LimeWire Music Blog

You might be familiar with the saying about love being better the second time around. The same could be said of the music business as it relates to the story of Anthony Smith. The singer/songwriter enjoyed success with a trio of top 40 records back in 2002-2003, headlined by the infectious “If That Ain’t Country.” However, his label was undergoing some changes, and his music got lost in the corporate shuffle. Seven years — and countless hits as a songwriter—later, he’s back for another run of success as a solo artist. Bringin’ Back The Sunshine, his new album on his own Krankit Records, is nearing release, and the first single and video, “Love Is Love Is Love,” is starting to make an impact for the Oneida, TN native. Needless to say, it’s a great time to be Anthony Smith these days.

“It’s great,” Smith says of everything going on around him. “The timing couldn’t be better. We’ve put together a great record. It’s been in the works for the past couple of years, putting this thing together. We launched Krankit Records just a few months ago, and we’re coming out with our first single, and everybody is just excited—like having a new kid or something.”

Of the single, he says, “That was the last line of the song. I wrote that with a songwriter in town named Eric Silver, and that was the very last thing that came was the actual hook. It was just fun, just a feel-good song that sticks with you when you hear it, and we decided to make it the first single.”

Though he has been away from the scene as an artist, the music of Anthony Smith has been up front and center over the years since his last album. His writing credits read like a list of country’s greatest hits of the past decade—“Chrome,” “I’m Tryin’,” “What Do Ya Think About That,” and “Run.” Of his success in that arena, he says, “You know, it’s humbling. It’s the biggest honor. Sometimes, it just doesn’t seem real, you know. I came to town to be an artist. I never dreamed that people would be coming to town and cutting my songs. To end up having George Strait or Tim McGraw or somebody like that cut your song, that is really wonderful. You’ve got to pinch yourself. I’ve been really fortunate, and now I’m doing what I came here to do. It’s really exciting. It’s hard to put into words the feeling. I know that it’s never felt more right than it does right now.”

In addition to “Run,” he also penned “Cowboys Like Us” for Strait, and he said that some might be surprised to hear how the song came to life. “I had just came off of a hit with George called ‘Run,” he begins. “Actually, it was my first number-one song, and he called me about six months later or so, and he wanted to know if I would write a song for his next record. He said that he had this idea. He said, ‘Nobody knows this in the public, but I ride Harley Davidsons.’ I said ‘Really, George Strait rides Harleys?’ He said that he did, and he and some of his friends would all get together and take a ride to Mexico every year. He said he would like to have a song that would tell that story, and asked me if I would write it. I told him I would give it a try. What do you say to ‘King George.’ I sat down and started this thing, and had this idea, and titled it ‘Cowboys Like Us.’ I had a writing session with Bob DiPiero, and we just finished it up, and put it on demo, and George cut it.”

The fact that he was approached by Strait himself to pen the tune is not lost on Smith. “It’s just crazy. The first thing you do as soon as you get off the phone is call your dad or your mom, and you say ‘You’re not going to believe who I was just talking to.” There was another instance where Smith’s phone rang with an unlikely called at the other end of the line. “I had the same experience with Kristofferson. Kris Kristofferson called me one time from the airport in Nashville. My song ‘Kristofferson’ had just been on the radio, and he had a chance to hear it. At this point, I had never spoken to him. He calls me up and goes Anthony Smith? I said ‘Yeah,” He says ‘This is Kris Kristofferson.’ I’m thinking, ‘Yeah, right,’ and I was about to hang up, and as he kept talking, I thought ‘holy crap, this is him.’ He said ‘I just wanted to tell you that I didn’t think it was possible for someone to use a name like mine in a song.’ I said that I was a big fan of his, and that it was all heartfelt and genuine. That was one of those moments, and it was right before my dad died, too. You just can’t put a price on that memory.”

