Russell Smith

After enjoying success as the lead singer and guitarist for the Amazing Rhythm Aces, Russell Smith built an even stronger career writing songs in Nashville. Country and pop acts have repeatedly drawn on his refined voice for background or featured parts, while he continued sharpening his live skills through side projects including the tongue-in-cheek country-rock group Run C&W.

The Amazing Rhythm Aces took shape in 1974 when Memphis musicians bassist Jeff Davis and drummer Butch McDade—both earlier sidemen for singer/songwriter Jesse Winchester—joined forces. The band never confined itself to country, instead weaving in pop and blue-eyed soul textures that surfaced clearly in the 1975 Smith-penned hit “Third Rate Romance,” a track that stayed on the required set lists of country-rock cover bands well into the late 1980s.

Smith kept writing after audiences in the 1980s began to view the group as less than amazing. His co-writers included Dave Gibson, Carol Chase, John Jarrard, Gary Nicholson, and Thom McHugh. Solo releases under his own name started in the late 1970s with the self-titled Russell Smith, and the 2001 overview Sunday Best: The Cream of the Solo Albums gathered highlights from those projects.