Musical theater influences songbird's Stay Away Love

Correction: Jennifer Seminera took the photos of singer Heather Smith in a Maumelle junkyard that were used on Smith's album Stay Away Love. Relying on credits on the album, this story incorrectly identified who took the photos.

Singer-songwriter Heather Smith may or may not be ambivalent about love. She is marking the release this weekend of her debut album of original songs, Stay Away Love -- no punctuation, as in no comma between the words "Away" and "Love" -- so listeners are free to draw their own conclusions on exactly what the meaning may be.

Smith confirms that, like Taylor Swift, she has been known to write about her, uh, personal life, as it were.

"I use songs like my journal," she says. "That's how I deal with all of my heartaches."

A glance at the song titles on the album gives a clue to some of those heartache scenarios. The songs include "I Fell in Love With a Hipster," "You're Not Superman," "Green Eyed Monster," "The Devil You Know," "It Goes Without Saying" and, of course, the title cut.

While she will be showcasing her first album, she hastens to add this will not be her first show.

"I did a bunch of shows last summer at the Crush Wine Bar," she says, "And I've done some stuff with John Burnett and Charlotte Taylor, and headlined at the Arkansas Rep's Saints and Sinners show. I do mostly my own originals, but also mix in some of my influences. I love jazz singers -- some Ella Fitzgerald, Joni Mitchell and even Amy Winehouse. I do standards, like 'Summertime' and 'Crazy,' and we re-interpret them.

"I try to evoke an era. I love show tunes, and all my songs are crafted with that in mind. I sort of dress in that era, even for the photos that are on my album."

For the photos, shot by Samuel C. Pettitt III and Louise Terzia, Smith dressed up and went to a Maumelle junkyard to pose among cars that had seen better days. The owner was bemused at her desire to be photographed there, since he was more used to chasing away young vandals, Smith says.

Her album features songs with lyrics she wrote, while the music was co-written with Wythe Walker, the guitarist in both The Smittle Band and Two Lane Blacktop. John Davies, who has played bass in The Cate Brothers Band and is now the bassist in Earl & Them, produced the album and played bass.

It was recorded partly in Little Rock, at Jason Tedford's Wolfman Studios, and partly in Northwest Arkansas at Darren Novotny's Nob Hill Studios. Rachel Fields played flute, and others supplied piano, organ, melodica, vibes and trombone. Novotny played drums and congas and Walker played guitar and piano.

For her show Saturday night, Smith will be backed by the members of Two Lane Blacktop (Walker and John Gaiser on guitars, Ray Wittenberg on drums and Bill McCumber on bass). Davies will travel down from Fayetteville to play some bass and Matt Holland will play piano.

Smith, a central Arkansas native, comes from a musical family and attended Pepperdine University on a writing scholarship, but graduated with a degree in acting. For a time, she took part in the Southern California arts scene (where she even worked for a time as a nanny for the children of singer Kenny Loggins), until the recession and the writers' strike led her to return home. Back here she discovered a burgeoning theatrical community that has convinced her that central Arkansas has as many, if not more, opportunities for the sort of challenges she has embraced.

"I became a co-founder of the Precipice Theatre, where I got to play Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," Smith says. "And I just did the female lead in Nine at The Studio Theatre. ... So I got kind of involved in the community here and found out that this is not a bad place to make music. It's not as easy to focus in California, and I'm just excited to keep working, writing and recording."

Weekend on 05/07/2015