Former Central Butte resident chronicles influential Canadian music career
The book, Hitch Your Wagon to a Star, goes beyond telling the story of a small town Saskatchewan boy who did well in the big city.
R. Harlan Smith’s autobiography tells the adventurous, risky and sometimes rocky trails his country music career took on the road to success from the Green Prairie district near Central Butte.
From doing chores on the farm, learning about livestock in 4-H from the late Edgar Philpott to playing baseball under coach Petersen, Smith, better known around Central Butte as Bob Smith, tells how his career developed against the odds.
“Can’t make a living as a musician” was the popular wisdom among his Central Butte neighbours, but his father advised him to hitch your wagon to a star and never let go – thus the title.
A prolific song writer, musician, talent agent and music publisher/recorder Smith never had any inclination to write a book about his career until two years ago after publishing a two-hour CD revealing stories and songs of small town Saskatchewan life. Uncomfortable with computers and keyboards he wrote the book by hand after consulting his vast personal archives. His wife Chris Nielsen, an accomplished country entertainer, typed the manuscript. Smith paid his dues as a country musician playing in bars such as Moose Jaw’s old Royal Hotel then finding longer-term gigs in his new home, Edmonton. In the foreword to his book, Joyce Walter of the Moose Jaw Express writes Smith chose to stay in Canada where he “became part of the leadership of a fledgling but determined Canadian country music industry.”
His songs regularly rated in the top 10 of the top 50 charts with hits like Dingaling Debbie and Momma Brown.
The farm boy work ethic never left him; the country musician played six days and one afternoon a week and held down a day sales job until he collapsed. The chapter of his life least known was his love for adventure and his influence on the music business. At a time when Western Canadian country musicians practically had to beg Toronto-based record labels for a contract, Smith gave them a voice, setting up Royalty Records in Edmonton, then considered in the middle of nowhere by established record labels. The Royalty label recorded artists from Larry Gustafson, Laura Vinson, Prince Albert’s Brian Sklar, Estevan’s Glory Anne-Carriere to the Emeralds and their Bird Dance.
A founding member and director of the Academy of Canadian Country Music, now the Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA), Smith worked to establish the national country music industry and fought, still fights, for favourable copyright legislation. Along the path to success from Central Butte, his contribution to the industry has been recognized many times from twice being top Canadian country music producer to a builder in the CCMA Hall of Fame. Like his grandfather, who built a stone house on the homestead south of of Central Butte when Saskatchewan was still part of the NorthWest Territories, Smith is a pioneer in the Western Canadian country music business; an industry grossing $500 million a year in Alberta alone.
The book, $24.95, is available by calling 780-2444364 or from chrisnielsensmith@shaw.ca