Atkins found himself too busy with other artists. Instead, he enlisted Bob Ferguson to act as Smith's producer. The pair developed a close professional relationship and Ferguson remained her producer until she departed from RCA. "I couldn't have asked for a better person to work with. He is one of the finest men I've ever known," Smith later said. Smith's first session took place on July 16, 1964, where she recorded four songs. Three of these tracks were written by Bill Anderson, who agreed to write material for Smith. Two days later, Smith made her debut on the Grand Ole Opry. One of the four songs recorded on July 16 was "Once a Day", which was chosen to be Smith's debut single. "Once a Day" was released in August 1964 and reached number one on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart on November 28. It remained at the number-one position for eight weeks in late 1964 and early 1965. "Once a Day" became the first debut single by a female country artist to reach number one. For nearly 50 years, the single held the record for the most weeks spent at number one on the Billboard country chart by a female artist.

Smith started performing more regularly with "Once a Day"'s success. Bill Anderson briefly served as her manager, but was replaced by Charlie Lamb. Smith made her first network-television appearance in October 1964 on ABC's The Jimmy Dean Show. In March 1965, RCA Victor released her self-titled debut album It also reached the number-one spot, spending a total of seven weeks at the top of the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. Dan Cooper of Allmusic gave the disc a positive reception and described Smith as "a down-home Streisand fronting the Lennon Sisters."

Bill Anderson fulfilled his promise to RCA Victor and continued writing Smith's next single releases. Producer Bob Ferguson and steel guitar player Weldon Myrick created a "high" and "punchy" production that Ferguson thought would sound pleasing on car radios. "I thought it was an awfully thin sound, but it wound up being very popular," Myrick recalled. In 1965, RCA issued Smith's follow-up single written by Anderson titled "Then and Only Then", which reached number four on the Billboard country songs chart.

In 1966, Ferguson felt pressured from RCA headquarters to market Smith's sound toward "middle-of-the-road" country pop material. Smith was against the pop production, but nevertheless agreed to try it. The pair did several sessions featuring a string instrumentation. The style appeared on her next studio releases Born to Sing (1966) and Downtown Country (1967). Both albums featured full orchestras in the background and cover versions of singles by pop artists of the time. Featured on the LPs were the singles "Ain't Had No Lovin'" and "The Hurtin's All Over", which both reached the Billboard country top five.

1968–1972: Setbacks, gospel music and continued country music success

By 1968, Smith had reached the height of her career. She was making multiple appearances on film and television, while attempting to balance touring with family life. Ultimately, she chose to continue with her career and recorded for RCA every few months, but she reduced her touring schedule. She devoted the remainder of her time to family life and made efforts to appear on more Christian music programs. She worked alongside ministers Billy Graham and Rex Humbard. She also appeared on several Christian television shows.

thumb|left|130px|Smith presenting "Instrumentalist of the Year" at the 1972 [[Country Music Association Awards]]

With Smith's commitment to RCA, the label continued releasing new albums and singles with regularity. With her new religious convictions, Smith also prioritized including gospel recordings on her secular albums. This remained a theme throughout her career. In 1968 and 1969, RCA Victor released the studio LPs Sunshine and Rain, Back in Baby's Arms, and Connie's Country. These recordings yielded a cover of Marty Robbins's hit Ribbon of Darkness, a song written by Canadian singer/songwriter Gordon Lightfoot. Smith's version reached the top 20 of the Billboard country singles chart. Entering the 1970s, Smith made the top 10 of the North American country charts with less frequency, but continued having commercial success. Authors Mary A. Bufwack and Robert K. Oermann commented that her later RCA singles "stand the test of time as among the most powerful country female vocal performances of the 1970s."

In the early 1970s, Smith started recording more songs penned by Dallas Frazier. The pair had become close friends, which prompted Frazier to write songs for Smith that reflected situations in her personal life. Both Smith and Frazier described her 1970 single "Where Is My Castle" as being autobiographical of her recent marital troubles. "Anybody knows that its cathartic to sing how you feel about things," Smith later said. "Where Is My Castle" reached the top 20 of both the Billboard and RPM country singles charts. The label gave her more creative control, including the opportunity to record one gospel album per year.

In 1975, Columbia released both of her 1974 gospel projects. The first was Connie Smith Sings Hank Williams Gospel. For the album, Smith and Baker went through the Hank Williams catalog, where they came across a series of never-before-released gospel songs. The result was the first album of Hank Williams gospel material recorded by another artist. In 1976, the project was nominated by the Grammy Awards for Best Gospel Performance. The second 1975 religious LP was the gospel-influenced Christmas album titled Joy to the World. In 1976, Columbia issued two more country albums of Smith's material: The Song We Fell in Love To and I Don't Wanna Talk It Over Anymore. Both LPs peaked in the Billboard country albums top 40. Monument released two LPs of Smith's material between 1977 and 1978. Her only commercially successful Monument single was a cover of Andy Gibb's "I Just Want to Be Your Everything". The single climbed to number 14 on the Billboard country chart. Yet, her other Monument releases reached progressively lower positions on the country chart between 1978 and 1979. The first single, "A Far Cry from You" (1985), was written by alternative country artist Steve Earle. It reached number 71 on the Hot Country Songs chart.

