Allen J.M. Smith profile picture

Allen J.M. Smith

About Me


Gather Clip 1 - Allen J.M. Smith with Jay Cox


The new album, 'Jeannie With the Light Brown Hair' and Other Songs, is available from CD Baby and iTunes. Click on the button below for CD Baby, or here for iTunes.


The first album, Gotta Quit Kickin' My Dog Around, is also available at CD Baby or here for iTunes.


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Allen Smith had the good fortune to be born into a musical family in Erie, Pa., in the 1940s, a time when home-made music was a popular pastime. His earliest musical influence was his mother, who played ragtime piano. She was one of many family musicians.
He studied french horn in school and did some symphony playing as an adult.
He became interested in folk music in the 1960s and began playing the guitar and banjo then.
He takes great satisfaction in singing the great choral music of the Anglican-Episcopal tradition in a small church in north Louisiana.
He particularly loves the beautiful songs of the 19th century by composers Stephen Foster, Percy French and their contemporaries, which he heard his family playing from early childhood.
He believes that these popular songs and folk songs from the previous four centuries are timeless and deserve an authentic presentation today. Many listeners have made it plain that they agree.
He sincerely hopes his efforts will bring a smile, and he thanks you for taking a moment to listen.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 22/04/2007
Band Website: cdbaby.com/cd/allenjmsmith
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Sounds Like: The offspring of an unnatural union of Mel Torme and Pete Seeger, with Richard Dyer-Bennett and Burl Ives as grandfathers, and the great early 20th-century Irish tenor, John McCormack, for a Godfather.
Record Label: unsigned
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

Reflections on My Approaching Birthday

If I had known I'd live this long,I would have, to be sure,Have eaten better, exercised,And seen the doctor more.I had no clue that I would liveTo see year number sixty-four.Who could have known that ...
Posted by on Sun, 23 Nov 2008 01:18:00 GMT

The perils of Quark XPress spell check

The spell check in Quark XPress offered to do three favors for me today: It offered to change, "Deputies checked the woman's ID" to, "Deputies checked the woman's IUD." It offered to change "...new de...
Posted by on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:00:00 GMT

I voted today

I cast a vote in the United States presidential election today.   I really do wonder what will happen as a result of this election. We can only make our best guess, vote, and see. Since our ...
Posted by on Fri, 24 Oct 2008 03:12:00 GMT

This may be the first local review ever, that is not a mindless puff piece

From the Bossier Press-Tribune, a review of the new album: Review of Jeannie, With The Light Brown Hair And Other Songs by Allen JM Smith Reviewed by Nancy and Tom Tracy   Allen JM Smith has prod...
Posted by on Tue, 21 Oct 2008 01:17:00 GMT

New album on iTunes

My new CD is on iTunes now. Copy and paste into your browser: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum? id=292266465&s=143441..:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-c...
Posted by on Tue, 30 Sep 2008 14:57:00 GMT

New album is out

The second album, 'Jeannie, With the Light Brown Hair' and Other Songs, is at CD Baby for sale. Since no one really wants to pay for music anymore, I'm trying a few promotional schemes. I send a messa...
Posted by on Sat, 27 Sep 2008 23:43:00 GMT

What is LOOM?

What is Live Online Open Mic? It's a gathering of musicians from around the world, live, in real time. We have an acoustic open-mic-style get together which takes place every Sunday at 8 pm British S...
Posted by on Fri, 29 Aug 2008 23:28:00 GMT

Take a look at this


Posted by on Thu, 07 Aug 2008 20:15:00 GMT

Stephen Foster’s anti-slavery songs

Nineteenth-century American composer Stephen Foster is incorrectly and unjustly thought by some modern listeners to be a man of the Old South  and a racist. On the contrary, he was a Yankee aboli...
Posted by on Thu, 08 May 2008 17:32:00 GMT

Note to self

Note to self: stop talking to self.
Posted by on Tue, 06 Nov 2007 05:12:00 GMT