Bill Smith

Musician
Best known for Bass Harmony Vocals

Bill Smith is a bluegrass bass player and singer who played in Country Gazette, alongside Alan Munde, Roland White and Joe Carr, from the spring of 1982 to May 1984. He sang and played bass on the band’s album America’s Bluegrass Band (Flying Fish, 1982).

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Before Country Gazette he played bass in the Nothin’ Doin’ Band, whose self-titled album came out on Prime Time Records in 1980, with John Lawless on banjo and Steve Smith on mandolin.

When Michael Anderson left Country Gazette at the end of 1981, Greg Kennedy took over the bass for a few months, and Smith replaced him in the spring of 1982. With Munde on banjo and guitar, White on mandolin and guitar, and Joe Carr on guitar and mandolin, the band recorded America’s Bluegrass Band in Nashville in November 1982, produced by the band and Herschel Freeman; its songs included “Saro Jane,” “Molly and Tenbrooks” and Gib Guilbeau’s “Take a City Bride.” Concert tapes from his time in the band, among them “Dear Old Dixie” and “Willow Garden” from 19 May 1982 and “Rawhide” from 29 July 1983, later appeared on the band’s cassette Live on the Road (1984). In August 1983 he played the second day of a Country Gazette reunion at the Rocky Mountain Bluegrass Festival near Denver. After Carr left, Smith played with Munde, White and Gene Wooten, and that lineup was recorded live on 7 January 1984 on “Panhandle Country” and “Sunny Side of the Mountain.” Billy Joe Foster replaced him in May 1984.

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