Snuffy Smith

Snuffy Smith

The Bass Picking Chaperone from Miami

The name of Snuffy Smith is possibly known to many people in the United States - probably best known because of the movie and comic character Private Snuffy Smith. There were also a couple of musicians known as Snuffy Smith, including a bluegrass musician for North Carolina and an artist that recorded for the Star Talent and Tempwood V labels (could be two artists as well). And there was Snuffy Smith from Miami, who began his career in music in Miami's country and rockabilly scene but, as most of his fellow Miami musicians, eventually headed to Nashville.

Snuffy Smith, 1958

Raymond Carlisle "Snuffy" Smith was born in 1936 in Miami, Florida. At some point, he took up the guitar but eventually chose the bass to be his instrument. While in high school, he became acquainted with three years younger singer and guitarist Kent Westberry, who formed a band known as "The Chaperones" with Smith on bass on guitar, Wayne Gray on lead guitar, and Louie Stewart on drums.

The quartet made a couple of recordings at Harold Doane's ART recording studio, releasing their debut "My Baby Don't Rock" b/w "No Place to Park" on ART #172 on the summer of 1958. The songs were also released on the Trail label, owned by singer and promoter Ronald Killette alias Buck Trail, with whom the Chaperones also recorded a few titles that saw release on Trail as well.

Smith eventually dropped out of the band but remained friends with Westberry. Smith then played with several other Miami outfits, including the house band of Happy Harold Thaxton's Old South Jamboree stage show. Westberry, Smith, and other Miami musicians such as Charlie McCoy, Wayne Gray, and Bill Johnson made trips to Nashville and many of them eventually settled there. Such was the case with Smith, who recorded a single with Westberry as "Kent & Snuffy" for the MGM label, "Bye Bye Buddy" b/w "Billy Blue Eyes" (#K12883. early 1960), which went nowehere, however.

Smith played the clubs around Nashville and soon made himself a name in the Nashville country music scene. Following an engagement with Brenda Lee's backing band, the Casuals, he joined Marty Robbins' group as a bass player in the early 1960s. He later toured with Little Jimmy Dickens' Country Boys across the United States and finished his musical career with a stint in Tex Ritter's Boll Weevils (which also included at one time or another Kent Westberry and Wayne Gray).

While working with Ritter, Smith decided to quit the music business and stay at home to care for his family. He earned a living working with several car dealerships and spent his later life in Hermitage, Tennessee, a district of  Nashville. Smith passed away on June 18, 2012.

Sources

• Obituary

• Kent Westberry Rockin' Country Style entry