Cal Smith -- who enjoyed a rich country career with some
of the biggest hits of the 1960s and 1970s, passed away yesterday at his
home near Branson, Missouri. He was 81.
Smith was born Calvin Grant Shofner on April 7, 1932 in
Gans, Oklahoma. However, as many did in the Great Depression, Smith's
family headed west – settling in Oakland, California. He began his music
career by performing at San Francisco's Remember Me Cafe in 1947.
Unable to make a steady income as a musician, he also turned to other
jobs, such as truck driving and the rodeo.
Smith enlisted in the military in the mid 1950s. Upon his
discharge, he returned to the Bay area where he began playing in a local
band. Country superstar Ernest Tubb heard the band play one night, and
offered Smith a job playing guitar for his Texas Troubadours band. Not
only a road band for Tubb, the group also backed him on his Decca
recordings, so Smith was working plenty of Tubb's sessions as well.
Smith's vocals were brought to the attention of Kapp
Records, who signed him in 1966. His debut single for the label, "I'll
Just Go Home," failed to chart, but his second release, "The Only Thing I
Want," hit the Billboard Country Singles chart in January 1967 –
peaking at No. 58.
Subsequent releases would fare better for Smith, who left
the Tubb show in 1969 – the same year he hit the top-40 for the first
time with "Drinking Champagne" (later covered by George Strait). He
moved to Decca in 1971, and hit the top ten for the first time with a
cover of the Free Movement's "I've Found Someone Of My Own," a No. 4
release from the spring of 1972. By years' end, he would release "The
Lord Knows I'm Drinking," a song written by Bill Anderson. It would
become his first number one record in March 1973.
As big as that record was, it was nothing compared to his
next major hit. "Country Bumpkin," a story song in the classic country
tradition, was released in early 1974 – hitting the top in May. It
netted him a CMA Award for Single Record of the Year, and also won the
Song of the Year trophy for writer Don Wayne, as well.
The song was a favorite of many -- including a young Garth
Brooks. During a mid 1990s appearance on TNN's "Music City Tonight,"
the singer said that "Country Bumpkin" was his favorite country song –
prompting Smith to give Brooks the CMA trophy he won for the song.
Another fan of Smith's was Loretta Lynn. In her 2002
autobiography "Still Woman Enough," the singer admitted to having a
crush on Smith during her stint as duet partner with Ernest Tubb –
claiming that husband Mooney would sometimes get jealous of the singer.
Cal Smith topped the charts for a third and final time
with 1975's "It's Time To Pay The Fiddler," yet remained on the charts
throughout the 1970s. One of his last major hits was his original
version of "I Just Came Home To Count The Memories," a No. 15 hit from
1977 that helped put John Anderson on the map five years later. His last
appearance on the charts was 1986's "King Lear," which peaked at No. 75
on the Step One label.
Smith is survived by wife Darlene, five children, and fifteen grandchildren
