Discography - Bet Smith & Persephone Forge

Downer is a cumulation of anxieties, imaginings and big feelings. I find myself making major life decisions based on the bleak future I see for humans and the more innocent animals living on this planet. And I’m procrastinating those decisions until I know for sure… will governments act? Will societal values change? Will the demonstrations and social action make any difference at all? Is this futile? Are we doomed? I don’t see meaningful change happening fast enough, and I am frozen in time. And I’m kind of pissed off.

Most of this album was recorded in 2020, during Covid times. A short-term layoff from my day job and the sudden falling-off of social and volunteer obligations left space for songwriting and for getting back to the unfinished, Downer. The album is produced by myself and my partner, Rob Currie, who also engineered and mixed the record. A multi-instrumentalist, Rob adds electric guitar and bass to a few songs. His brother, Andrew Currie plays drums on two tracks and bass on another. As usual, I provide vocals and acoustic guitar but the project also gave me the opportunity to add keys and instruments I am less familiar with: bass for I Would Rather Run and some sparse kit percussion on All of the Above.

Rob and I love to get a little bit experimental in the studio. Rob loves to create interesting effects with vintage equipment. The title track, Downer, makes use of a Kay guitar built in the 1940s that barely stayed in tune and that I found nearly impossible to play. We thought it added interest to a folk song that takes place in the early years of a dystopian future. (2023?)

Whenever possible, and in many different ways, I try to make a point of talking about climate change. We still don’t talk about it enough to make up for all the years spent with our heads in the sand. I attend demonstrations, volunteer with climate action organizations, write and talk publicly about soil carbon sequestration, and sing about it too, when there’s time left for that. Not many people are record-shopping for music about climate change, I guess. But this is what I offer, to those who fret and wish for empathy. Or maybe these are just love songs.

Downer ©Bet Smith/Pine Lake Records (Ashlea-Elizabeth Smith, SOCAN/ASCAP)

Credits

Released February 2, 2021

All songs were written by Bet Smith (Ashlea-Elizabeth Smith, SOCAN)
Recorded at Rob Currie Recording in Gravenhurst, Ontario.

Produced by Bet Smith and Rob Currie

Engineered and mixed by Rob Currie

Mastered by João Carvalho

Bet Smith: Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Keys, Organ, Bass (I Would Rather Run), Percussion

Rob Currie: Electic guitar (Forgive You, Some Greater Power, I Would Rather Run, North Ontario, Bass (Forgive You, North Ontario)

Andrew Currie: Drums (Forgive You, I Would Rather Run), Bass (North Ontario)

I would like to acknowledge that this album was created on the traditional territory of the Anishnaabeg, specifically the Ojibway and Chippewa people. As a settler, I am grateful for the opportunity to live and work in this beautiful place and I appreciate the long history of stewardship and connection to this land that is held by indigenous people. The settler community still has a lot of work to do in moving toward reconciliation, myself included.

Tightropes & Loose Ends pulls together tracks from three years of collaboration between singer-songwriter, Bet Smith and multi-instrumentalists, Rob and Andrew Currie. The album title highlights their newest single, Tightropes, along with the band’s first release, Loose Ends – the two tracks acting as bookends to a period of time over which strangers met, made music, developed a familial bond, let art consume their lives, pushed, pulled, and eventually returned to reality.
Throughout this period, Bet Smith and the Currie Brothers were joined by several friends and family members – most importantly, Sarah Girdwood, who joined the band in 2016 and became an honorary and essential Currie Brother. A handful of celebrated Canadian musicians made their way onto the album’s tracks, as did friends from the nearby pub and patrons of Currie’s Music, the brothers’ vintage music store.
The album (which exists as a double-EP on vinyl) is largely dark and brooding in both sound and subject matter. Pulsing rhythms and ambient instrumentals build off of a folk foundation, creating an affecting overall sound that is difficult to label. Alt-country and indie-pop influences are clearly apparent on a number of tracks, while others lean heavily into less-structured, experimental genres.
Re-appearing themes include nature and commentary regarding the environmental crises, personal accounts of shadowy events, the less-than-fluffy side of love, and an overall questioning of human desire.
Produced by Rob Currie, Tightropes & Loose Ends was predominantly recorded and mixed in a dimly lit, cozy studio tucked away in the Currie brothers’ vintage music store in Gravenhurst, Ontario.

credits

Released December 31, 2017

BET SMITH – VOCALS, ACOUSTIC GUITAR (All songs), BANJO (Lone Wolf), ORGAN (What Matters Most, Hurricane), KEYBOARD (Fires, Talking to Strangers), XYLOPHONE (What Matters Most, Loose Ends), CLAPPING, PERCUSSION & SOUND EFFECTS (Various)

ANDREW CURRIE – DRUMS (Most songs), BASS (Tightropes,Fires, Call It As I See It, Dynamite), OCTAVE DOUBLE BASS (Tightropes, Hurricane, Loose Ends), THEREMIN (Fires), TAURUS PEDALS (Fires), DOBRO (Lone Wolf), ORGAN (Talisman, Dynamite, Call It As I See It), GLOCKENSPIEL (Dynamite), WOODEN STOOL LEGS (Signs of Hostility), CLAPPING & PERCUSSION (Various)

