Darden Smith
Love Calling ~
( ( Compass 4608 ) )
Full Circle or Fresh Start?
For Darden Smith, the creatively expansive Texas troubadour, Love Calling represents both. The
album opens a new chapter in the artist’s prolific career, and circles back to his musical roots. The release is
Smith’s first in three years and the first for his new label, Compass Records. Surprisingly, Love Calling also
represents the first time Smith has recorded in Nashville, co-writing much of the material with some of the
city’s stellar songwriters and working with top studio musicians, under the co-production of Jon Randall
Stewart and Gary Paczosa.
Yet for Smith, whose career has taken him all over the map, musically as well as geographically, the
release also represents an artistic homecoming. The organic arrangements invoke the sound that
established him as a breakout artist from the Texas club circuit in the mid-1980s, when he forged his style
and found an audience that extended from country-folk traditionalists to those more attuned to
contemporary trends.
As a young Lone Star storyteller, Smith’s songs paid proper homage to the likes of Guy Clark and
Townes Van Zandt. Yet his ear for melodic invention and his embrace of modern recording technology
subsequently suggested a pop sensibility with greater commercial potential. His roots nourished his music
without inhibiting his artistry. During those formative years, Smith befriended many kindred spirits also
getting their start. Some of those same musicians are now among the established veterans whose talents
contribute so much to Love Calling.
“I first met (bassist) Michael Rhodes in 1988 on the road with Rosanne Cash,” he recalls. “And Jon
Randall Stewart and I met in 1989, at a festival in Switzerland. Radney Foster and I met in ‘89 at Austin City
Limits. So, it’s coming full circle with a lot of different relationships and friends. And, in a way, the sound on
this record is closer to my first record, Native Soil, than anything I’ve done since. ‘Medicine Wheel’ on Love
Calling is not really that different, structurally, from something I could have written when I was 25.”
Born in Brenham, Texas, in the wide open spaces between Houston and Austin, Smith released the
indie Native Soil in 1986. Strong critical response led to a deal with Epic Records in Nashville. His 1988
Darden Smith debut for the label landed two singles on the country charts. But country music was
changing, and so was Darden. He switched to the New York division of Columbia Records, began a fruitful
songwriting partnership with Britain’s Boo Hewerdine (with whom he released Evidence, 1989), and earned
critical raves and a wider audience beyond country with Trouble No More (1990) and Little Victories (1993).
The former included “Frankie & Sue” and “Midnight Train,” both of which received significant airplay on the
emerging adult album alternative (or Triple A) radio format. Little Victories featured “Loving Arms,” a Top
Ten hit. Next, Smith moved to an independent label, Dualtone Music Group, with whom he produced a
more personal trio of acclaimed albums: Sunflower (2002), Circo (2004), and Field of Crows (2005).
Smith is known for pursuing new creative paths and pushing himself past his comfort zone, keeping
his music fresh long after others have fallen into the recycling routine. One such path was forged in the
mid-1990’s when Smith began collaborating on dance/theater productions in Austin. This led to an even
bigger challenge when he accepted a commission from the Austin Symphony to compose “Grand Motion,”
performed in 1999. Both of these projects, which could be called sidelines, informed Smith’s self-released
Marathon (2010), a haunting song cycle named for a remote town in West Texas.
As Smith puts it, “Exploring this other work forced me to look at how I was pigeonholing and
limiting myself. Am I just a songwriter? A singer-songwriter? A folksinger? A musician? This opened up how
I defined myself, no longer as just one thing. I was about 40 then and the last decade or so has been the
most creative time of my work life.”
Compass Records • 916 19th Avenue South • Nashville Tennessee 37212
(615) 320-7672 • Fax (615) 320-7378
Press/Radio: Emily Amos emily@compassrecords.com
Retail: Thad Keim thad@compassrecords.com • Tour: promotion@compassrecords.com
http://www.compassrecords.com
Though the melodies and arrangements of Smith’s new album may recall his earliest recording
days, the lyrics have the maturity of a veteran songwriter with experiences, both personal and professional,
that he couldn’t have anticipated, let alone written about, a quarter-century ago. He’s the same Darden
Smith, and he’s a whole different songwriter, with a different perspective on his artistry.
