Cal Smith – Sunday Morning Christian

Cal Smith was born on April 7, 1932, in Gains, Oklahoma and raised in Oakland, California. A guitar player since childhood, he spent time with rodeo performers as a teen and began to think about a music career. He started playing music professionally when he was 15, at a bar called The Remember Me Cafe. He did a two-year stint in the military and returned to the San Francisco Bay area after his discharge (mid-’50s), where he played in a band while trying to gain a footing into the country music arena. Smith appeared on the California Hayride television program soon after its inception in the mid-1950s. In 1961, Cal got his initial breakthrough as a rhythm guitarist with Ernest Tubb’s Texas Troubadours. Ernest Tubb (ET) heard him perform and invited Cal into his band. ET was well known for having one of the best bands in the country music arena. By the early-1960s, the band included lightning-fingered Leon Rhodes (lead guitar, 1960-1967), Buddy Emmons (steel, 1960 — 1961), Buddy Charleton (steel guitar, 1962 – 1967), Jack Drake (bass guitar), Cal Smith (rhythm guitar, 1961-1967) and Jack Greene (drums, 1962-1965), arguably one of the finest backup bands in the history of country music. The Troubadours cut three LPs of their own (1964 — 1966), which exposed Smith to wider audiences, as he provided vocals on the albums. ET helped smith get his own record deal with Kapp Records in 1966. While still a Troubadour, Smith starting recording for Kapp, having minor chart success …
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