Arthur Q. Smith The Trouble With The Truth (2-CD)

2-CD DigiPac with 124-page booklet. 48 tracks. Total playing time 2 hrs 7 mns.

·A great untold story in country music!

·Arthur Q. Smith sold hundreds of songs, many of them later became hits for Ernest Tubb, Hank Williams, Ricky Skaggs, Mickey Gilley, Carl Smith, Bill Monroe, Porter Wagoner, Dolly Parton, and many others!

·Rumors circulated for years about the songs that Arthur Q. Smith actually wrote. Now the story is revealed in a 124-page book by Knoxville researchers Bradley Reeves and Wayne Bledsoe.

·Includes every known recording, including song demo’s, by Arthur Q. Smith, plus MANY rare photos!

From the introduction by Marty Stuart:

The trouble with the truth, it always comes around. I grew up hearing some of the old timers tell their stories about songwriting and who wrote what. It was cold-blooded business. When the subject of writing then selling songs comes around, Arthur Q. Smith is legendary: I Overlooked an Orchid (While Searching for a Rose), Wedding Bells, Rainbow At Midnight, If Teardrops Were Pennies, I Wouldn’t Change You If I Could and Somehow Tonight are but a handful of the songs he penned and sold.

Everyone that knew Arthur willingly sold his songs. The saddest of all the facts is that some of his songs were bought for the price of whiskey money. To bring the case of Arthur Q. Smith front and center, to have the absolute truth be told as to which songs he actually wrote that bear others names, songs that are regarded as some of country music’s cornerstones, songs that are attached and credited to the legacies of several people who have been inducted into the Country Music and Songwriters Hall of Fame would most likely be seismic. Such a re-tooling of history would be a public relations, legal and accounting nightmare, not to mention the embarrassment that would undoubtedly be heaped upon families who inherited legacies left behind by loved ones from another time. Let me say this:

I hereby nominate Arthur Q. Smith to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. It’s long overdue.