Walter "Kid" Smith

A performer might be tempted to change a name as ordinary as Smith, and maybe that's the reason why a good deal more than half the recordings made by this old-timey musician came out under pseudonyms. For whatever reason that Walter "Kid" Smith decided to submerge his identity, the result was a kind of musical obscurity, despite his many accomplishments as a player. Smith grew up in Virginia, where he began working in the mills before becoming a professional boxer. He picked up the nickname Kid in the ring, which may have had something to do with either his size or attitude, but it wound up being used on the credits to some of his records later on. His activities from 1910-1920 are not well known, but he picked up music from being around his family like many players from this genre, and wound up getting into the Spray, NC, musical clique that resulted in the famous Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, among many bands and collaborations. In a 1925 photograph he is seen smack dab in the middle of this crowd, holding his guitar in between fiddler Will Heffinger and guitarist Norman Woodlief. But it was as a singer, not a guitarist, that he was first introduced to the public via recordings. This was a 1929 Gennet session arranged by fiddler Posey Rorer. Some of the tracks recorded were quite successful at the time on the Champion label, and others were redone years later by the New Lost City Ramblers, including the hilarious "Cat's Got the Measles, Dog's Got the Whoopin' Cough." Some of these were songs Smith had learned from his father. About a year later, Smith recorded in New York City with a group called the Carolina Buddies, this time for Columbia. There was another session the very next day for another label, ARC, who also recorded Smith as a member of...