Connie Smith "Blue Heartaches"

How about a peek behind the curtain of booking for one of our events? When I was putting the schedule together for the Music Fog Fall Marathon, I scoured the roster of performers that had been invited to play the Americana Music Festival in Nashville, which was the reason we were headed there. I made a list from that, especially wanting to bring artists in front of our cameras that we hadn’t had the pleasure of filming before. One of those artists was the legendary Connie Smith. Pure country, pure class, with perfect diction, perfect phrasing, and 53 albums to her credit in her well-respected career. Wow!

As we got closer to the gig, I reached back out to see what the configuration would be for each artist. In Connie’s case, it was conveyed that she’d be performing as a duo, and would just be bringing a guitarist. Now I knew this would be a world class accompanist no matter what, but I hoped against hope that it would be her husband, Marty Stuart. It was confirmed on the day before the performance that indeed, Marty was coming along with Connie. Woot! Marty produced her latest CD, Long Line of Heartaches. It is her first recording since 1996 and only her second since 1978. They produced it at the historic Nashville RCA Studio B, which is a comfortable place for sure. When Connie first came to Nashville in the 60s, her first nine years of albums for the RCA Victor label were recorded nearly in their entirety in the same celebrated location.

We brought Connie to our studio for her Music Fog session, at Marathon Recorders in Nashville's Marathon Village. What can I say? It was an honor to have Connie Smith and Marty Stuart record with us.

- Jessie Scott

Blue Heartaches - Long Line of Heartaches