Blind Bobby Smith's first solo record "Smile"

Back cover of Blind Bobby Smith's album "Smile"

Blind Bobby Smith and Matthew A. Donahue

Blind Bobby Smith

2003 saw the release of Blind Bobby Smith's first solo record titled "Smile" on my latest underground record label Twelve Ten Records. Bobby is a well-known blues guitar player and performer from the Northwest Ohio area. Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1939, Bobby moved to Northwest Ohio with his family in the mid 1940s where he lived in the city of Toledo, eventually moving to the Swanton, Ohio area, which was also the home of the Hines Farm Blues Club. As a teenager Bobby would sneak over to Hines Farm and be influenced by the music and the guitar players playing there in the 1950s. The shows at Hines Farm had a profound effect on Bobby, as he would later compose and perform his own brand of blues from the late 1950s until today. He has worked with some memorable record labels and performers over the years, including: Memphis, Tennessee's, infamous Stax Records and Detroit's Fortune Records as a session player, and performing with B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, Johnnie Mae Matthews, Betty Everett and others. Through the years he has been composing and performing his own music, with such originals as "Smile," "Rain" and "Honest Man." Although Bobby has a smoking band, for this album we wanted to capture the solo elements of Bobby's work, recording with just him and the guitar. Bobby has been performing this method at numerous universities and lecturing and playing his own brand of the blues, which has drawn the attention and interest of a new generation of blues fans.

(If you would like to get a copy of Blind Bobby Smith's album "Smile" contact Matthew A. Donahue.)

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