Darden Smith ‘Trouble No More”

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#196 in the Series) is Darden Smith, Trouble No More.

Yesterday we gave you one of the most popular singer songwriter/rockers that ever walked the planet. So today, I’m going to give you another great singer-songwriter. This time one that, I’m betting, not as many of you have heard.

That man is named Darden Smith. He’s an Austin, Texas native.  He’s been recording since the mid-80s. The most of his commercial success was a little after that period when he released a number of albums for Sony Music.

This was another artist that I became aware of after receiving a promo of his latest effort. In this case it was this album, Trouble No More.

This ended up being one of those discs that I played forever.  We’ve all have favorites that you love, but you really only play every so often. But not this, no no, not Trouble No More…. I played it more than a seven year old can play a Disney movie.  I played it a ton. I never tired of it.  I can honestly say that that’s only happened maybe ten times in my life.

Trouble No More had nice variety.  There was a little swing here, a little ballad there, some up tempo stuff thrown in too.  That melting pot was what kept me coming back.

I went back and grabbed the first album just called Darden Smith. I loved that one as well. I was really surprised when I saw that two of my favorites gave a helping hand to the recordings, Nanci Griffith and Lyle Lovett.  Not to mention other greats like Joe Ely and Sonny Landreth’s names could be found on the liner notes. (I miss liner notes!!)

I then found a duet album that Darden Smith did.  It was collaboration with an English Musician named Boo Hewerdine. Boo was a member of a band called The Bible.  This release, titled Evidence, was also another ‘play it to death’ disc for me.   Very accessible.  The difference with this one was it was a late fall, early winter listen for me.  I don’t know why, but some pieces of music to me always seemed to be at their best when played during the write time of the year.  I could never listen to Frank Zappa Apostrophe if it was hot out!  No, that was a winter album!!  ‘Trudging across the Tundra… Mile after Mile.  It had to be winter!

I think the reason I played Evidence during late fall was the song, ‘The First Chill of Winter.’ That set the tone for me.

Darden’s next album, called Little Victories was probably the one that was the most successful.  I even heard the track, Loving Arms in Walgreen’s not too long ago!!

Darden is still touring and recording some great music.  Look for him.  His latest is called Marathon. It’s available at his website.  The link will be listed below.

I’ve added videos for a couple tracks off of Trouble No More.  That’s all I could really locate. I’m also going to attach a bunch more from various projects so you can see and hear what a wonderful musician this man is.

OFFICIAL DARDEN SMITH WEBSITE: http://www.dardensmith.com/

Darden is also heavily involved with his ‘Be An Artist’ Program which  is helping provide today’s youth with inspiration to be their best. In this case, through music.(See video near bottom of the page.)

BE AN ARTIST OFFICIAL WEB SITE: http://www.be-an-artist.com/

Here’s More on the ‘Be An Artist Program:’