Connie Smith (1998 album)

Connie Smith is the thirty second studio album by American country music artist, Connie Smith. The album was released October 6, 1998 on Warner Bros. Records and was produced by Marty Stuart and Justin Niebank. It is not to be confused with her debut studio album of the same name, as this release featured most of the songs written by Smith herself. It was her first album in five years and her second in 20 years, since 1978's New Horizons. Despite being her first release in 20 years, it attracted little attention.

Background
Connie Smith was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee and contained ten tracks of previously unrecorded material. Nine out of the ten tracks on the album were co-written by Connie Smith, who had previously never written an entire album. Allmusic album reviewer, Thom Jurek called the album's sound to be "tough traditional honky tonk music with an edge that makes it very attractive as a rock & roll record." The opening track, "How Long" was co-written with Marty Stuart and Harlan Howard. Jurek called the opening of the fourth track, "You Can't Back a Teardrop" (the only song on the album not co-written by Smith) to resemble that of Ray Price's "Crazy Arms," however he went on to say the rest of the song was different from "Crazy Arms" because, "it's on the far honky tonk edge, with Stuart leading the band in a driving, rollicking shuffle where fiddles drive a pedal steel ever toward the center of the pathos in the center of the bridge."

Smith herself called the album's ninth track, "When It Comes to You" to resemble that of a rock and roll song, stating that she, "yodeled on the end just to be funny, and they kept it in." The ninth track also featured Stuart playing mandolin. The second track, "Lonesome" was also written by Smith and Stuart and was said to resemble, "a bluegrass ghost song about love in the ether," according to Jurek. The closing song on the album, "A Tale from Taharrie" is departure from any of the other tracks on the album, as it resembles a Celtic song, according to Smith, stating, "We wanted to write a song that sounded like the 1700s. It came out sounding Irish. I made up the name "Taharrie" because it fit the sound."

Critical reception
Connie Smith mainly received positive reviews upon its release. Thom Jurek of Allmusic gave the album four out five stars, giving the album's quality much praise, saying, "In all, this is not only a solid effort; it stands head and shoulders over most of the stuff that's come out of Nash Vegas in over a decade. Even if it doesn't sell a copy, it's a triumphant return for Smith. She hasn't lost a whit of her gift as a singer or as a writer." Jurek went on to give it praise, saying, "Connie Smith is a bona fide country and gospel music legend; she is quite literally the only person who deserves to share a reputation with Patsy Cline -- Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn notwithstanding." Slipcue.com also praised the effort, calling it, "a pretty fair comeback album." The website further gave credit to producer, Marty Stuart for making, "appropriate decisions about how to frame her vocals." The website made a positive conclusion about the album, stating, "This album varies; basically it's not bad when she tackles upbeat material -- mainly Texas shuffles -- and it founders on the slow and sentimental numbers. If you're a fan, it's definitely worth checking out." It was also briefly reviewed the book, Country Music: The Rough Guide, which called the effort, "a solid fiddle-and-guitar country that's far gutsier than anything in the Garth-and-Reba mainstream.

Personnel

 * Steve Arnold – bass
 * Marl Casstevens – guitar
 * Stuart Duncan – fiddle
 * Gary Hogue – steel guitar
 * Larry Marrs – background vocals, bass
 * Michael Rhodes – bass
 * Connie Smith – lead vocals
 * Gary W. Smith – keyboards
 * Stuart Smith – guitar
 * Marty Stuart – guitar, mandolin
 * Steve Turner – drums
 * Biff Watson – guitar
 * Cheryl White – background vocals
 * Gregg Stocki - drums


 * Technical personnel
 * Holly Gleason – liner notes
 * Ken Hutton – assistant engineer
 * Glenn Meadows – mastering
 * Justin Neibank – engineering