“I’m not a kid,” he explains. “I’ve been writing songs for 40 years and making a living at it since I
was 23. There was a time when I was very into music as a way to achieve something. And now I look at
music as a way to live. It’s not like I write songs in order to get anywhere. It’s what I do. I view the world
through writing songs. I look at music as this blessing I have, not like a choice. It’s a necessity. Writing the
song is all that matters, and I love writing songs, more than ever.”
Such love permeates the album, which looks at romantic relations through a variety of lenses.
There’s the devotional love of “Seven Wonders,” the redemptive love of “Reason to Live,” “Better Now”
and the title track, the sensual love of “Favorite Way,” the crazy love of “Distracted,” the love on the
rebound of “Mine Till Morning.” But there’s also a darker strain, in the jealous love of “I Smell Smoke” and
the shattered love and salvation of “Baltimore.” “That’s as dark a song as I’ve ever written,” says Smith.
“But it’s a love song, too. I thought about this record being a collection of songs that held together, and it
just so happened that a lot of them were love songs.
“As for the production, we talked a lot about what instruments we would use, creating some
boundaries, because I wanted this record to sound a certain way,” he continues. “No machines. Acoustic
instruments whenever possible. And let’s see how few instruments we can have on the record and still
make it full. What if we don’t have lead instruments? What would that be like? I wanted to move in a
direction I hadn’t gone in a long, long time.”
Smith’s expansive vision for his music extends well beyond being a singer-songwriter. “Love
Calling” developed organically as Smith immersed himself in projects that kept him out of the spotlight but
profoundly influenced his music—and the life his music reflects. In 2003, he launched The Be An Artist
Program, which uses songwriting to help students discover their own creativity. From there, Smith created
SongwritingWith, a program that taps into the power of collaborative songwriting to awaken creativity and
give people faith in their own voice. Participants have ranged from homeless youths at Covenant House in
Newark, New Jersey, corporate clients seeking conflict resolution, and service members returning from
combat. Fall 2013 marks Smith’s second year as Artist-In-Residence at Oklahoma State University’s Institute
For Creativity and Innovation, where he explores creativity with students in the classroom and in mentoring
sessions.
Recognizing the plight of veterans suffering from PTSD and other injuries, Smith started
SongwritingWith:Soldiers in 2012. But the first seed for this program was planted in 2009 with “Angel
Flight,” which Smith wrote with his friend Radney Foster. The song honors pilots who fly the planes that
bring fallen soldiers home. After Foster’s version and accompanying video achieved wide acclaim, Smith
saw the healing possibilities of pairing professional songwriters with wounded soldiers. Smith’s take on
“Angel Flight” appears on Love Calling. “Between heaven and earth, you’re never alone,” sings Smith in the
voice of a pilot flying casualties from the battlefield. “On the angel flight, come on brother, I’m taking you
home.” In its intimacy and purity, it’s another love song of sorts, a love that springs from empathy and
respect rather than romance.
“With a lot of the work I’m doing now, these big projects, I kind of had to start operating beneath
the radar. This allowed me the freedom and flexibility to look outside myself, says Smith. “I just opened up
to these new possibilities, new ways of working. And the more I kept opening up and saying yes to new
ideas, the more fun I had, the more creative things got. And the more songs I wrote.”
So, for Smith, Love Calling represents something of a culmination, a milestone, a circle completed.
The album finds him pushing forward while looking back, bringing together projects that ultimately share
the same creative energy.
As Darden maintains, “To me, it’s all the same, all music. Just music.”
Compass Records • 916 19th Avenue South • Nashville Tennessee 37212
(615) 320-7672 • Fax (615) 320-7378
Press/Radio: Emily Amos emily@compassrecords.com
Retail: Thad Keim thad@compassrecords.com • Tour: promotion@compassrecords.com
http://www.compassrecords.com