Another song that he wrote for McGraw, “Kill Myself,” is one of his greater moments. Of the song, recorded for Tim’s 2004 album Live Like You Were Dying, he says, “That song has got a lot of twists and turns in it, and because of that bold statement, it comes as such a shock until you go back and listen to it. It’s really a positive story. It’s about someone making changes in their life with their attitude, and making a commitment to do better with themselves, kind of a second chance, really. I’ve never dealt with suicide, but I’ve certainly had my dark times, like all of us have, and those moments like that—when you’re hurting the most, you get these ideas about life that are profound. If you’re lucky enough to put them on paper, it’s a wonderful opportunity and experience. I was really grateful for that song, and glad it hit me.” Smith is philosophical about the experiences that led to the song, saying that “Sometimes you’ve gotta go through a little bit of hell to get a piece of heaven.”

Smith says that recording Bringin’ Back The Sunshine was very much a different recording experience than most in Music City these days. “My approach to making records has always been a little bit different from the Nashville norm, because I believe when you buy a record, it should be from front to back, a listening experience. It should take you on a journey. When you pop it in, no matter what room or car you are in, that music needs to create its’ own atmosphere, unique to any other record, and I think great records do that. The secret to making great records is sort of a lost art, because when you think of iconic records like Hotel California or Stardust, the approach to making them was the key ingredient. They had pre-production. There wasn’t a group of session players that sat down in a room like the method is today in Nashville where you sit down with three guys, and say ‘Ok, we’ve got six hours, and we’re going to cut two songs. Cross your fingers.’ Back then, they lived with the song. Sometimes, they would spend weeks in the studio, but they waited for that magic moment, and they knew. Everybody knows when you’re onto something. Sometimes those records take a little more time, but that’s what I sat out to do. I wanted to make a record with no restraints on time, get my buds in there, and we’ll make something cool, organic, and authentic, and that’s what we did. We cut thirteen tracks on here, and they’re all different. We took a lot of chances on this record.”

One of those “chances” was the song “Hillbilly Romeos.” The song features one of the last recordings of the late Porter Wagoner. “That’s probably the highlight of my career,” he explains with a smile. “Porter and I became friends when I was signed to Mercury. He had gotten an advance copy of that record, and I got a phone call from him. I knew some of the guys in his band. He was telling me ‘Anthony, this is my favorite record of all time.’ I thought, he’s just joking. He probably says that to everybody, right?” He told me he wanted me to come to the Opry, and to make sure he was hosting the show that night, so he could bring me on. He introduces me, and tells the audience ‘I want you to go out and buy his record, and if you don’t like it, I’ll give you your money back.” From there, a friendship was struck. “We ended up hanging out, and I would go over to his house, and he would tell me stories, and we were just kindred spirits. He was a hero to me, and would just go out of his way to be kind and supportive when he certainly didn’t have to. He was a Hall of Famer, and I just loved him. When I had an opportunity to cut this song, I faced such adversity from the music community. They said ‘Why don’t you get somebody more current, that’s a bigger name who is more viable today on radio.’ I said, ‘You know, I can’t do that. This song screams Porter Wagoner to me, and it has to happen.’ I didn’t know how fate would play out. We went in there and cut that song, and when you hear the laughter and the improve stuff, it’s totally off the cuff—nothing scripted whatsoever. It’s all a genuine good time—caught on tape.”

The pair might have seemed like an unlikely alliance. Porter—part of the old guard—and Anthony, but there were underlying similarities at play. “What people don’t understand about him was that he was an innovator. It takes a lot of moxy to come out wearing a suit like that, and pull it off. A lot of people can wear it, but few can pull it off, but he did. He was the first guy who put 24-track consoles together, and make 48-track stereo recording. That was his doing, and he was amazing. He was constantly trying to explore music.”

As part of Smith’s music “exploration,” he’ll be making the rounds at radio over the next few months to promote the new music, and also playing “as many dates as they can put us out there.” He has just shot a video for the new single that he filmed in the Bahamas, which should be making a debut on GAC and CMT any day now.