Review: Connie Smith “The Lost Tapes”
Review by Preshias Harris
Every now and then, a recording surfaces that the world never knew existed or was believed to have been lost forever. ‘Connie Smith: The Lost Tapes' presents us with a collection of just such treasures.
Beginning in the 1960s, each branch of the United States military produced series of radio programs that were syndicated across the country, mainly for recruiting purposes, and also heard overseas on the Armed Forces Radio Network for the entertainment of troops. Many popular country music artists were invited to participate, singing some of their songs and talking to the show's host.
The artists had very little time to rehearse, often running through their set just one time before the recording began. On December 8, 1972, Connie Smith walked into Music City Recorders in Nashville to record an episode of a show titled Navy Hoedown. The studio owner and chief engineer for the session was none other than the legendary Scotty Moore, formerly of Sun Studios, and whose guitar can be heard on Elvis Presley's early hits.
A quick rehearsal and the then tape was running. In about one hour Connie recorded sixteen tracks, all the more remarkable in that artists will generally devote many hours, or even days, to cutting a single song. For these special shows, it was ‘one and done.' Connie left the studio and went back on the road, performing her hits for her legion of fans. The show was broadcast and the tapes were shelved and all but forgotten.
Hindsight Records' CEO Thomas Gramuglia has become an expert at tracking down tapes that were made for radio broadcast and then discarded, reviving them for release on his Country Rewind label. Gramuglia took the Connie Smith tapes to Apostle Paul's Clubhouse Recording Studio in Hendersonville, Tennessee, where he was joined by Connie along with Marty Stuart, recording engineer Mick Conley and several of Nashville's finest musicians. It was there that (in Stuart's words), they “retouched history as lightly as possible. Painstaking measures were taken to embellish these songs in a pure and authentic light.” The result: audio quality that is close to perfect.
The eleven tracks on this album include a version of Connie's breakthrough Number One hit “Once A Day” (penned by Bill Anderson) but part of the joy of this collection is listening to her version of other songs such as “The Race Is On” and “Long Black Limousine,” as well as Gospel-inspire favorites “Amazing Grace” and “How Great Though Art.” Because of the circumstances of the original recording session, the listener can sense the spontaneity and sheer fun that Miss Smith and the musicians must have experienced back on that day in '72.
“Connie Smith The Lost Tapes” is a valuable addition to the genre of newly discovered recordings and is on a par with Country Rewind's other recent release, “You Don't Know Me,” a collection of similarly rediscovered Faron Young tapes.
