Biography
Orriel Smith's vocal career ranks among the most distinctive to surface near the close of the 1950s. An operatic singer both by formal training and personal inclination, she absorbed music from her first recollections and replicated the coloratura arias she encountered, mastering The Bell Song from Lakmé as one of her earliest accomplishments while still a child. Her lessons, together with travels by her mother—an established singer—took her to Italy, where she attended the Milan Conservatory for piano and violin and studied at the La Scala Ballet Company School. Her mother's employment at Paramount Pictures later brought the family to Hollywood, where Smith launched a television acting career.
Hearing Jean Ritchie at Arrowbear Music Camp ignited her fascination with Appalachian folk songs, prompting her to take up the guitar for self-accompaniment in this new material. She looked to Joan Baez, then an emerging folk star, as a model; by her own account, Smith acquired guitar skills by slowing Baez recordings to 16 rpm and painstakingly reproducing each note on a guitar tuned down for the task.
She later relocated to New York for vocal training and began frequenting the folk clubs that flourished in the early 1960s, soon performing in those venues. Her remarkable range caught the ear of a manager who, after an office meeting, arranged a booking on The Tonight Show. The appearance led to a contract with Columbia Records and the 1963 release of A Voice in the Wind, produced by Bobby Scott.
By 1964 she had appeared on Hootenanny and other television folk programs while securing major club bookings across the country, mostly as an opening act. She subsequently joined the Jimmy Joyce Singers, a regular feature on CBS network variety shows. Since that time Smith has performed solo, contributed to film and television work, and written the song "Lifetime Woman," which David Frizzell recorded. She has also belonged to the Ray Conniff Singers and collaborated with Dolly Parton. At the start of the 21st century she remains active in the studio, most notably with Cluckoratura, her highly stylized operatic showcase for children.
Hearing Jean Ritchie at Arrowbear Music Camp ignited her fascination with Appalachian folk songs, prompting her to take up the guitar for self-accompaniment in this new material. She looked to Joan Baez, then an emerging folk star, as a model; by her own account, Smith acquired guitar skills by slowing Baez recordings to 16 rpm and painstakingly reproducing each note on a guitar tuned down for the task.
She later relocated to New York for vocal training and began frequenting the folk clubs that flourished in the early 1960s, soon performing in those venues. Her remarkable range caught the ear of a manager who, after an office meeting, arranged a booking on The Tonight Show. The appearance led to a contract with Columbia Records and the 1963 release of A Voice in the Wind, produced by Bobby Scott.
By 1964 she had appeared on Hootenanny and other television folk programs while securing major club bookings across the country, mostly as an opening act. She subsequently joined the Jimmy Joyce Singers, a regular feature on CBS network variety shows. Since that time Smith has performed solo, contributed to film and television work, and written the song "Lifetime Woman," which David Frizzell recorded. She has also belonged to the Ray Conniff Singers and collaborated with Dolly Parton. At the start of the 21st century she remains active in the studio, most notably with Cluckoratura, her highly stylized operatic showcase for children.
Albums
