“Every now and then, I remember when you used to smile at me;

Every now and then, I remember how love used to be.

Every now and then I’d like to try again, if you would try with me

To see if love could be once and for all, instead of every now and then.”

“Every Now and Then,” by Perrin Smith

BY JAN SWOOPE

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“Some of these go back years and years,” murmured Perrin Smith, shuffling through a stack of well-worn legal pads and spiral notebooks on a coffee table in his den. He kneeled on the floor, thumbing through pages, pausing from time to time when a remembered lyric caught his eye.

The notebooks are filled with songs he’s written, some finished, some not. There have been hundreds in all. But then, the retired Columbus physician will tell you he always has a song percolating.

“Every pocket in my closet has notecards or little notebooks in them because, when something comes to you, you need to write it down then, or it will be flat gone in 10 minutes,” he said, moving to an easy chair and hooking one knee comfortably over the padded arm.

The expansive room — all warm wood, brick and vistas of the surrounding woods — suits this down-to-earth husband, father and grandfather garbed in denim shirt and jeans. It’s lived in, overflowing with books, a musical instrument or two, plump sofas, a drum set and a life-sized cut-out of Johnny Depp in pirate garb. The last two items are courtesy of the doctor’s granddaughter, Ruby Jane Smith.

It’s thanks to her, and to his daughter, JoBelle Smith, that seven of Dr. Smith’s songs made it out of the notebooks and into an Austin, Texas, recording studio in 2011.

(Many are familiar with Ruby Jane’s story: Growing up in Columbus, grounded in the Suzuki strings program, later mentored by Grand Ole Opry veteran Jim Brock, Ruby Jane has oft been described as a fiddling phenom. Now 17 and living in Austin with her mother, the teen has already performed, recorded and/or toured with Big & Rich, Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel, among others.)

Her grandfather — she calls him Pops or Papa — said, “When Ruby Jane was about 10 or 11, I’d be singing to her and she’d say, ‘Where’d you get those songs? That’s old people music,'” he smiled. “But one day, when she was 15 or 16, she called me … ”

Family project

Ruby Jane, by phone from Austin, said, “Pops always loves to walk around the house singing. He loved being a doctor, but he always said his fantasy was to be a country music singer or a baseball player. I started thinking about it after he retired … we thought it would be fun to get some people together and record some of his songs.”

The result is a disc titled “Come On In: Songs of Perrin Smith.” The straightforward mix of country romance and western swing boasts the vocal and instrumental talent of not only Ruby Jane, but also Bill Carter, who wrote hits including “Crossfire” for Stevie Ray Vaughan and a roster of songs recorded by artists from The Fabulous Thunderbirds and Waylon Jennings to Robert Palmer and Counting Crows. Carter was also a founding member of the Hollywood, Calif., band “P,” with Johnny Depp.

Elizabeth McQueen of Asleep at the Wheel contributed vocals, as did singer/songwriter Steve Carter, whose songs have earned double platinum status in Europe.

Other established Austin musicians joined in, including David Carroll, Lindsay Greene, Corey Keller, Trevor LeBonte, Steve Morvay and Willie Pipkin.

Helping steer the project as engineer and co-producer with Ruby Jane was industry veteran Marvin Dykhuis, who also added pedal steel, guitar and vocals. Dr. Smith attended the recording sessions, impressed with the technology.

Almost everyone involved knew him through his visits to Austin, or from staying with him and his wife, Honey (B.J.), in Columbus on tour stop-overs.

“I kinda wanted to have people who knew Pops,” said Ruby Jane, who arranged the songs based on melodies her grandfather sang into a hand-held recorder.

“Everyone reacted so positively to being asked and to the songs,” she added. “Everybody was so great; this was really a group effort.”

Back to the roots

The “old people’s music,” as Ruby Jane referred to it years ago, was simply echoes of the musical storytelling Perrin Smith listened to as a child growing up on a farm in Jackson with his siblings and school-teacher parents. The family often sang around the piano, everything from “Uncle Frog Went Courting” to Scottish ballads and hymns.

He absorbed songs by people like Hank Williams Sr., Ernest Tubb and later Willie Nelson.

“Songs that make real sense to me — you take Hank Williams Sr. and the story he tells about walking the floor over you … ”

But he also listened to Bach, Beethoven and Mendelssohn (“all those cool cats”) on the family’s Victrola.

“Mama and Daddy taught us you need to listen to all of it, and to read every book we could get our hands on,” he shared.

He came to the conclusion that “we’re rhythmic beings.”

“I honestly believe we were created for rhyme and rhythm, and when you break that, other areas of your life lose rhyme and rhythm,” he stressed.

Always in season

Inspiration for a song can visit Dr. Smith any time, anywhere.

“Holding Your Hand,” a slow, romantic track he’s particularly fond of, came to him in a deer stand about eight years ago. Lucky he had notepad and pencil handy.

Being reminded of that story made his granddaughter laugh.

“Oh, yeah, he’s called me from the deer stand before, saying ‘Listen to these lines I came up with this morning’ or ‘What do you think of this?'”

Dr. Smith admitted, “Songwriting is funny, ’cause three or four lines will come to you pretty easy, but working out the body of it, if you’re trying to tell a story, is harder,” he said.

Of course, the brass ring for any such project would be for a known entertainer to eventually pick up one of Dr. Smith’s songs to record, but that’s not the reason this recording matters. It matters, in great part, because of his seven grandchildren.

“I did it so they can say my granddaddy didn’t sit idle when he retired, he did something,” the songwriter smiled.

Of the project, JoBelle said, “Instead of just always wanting this to happen, we said, ‘Hey, let’s make a CD.’ My dad was always helping us, so it’s natural for us to want to do this for him … It’s just sort of natural in our family for us to be supportive and excited for each other’s projects.”

The songs are still coming, new lines manifesting themselves sometimes when Perrin Smith least expects it. But if he could pass on anything he’s taken away from his years of filling legal pads and notebooks, it’s this:

“No matter what, don’t let the inspiration pass. You think to yourself, ‘I can’t do that, I can’t do that, I can’t do that,'” he said, gesturing to emphasize the words. “But grab it … write it down …and follow through.”

(Editor’s note: “Come On In: Songs of Perrin Smith” can be found at Smacker’s in Columbus. Select tracks are available for listening and download at reverbnation.com/perrinsmith.com.)

Jan Swoope is the Lifestyles Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.