Cal Smith

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Calvin Grant Shofner (April 7, 1932 – October 10, 2013), known professionally as Cal Smith, was an American country musician, most famous for his 1974 hits "Country Bumpkin" and "It's Time to Pay the Fiddler".

Personal life

In 1977, Smith joined entrepreneur Larry Schmittou and other country music stars, such as Conway Twitty, Jerry Reed, Larry Gatlin, and Richard Sterban, as investors in the Nashville Sounds, a minor league baseball team of the Double-A Southern League that began play in 1978.

Smith and his wife, Darlene, lived in the Branson, Missouri area.

Smith died in Branson on October 10, 2013. He is survived by Darlene, his son Calvin, five grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by a son, Jimmie Todd.

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Career

Calvin Grant Shofner was born in Gans, Oklahoma, on April 7, 1932, as the youngest of three sons of James "Otto" and Ethel Shofner. During the Great Depression, the Smiths migrated west and settled in Oakland, California, and he grew up in San Jose, California. Smith began his music career at the Remember Me Cafe in San Francisco at the age of 15, but first was not financially successful. He was unable to continue his music career in the 1950s, so he took on various other occupations, including truck driving and bronco busting. He appeared on the California Hayride television show in the 1950s before serving two years in the military.

He began playing in a band in the San Francisco Bay Area after his discharge. Ernest Tubb, a country music legend, appeared at the band's rehearsal and, after an audition, Smith was hired to play guitar for the Texas Troubadours. Smith can be seen on the majority of Tubb's 1960s recordings. On the local Plaid label, his first solo single was "Tear Stained Pillow" / "Eleven Long Years." Smith's stage name began to catch on after he released his second solo single, "I'll Just Go Home," in 1966 for Kapp Records, and his second single, "The Only Thing I Want," debuted on Billboard charts.

Smith left Tubb and the Texas Troubadours in 1969, and he recorded his first solo album, Drinking Champagne, in 1969. The album's title track had risen to the top 40 on the country chart this year, and was later a top-ten hit for George Strait in 1990.

Smith signed with Decca Records in 1970 and his fame soared, beginning with his 1972 Top 10 hit, "I've Discovered Someone of My Own." He began writing songs by some of the top names in the industry; for example, his interpretation of Bill Anderson's "The Lord Knows I'm Drinking" became his first number one country hit in March 1973. He had his greatest hits when Decca Records debuted in 1973. He released two of his best hits, "It's Time to Pay the Fiddler" and "Country Bumpkin," both of the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association, in 1974.

Later career

Smith continued to have success with MCA Records into the late 1970s, including the Top 20 singles "Before Count" (1977), and "Come See About Me" (1977). He continued to have minor successes after 1980, which included "The Rise And Fall Of The Roman Empire."

On Step One Records in 1986, Smith's album Stories of Life by Cal Smith, where he had a minor success that year with "King Lear."

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Awards

• 1974 — Academy of Country Music - Song of the Year
• 1974 — Country Music Association - Song of the Year
• 1974 — Country Music Association - Single of the Year
• 2007 - Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame - Inductee