Russell Smith & Co. - In Studio with the Amazing Rhythm Aces

All The Aces: Russell & ARA

Christmas week, 1977 I was in Nashville with my girlfriend's family, visiting her songwriter brother.  One night that week we went by, late, to the Jack Clement Recording Studios where Casey had lately been doing session work.

Tennessee band Amazing Rhythm Aces was in town and in tight, and laying down vocal tracks that evening for the album "Burning the Ballroom Down."  A bottle of Jack Daniel's sour-mash whiskey helped Russell Smith get exactly the right pitch and growl.  I was thrilled to watch Russell's painstaking process of one take after another singing the lead to two songs: the greazy, Skynyrd-esque "A Jackass Gets His Oats," and the one that ended up to be the album-closer, "Spirit Walk."

I've made the Nashville scene again, been in the studio on other occasions, and seen bigger stars, but this seminal evening, for me, was the fascinating topper.  Hard work and good fun, - with a great result!

"Still and all, her legs were long..."

Russell Smith & James H. Brown, Jr.