From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Wed Mar 13, 2002  1:17 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Carl Smith
 
CARL SMITH

Born 15 March, 1927, Maynardsville, Tennessee

Carl Smith spent virtually the whole of the 50's in the Top Ten of the
country charts with tough honky tonk songs that blended perfectly with his
smooth vocals. Born and raised in the hometown of his hero Roy Acuff, he
left home at 15 to join Kitty Dibble and her Dude Ranch Ranglers out in San
Francisco. He returned to Tennessee two years later, working on radio
station WROL in Knoxville, before serving time in the Navy. When he got
back on dry land he went back to WROL and began playing bass for Skeets
McDonald and Molly O'Day. He wound up on the Grand Ole Opry as a singer and
signed with Columbia Records in 1950. The following year he had four hit
records including Let's Live A Little and his first number one, Let Old
Mother Nature Have Her Way. That same year he married June Carter with whom
he had a daughter, Carlene Carter, before Carl and June got divorced. The
50's saw him have over 30 Top Ten hits (including Cut Across Shorty, Loose
Talk, Hey Joe!), and star in a couple of western movies. He continued to
chart throughout the 60's with a sound that became more influenced by
Western Swing, and he had more after he left Columbia for Hickory in 1975.
He quit the music business in the late 70's to concentrate on his horse
farm, outside Franklin, Tennessee where he still lives with his wife of over
40 years, country singer Goldie Hill.