Russell Smith

Russell Smith. . Songwriter and singer Russell Smith led the Amazing Rhythm Aces country rock group, who scored a Top 20 pop hit in 1975 with Smith's song "Third Rate Romance." Later, he became a successful country songwriter., Howard Russell Smith was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on June 17, 1949. His father was an amateur bluegrass musician and an insurance salesman. When Smith was young, the family moved to Lafayette. He worked locally as a disc jockey and "live" performer on 1,000-watt WEEN. After graduation from Macon County High School, Smith moved to Knoxville. There, he formed Fatback, a band that played coffee houses and clubs., In 1972, two members of Fatback left to join former Memphian Jesse Winchester in Montreal, Quebec. After Smith joined them, Winchester became the first to record Smith's drolly suggestive signature song "Third Rate Romance," together with another of Smith's songs, "The End is Not in Sight." The band returned to Knoxville in 1974. A friend of theirs, Memphis producer Barry "Byrd" Burton, who worked at Sam Philips Recording Service, invited Smith and the band to join him there, so they moved to Memphis. Winchester's band had been called the Rhythm Aces, and, under Smith's leadership, they became the Amazing Rhythm Aces., With an eclectic style that crossed rhythm and blues, soul, rock and country, they recorded their first album, Stacked Deck, in 1975. Sam Philips' son, Knox, placed it with ABC Records. Their charted hits included "Third Rate Romance" (No. 14 on the pop charts, No. 11 country) and "Amazing Grace (Used to Be Her Favorite Song)" (No. 72 pop and No. 9 country). The group's third hit was the other song that Winchester had recorded, "The End is Not in Sight" (No. 42 pop and No. 12 country). It won a Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal., Frustrated by their lack of ongoing success, the Amazing Rhythm Aces began recording in Nashville and then Muscle Shoals, Alabama. "We have a stack of reviews an inch thick," Smith remarked to the San Francisco Examiner in 1977, "and each one has a different description of us." The group toured with the Eagles and Jimmy Buffett, and appeared on "Austin City Limits" and "Saturday Night Live," but disbanded in 1981., Smith moved to Nashville. He scored five minor country hits as a solo performer, but found his real success as a songwriter. "Dancing the Night Away" was a hit for Tanya Tucker in 1977, and he followed it with "Big Ole Brew" (No. 1 for Mel McDaniel, 1982), "Heartbeat in the Darkness" (No. 1 for Don Williams, 1986), "Don't Go to Strangers" (No. 1 for T. Graham Brown, 1987), and "Keep It Between the Lines" (No. 1 for Ricky Van Shelton, 1991). Many others recorded his songs, "Third Rate Romance" was recorded by artists as diverse as Earl Scruggs, the Fabulous Poodles, Rosanne Cash, and Sammy Kershaw (a No. 2 country hit)., The Amazing Rhythm Aces regrouped from time to time under Smith's leadership, and, with former Eagle Bernie Leadon, Smith led Run C&W, a novelty band that recorded bluegrass versions of R&B songs. , Smith was living in Franklin, Tennessee, when he died on July 12, 2019.