b. c.1940, Cordell, Oklahoma, USA. Raised in Denton, Texas, Smith entered education and became an English teacher. Meanwhile, he was honing the craft of songwriting. Over the years he wrote many hundreds of songs, adopting the method of thinking through the week and writing a song every weekend. His song, ‘Far-Side Banks Of Jordan’, appears in Robert Duvall’s movie, The Apostle (1997), where it is sung by June Carter Cash who had first recorded it, with Johnny Cash, in the 70s. This song has also been recorded by many other gospel, bluegrass and traditional country artists, including Ernie Ashworth, Alison Krauss, the Statler Brothers and Smith himself, who included it on Look At My Hands. With some 80 recordings in total of this song, it is clearly his best known but he also wrote ‘I Can’t Find A Train’, recorded by Roy Acuff, ‘Lord, I’ve Been Ready For Years’, recorded by the Oak Ridge Boys, ‘It Doesn’t Say’, Kitty Wells, and ‘Ten Seconds In The Saddle’, Chris LeDoux. Among others who have recorded Smith’s material are Smoky Dawson, Lonnie Lynne LaCour, the Lewis Family and Elayne Otterson. Since retiring from teaching, Smith has become popular as a performer throughout the USA and in Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Even so, he remains best known for his songwriting. In 1995 and again the following year, Smith was named by the Traditional Music Association as Songwriter Of The Year. (NB: Not to be confused with the UK jazz guitarist of the same name.)