The subtitle my new album (Flight of the Robin) is “Bitchin’ Babe, Smith Sister, Hag;” it is a culmination of my career as a performing and recording artist, that at this point has spanned many years. As well as being a solo performer, I have also been a member of The Four Bitchin’ Babes, The Smith Sisters (with my sister, Megan), and early on as a member of The Hags, an all-women Irish-folk group (where I learned to play the bodhrán - Irish drum).
My first albums with my sister were recorded with the legendary Doc and Merle Watson (as well as Sam Bush, T. Michael Coleman, Pete Kennedy, Mike Auldridge and Mark O’Connor), whose influences can be heard thoughout my music. Being a member of the Babes had a huge impact on my songwriting. Celtic flavorings are apparent in one song I started writing in the Hags, among others. The only song I didn’t pen on this album is the marvelous “Dimming of the Day” by Richard Thompson, recorded by The Smith Sisters and produced and played on by John Jennings who was also producing Mary Chapin Carpenter at the time.
Some of the record labels I have been fortunate to be on over the years include Flying Fish/Rounder, Shanachie, Amerisound, American Melody, Sony Music, and more - on at least 25 albums. I have been grateful to work with many amazing and renowned musicians/recording artists (I miss Al Petteway, who was among them), and be a member of groups that have tried to provide enjoyable performances through laughter... and tears (one audience member described a Babes’ concert as “one of the best therapy sessions they ever had!”). Those experiences along with my personal life experiences color the songs on this album. Most of the songs are new, but a number of them I started writing many years ago – and finally finished them this year.
Flight of the Robin is also the name of a book that I recently edited and helped my mother Vivian Douglas Smith publish (Available on Amazon and DebiSmith.com. Mom’s articles and works have been featured by The Washington Post, The New Yorker, NPR and PBS). The book is a chronicle of letters exchanged between Mom and her fourteen college BFF’s Flight of the Robin beginning in 1947 - their story and lives spanned three quarters of a century - with an amazing scope of the decades Thirteen of the fourteen round robin members in 1947 it covers, particularly the hard-fought evolutions of women’s Vibrant, historic letters exchanged between fourteen Ohio college coeds beginning in 1947 — a chronicle of their lives and the times in which they lived spanning three roles in post WWII America. Mom died in August of 2025 quarters of a century. The Flight of the Robin has an amazing multi- generational scope of the decades it covers, particularly the gradual, and carried a copy of the book everywhere with her in her subtle, and hard-fought evolutions of women’s roles, identities, and opportunities in post WWII America. last months. My father, David E. Smith, was born on a farm in Nebraska in 1924 and went on to study engineering and landed on aircraft carriers such as the Midway. The love between my parents, married for 77 years and members of “the greatest generation,” was something beautiful to behold. And so, I dedicate this album to the memory of my parents, David and Vivian Smith, who died ten months apart in 2024 and 2025, both at the age of 99.
Thank you to each one of you. Art is a two-way street. Thank you for keeping music and the arts alive.