Smith's 1998 project attracted limited commercial attention, but was given critical praise for its traditional and contemporary style. Kurt Wolff, in the book Country Music: The Rough Guide, commented that the album sounded "far gutsier than anything in the Reba and Garth mainstream". Also in 1998, Smith made a second cameo appearance in a film, portraying a "Singer at the Rodeo Dance" in The Hi-Lo Country starring Woody Harrelson and Billy Crudup.

thumb|left|Smith on stage at the Grand Ole Opry

In August 2003, she released a gospel album with country artists Barbara Fairchild and Sharon White titled Love Never Fails on Daywind Records.

In November 2008, Smith joined the cast of Marty Stuart's television series The Marty Stuart Show, which aired on the RFD-TV network every Saturday night. The 30-minute program featured traditional country music performed by both Stuart and Smith, as well as radio personality Eddie Stubbs. The show stopped airing on RFD-TV in 2014. In August 2011, Smith released her first new solo recording in 13 years, entitled Long Line of Heartaches, via Sugar Hill Records. The record was produced by Marty Stuart and included five songs written by the pair. Harlan Howard, Kostas, Johnny Russell, and Dallas Frazier also wrote tracks that were included on the disc. The album was reviewed positively by AllMusic's Steve Leggett, who gave it four stars. "It wouldn't be quite right to call this a throwback album, but it does sound like vintage traditional country given just a bit of a polished edge," he concluded. Andrew Mueller of BBC also gave it a positive response, calling it "classic and classicist country songs".

In August 2021, Smith's next studio album was released on the Fat Possum label titled The Cry of the Heart. It was the third project produced by Stuart and her first album of new material in 10 years. The New York Times described The Cry of the Heart as evoking traditional styles that "recall Smith's '60s-era recordings". It was Smith's first album since 1976 to reach a charting position on Billboard, peaking on the Current Album Sales chart following its release. PopMatters gave the album an 8/10 rating and concluded, "If you wanted to understand what traditional country is, you could go to the same place today as you could have 50 years ago: a Connie Smith record."

In April 2024, the Fat Possum label surprise-released Smith's next studio project, Love, Prison, Wisdom and Heartaches. Although an album of covers, Smith herself did not describe it that way: "I'm singing on behalf of my friends. Hoping to share them while passing along their songs."

Personal life

thumb|upright=0.7|Smith on the day of her wedding to third husband, Marshall Haynes, 1972

Smith has been married four times. In 1961, she married Jerry Smith, a ferro-analyst at the Inter-Lake Iron Corporation in Beverly, Ohio. They had one child together, born on March 9, 1963, named Darren Justin. (In the late 1970s, Darren went to Europe to become a missionary; he is currently a psychologist.) In the mid-1960s, the couple divorced and Smith married the guitarist in her touring band, Jack Watkins. They had a son before separating nearly a year after marrying. Shortly afterward, Smith married telephone repairman Marshall Haynes. In the early 1970s, Haynes frequently toured with Connie on her road show. The couple had three daughters.

After divorcing Haynes in the early 1990s, Smith stated that she never would marry again. Stuart said he told his mother then that he was going to marry Connie Smith. Smith explains how they have sustained their marriage : "Make the Lord the center...and commit."

Smith revealed in a New York Times interview that she had been diagnosed with COVID-19 in February 2021. She was hospitalized, developing sepsis and pneumonia. She eventually made a full recovery.

Musical styles and vocal ability

Connie Smith's sound is defined by the Nashville sound musical style, primarily during her breakthrough years in the 1960s. While most Nashville sound recordings of the time mainly included full orchestras, Smith's sound remained more traditional with its use of steel guitar and her twangy vocals, while still featuring some pop-influenced instrumentation to provide urban pop appeal. Critics have largely praised Smith's use of the steel guitar, which have often been described as "sharp" and "prominent".

Legacy and honors

thumb|left|160px|Smith at the Grand Ole Opry, 2007.

Smith is considered by many critics and historians to be one of country music's more celebrated and respected artists. In his review of Smith's 1996 compilation The Essential Connie Smith, Jurek explained why Smith's vocals are usually compared to Cline's, "Connie Smith is perhaps the only female singer in the history of country music who can truly claim to be the heiress to Patsy Cline's throne. It's not that there aren't many amazing vocalists in the field, and plenty of legends among them. But in terms of the pure gift of interpretation of taking virtually any song and making it a country song of class and distinction, Smith is it."

Writers and journalists have also cited Smith as an integral piece of country-music history. Mary A. Bufwack and Robert K. Oermann categorized her as one of country's "heroines of heartbreak", due to her emotional vocal delivery. Bufwack and Oermann further stated that along with Tammy Wynette, Smith was among the genre's "most towering country voices of the 1960s and 1970s", who "sang from the depths of despair" and "spoke for conservative Middle America in both music and life."