ROB CURRIE – ELECTRIC GUITAR (Most songs), BASS (What Matters Most, Hurricane, Talking to Strangers, Loose Ends, Talisman, Signs of Hostility), CLAPPING & PERCUSSION (Various)

SARAH GIRDWOOD – HARMONY VOCALS (Tightropes, Fires, Hurricane, Call It As I See It, Talking to Strangers), CLAPPING & PERCUSSION (Tightropes)

MIRANDA MULHOLLAND – VIOLIN (What Matters Most)

ALEXANDER ‘SASCHA’ TUKATSCH – DRUMS, TAMBOURINE & RUSTY CHAIN (Call It As I See It)

JOHNNY FAY – AFRICAN BELL & TENOR TOM (Loose Ends)

IAN HANSEN – LAYERED VOCALS (Tightropes)

JAMES SEVAZLIAN – CLAPPING & PERCUSSION (Tightropes, Talisman)

LUKE THOMPSON, BRONWYN SMITH – CLAPPING (Talisman)

ALL SONGS WRITTEN BY BET SMITH (Ashlea-Elizabeth Smith, SOCAN/ASCAP) EXCEPT “TALKING TO STRANGERS” WRITTEN BY BET SMITH AND ROB CURRIE

PRODUCED ,ENGINEERED AND MIXED BY ROB CURRIE IN GRAVENHURST, ONTARIO, CANADA

RECORDED AT CURRIE’S MUSIC IN GRAVENHURST, EXCEPT “TIGHTROPES” WHICH WAS RECORDED AT A FRIEND’S COTTAGE ON LAKE JOSEPH

MASTERED BY JOÃO CARVALHO AT JOÃO CARVALHO MASTERING IN TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA

THANKS TO ALL THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE LISTED ABOVE. ALSO THANKS TO OUR FAMILIES AND FRIENDS, WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO LORI HIRST, JAMES BUNTON AND JAMES SEVAZLIAN FOR TIME, EARS AND SPACE.

This project is funded by The Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent On Recordings (FACTOR) with the support of the Government of Canada and Canada’s private radio broadcasters.

Bet Smith, with help from her amazing bandmates, Rob and Andrew Currie, and many talented friends, presents her first full-length alt-country release, “Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.”

The ten-song LP is an album inspired by the hard-working and under-appreciated folks who make the world go ‘round. Primarily written in farmers’ fields, construction sites and the back roads of rural Canada, this album reflects on Bet’s blue-collar years, labouring on small farms in British Columbia and welding on muddy hillsides in the Ontario bush.
Conversations had, overheard and imagined over long days in field and brush sparked new songs that were realized in full at Bet’s first opportunity to pick up a guitar at the end of a workday.

Whereas Bet’s 2015 folk EP, Loose Ends, was dark and cautionary, Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is relies on traditional country themes mixed with tongue-in-cheek humor to achieve a new level of accessibility with songs written about love, broken hearts, working hard, being poor just the same, and lessons learned on a bar stool: ten songs she hopes will speak to the backbone of rural North America, and lovers of Alt-Country and Americana.

The LP’s first single, Bakesale Angel, BBQ Queen is a comical song about good-old-fashioned kitchen rivalry: competition that erupts between a jealous girlfriend and her beau’s ex. The tune was imagined up while Bet shovelled manure on a good friend’s farm – the friend being an enviably excellent cook.
The recording features Miranda Mulholland of The Great Lake Swimmers on fiddle and Aaron Goldstein of Daniel Romano and the Trilliums on pedal steel. Bet’s hometown allies, The Currie Brothers hold it all together with Andrew Currie on drums and brother Rob on bass and percussive electric guitar. As a final touch, Bet talked the boys into a pots-and-pans percussion track to compliment the theme of the song. The second tune – Get In Line – from which comes the album’s title, “put your money where your mouth is,” was thought up while Bet did menial chores on a cattle farm and allowed her mind to wander to a bar interaction between a farm girl and a fake cowboy.

Credits

Released July 12, 2016

Produced by Rob Currie in Gravenhurst, Ontario
All songs written by Bet Smith

Musicians:
BET SMITH: Vocals, Acoustic Guitar,
Hammond Organ, Pot
ANDREW CURRIE: Drums, Percussion,
Banjo, Mandolin, Pots and Pans
ROB CURRIE: Bass, Electric Guitar, Backup Vocals
MIRANDA MULHOLLAND: Fiddle
AARON GOLDSTEIN: Pedal Steel
STEPHEN McCLELLAN: Cello
CODY THOMPSON: Duet Vocals
BLAIR SMITH: Backup vocals
LIA LIDSTONE: Clapping, and Stomping
LUKE THOMPSON: Clapping and Stomping

Mastered by STEPHEN STEPANIC at
Joao Carvalho Mastering in Toronto, Ontario

Songs on this album were written in both Ontario and British Columbia, usually outdoors and often while working the land in gardens and on farms and homesteads of family and friends.

Thank you so much to all of the brilliant people involved in the making of this album, and the wonderful folks who have shown me so much support in the past year. I am so grateful to you.
Thank you to the Currie Brothers. Where would I be without you?