Solo Recordings

This album is a culmination of Debi Smith’s career. She has been a member of The Four Bitchin’ Babes, The Smith Sisters, and early on, The Hags (an all-women Irish-folk group). Her first albums with sister Megan were recorded with Doc and Merle Watson, early musical influences. Debi then joined the Four Bitchin’ Babes which had a significant impact on her songwriting. She has recorded 25 albums and received a Grammy nomination for her work with music legend Tom Paxton. These groups and experiences play a big part in this recording and its songs.

Debi recorded and produced this album with Nashville’s Shawn Fichter and Pat Buchanan. Debi and the Babes have worked with Pat before, who has won The Academy of Country Music Guitarist of the Year award. Other artists on the album include fellow-Babe Marcy Marxer, sister Megan, and two luminaries who have passed (John Jennings/producer-MC Carpenter, and Danny Pendleton/member-The Starland Vocal Band). Flight of the Robin is not only the name of the album and its title song, but also Debi’s recent book published with her mother, Vivian Douglas Smith. Vivian died in 2025, and her father, David Smith, in 2024. The album is dedicated to the memory of her parents.

The songs are finely crafted and memorable. "Nebraska Moon" is based on the lives of Debi's father and his brother, her Uncle Luther. Raised on a Nebraska farm during the dustbowl and depression years, hard work was very much a part of their daily lives. Despite this, they both raised themselves up by their bootstraps and thrived. "The Great Wall of China," a lovely ballad, was co-written with Danny Pendleton, a member of the Starland Vocal Band. "Vincent Van Gogh's Mom" is a journey into what it must have been to be the famous artist's parent, which Debi has a window into as the mother of a young man and artist with autism. "Dimming of the Day" is a Richard Thompson song that Debi recorded with her sister long ago, under the production of John Jennings (Mary Chapin Carpenter). "Help Them Along" brings Debi's powerful bodhràn playing and vocals to bear, and "Here I Go Again" addresses the roller coaster of new love. "Flight of the Robin" tells the story of the album's title track (and recently published book) based on her mother's Round Robin letters that circulated between 14 college BFF's beginning in 1947. "Castaway" revisits Debi's celtic leanings, and "I Still Think About You" is a song that begs to be sung by Trio (Parton, Rondstadt & Harris). The two closing songs, Night's Guitar and Harvest Song, take time to ponder gaining a greater perspective in life.