Many artists in the country-music industry have cited Smith as a significant musical influence or one of their favorite musical artists. George Jones cited Smith as his favorite female singer in his 1995 autobiography. In 2011, she was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame. Alongside Garth Brooks, Smith was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2012. "Just to be in the company of the great Kitty Wells is enough," she commented after hearing the news. In 2015, she celebrated 50 years as a member of the Grand Ole Opry radio broadcast. Her celebration was honored in a performance joined by Alison Krauss and Mel Tillis, among others. In 2017, she was ranked on Rolling Stones list of the "100 Greatest Country Artists of All Time".

In March 2021, Smith's legacy was further cemented by the Library of Congress, which added "Once a Day" to the National Recording Registry. In April 2021, Smith's husband, Marty Stuart, announced a documentary to be released about her life and career titled Connie: The Cry of the Heart. "Studying the depth of what Marty and Connie have achieved in the industry and then discovering their ability to predict the business trends around their legacy makes me very excited to be part of what they are doing," said Nick Kontonicolas, who will help broadcast the documentary on his network.

Discography

Studio albums

  • Connie Smith (1965)
  • Cute 'n' Country (1965)
  • Miss Smith Goes to Nashville (1966)
  • Connie Smith Sings Great Sacred Songs (1966)
  • Born to Sing (1966)
  • Downtown Country (1967)
  • Connie in the Country (1967)
  • Connie Smith Sings Bill Anderson (1967)
  • Soul of Country Music (1967)
  • I Love Charley Brown (1968)
  • Sunshine and Rain (1968)
  • Connie's Country (1969)
  • Young Love (1969)
  • Back in Baby's Arms (1969)
  • Sunday Morning with Nat Stuckey and Connie Smith (1970)
  • I Never Once Stopped Loving You (1970)
  • Where Is My Castle (1971)
  • Just One Time (1971)
  • Come Along and Walk with Me (1971)
  • Ain't We Havin' Us a Good Time (1972)
  • If It Ain't Love and Other Great Dallas Frazier Songs (1972)
  • A Lady Named Smith (1973)
  • God Is Abundant (1973)
  • That's the Way Love Goes (1974)
  • I Never Knew (What That Song Meant Before) (1974)
  • I Got a Lot of Hurtin' Done Today/I've Got My Baby On My Mind (1975)
  • Connie Smith Sings Hank Williams Gospel (1975)
  • Joy to the World (1975)
  • The Song We Fell in Love To (1976)
  • I Don't Wanna Talk It Over Anymore (1976)
  • Pure Connie Smith (1977)
  • New Horizons (1978)
  • The Best of Connie Smith (1989)
  • By Request (1995)
  • Clinging to a Saving Hand (1995)
  • Connie Smith (1998)
  • Love Never Fails (2003)
  • Long Line of Heartaches (2011)
  • The Cry of the Heart (2021)
  • Love, Prison, Wisdom and Heartaches (2024)

Filmography

{| class="wikitable sortable"

! Year

! width=50%| Title

! Role

! class="unsortable" | Notes

!

|-

| rowspan="2"| 1966

| The Las Vegas Hillbillys

| Herself

| cameo

| align="center"|

|-

| Second Fiddle to a Steel Guitar

| Herself

| cameo

| align="center"|

|-

| rowspan="2"| 1967

| The Road to Nashville

| Herself

| cameo

| align="center"|

|-

| Hell on Wheels

| Herself

| cameo

| align="center"|

|-

| 1998

| The Hi-Lo Country

| Singer at rodeo dance

|

| align="center"|

|-

| 2008–2014

| The Marty Stuart Show

| Herself

| 153 episodes

| align="center"|

|-

| Grammy Awards

| Best Country Vocal Performance, Female – "Ribbon of Darkness"

|

| align="center"|

|-

| Record World

| Top Female Vocalist

|

| align="center"|

|-

| 1971

| Grammy Awards

| Best Sacred Performance – "Whispering Hope" (with Nat Stuckey)

|

| align="center"|

|-

| 2002

| Country Music Television

| 40 Greatest Women of Country Music

|

| align="center"|

|-

| 2007

| Country Universe

| 100 Greatest Women – Rank (number 24)

|

| align="center"|

|-

| 2010

| Grammy Awards

| Best Country Collaboration with Vocals – "Run to You" (with Marty Stuart)

|

| align="center"|

|-

| 2011

| West Virginia Music Hall of Fame

| Inducted

|

| align="center"|

|-

| 2017

| Rolling Stone

| 100 Greatest Country Artists of All Time – Rank (number 69)

|

| align="center"|

|-

|}

References

Footnotes

Books

  • Connie Smith at the Grand Ole Opry's website
  • Connie Smith Discography at Slipcue.com
  • August 20, 2021, With Her 54th Album, Connie Smith Re-Affirms That She 'Is' Country Music, All Things Considered interview with Ailsa Chang