When it comes to top female country singers, all-time favourites (classic acts) you get no better than pure-voiced, diminutive blue-eyed Connie Smith, and if proof were needed then take note of Dolly Parton’s statement of “You know, there’s only three female singers in the world, Barbra Streisand, Linda Ronstadt and Connie Smith”. Although one or two vocalists for consideration have come along since her shrewd appraisal.
Originally released in 1967, her RCA albums of Downtown Country and Connie In The Country are typical of the time as pedal steel, country guitar, strings and finely toned harmony vocals escort the artist; hence the production is smoother than preferred but what a voice! In my mind Smith’s work is peerless as she takes a song and pours her heart and soul into it, and lets her voice flow without a hint of effort never mind strain as she performs “Cry Cry Cry” (Shirley Wood), steel doused “World Of Forgotten People” and with a little swagger “Ain’t Woman Enough (To take My Man)” (both Loretta Lynn). “I Overlooked An Orchid (While Looking For A Rose)” and time-less rendition of Willie Nelson’s emotion dripping ballad “My Own Peculiar Way” are others worthy of 5-star rating.
Of a lighter note she covers two Little Jimmy Dickens favourites “A-Sleepin’ At The Foot Of the Bed” and “I’m Little But I’m Loud” and “Love’s Gonna Live Here Again” and from Downtown Country the Tony Hatch title-track “Downtown”, “It’s Now Or Never” and Martha Sharp’s stereo-type woman of the time (in some quarters) “Born A Woman” plus “Night Has A Thousand Eyes”. But it is only when she gets to sing “My Heart Has A Mind Of It’s Own”, Harlan Howard’s “Hurtin’s All Over” and Dallas Frazier’s “It’s Gonna Rain Today” does the brilliance of Smith hit the level she’s best known.
Maurice Hope