JAN SMITH
Jan is Smithfield Fair's second songwriter/composer and is most often inspired by people and events in her travels. She is the
composer/songwriter of a number of signature Charmer & Smithfield Fair songs, including Wealthy Man, God Never Sleeps, Flowers In Her Hair, and Holly Hey,
Holly Ho! A lifelong love of literature led her to study Shakespeare in London and to remain fascinated with books of all sorts. Stevenson Productions has
recently published THE GREEN GROVE, a collection of children's stories with Scottish themes she co-authored with Dudley-Brian. She has also served as editor
on the other books in that series.
Her childhood training in classical piano and love of baroque music brought her to the accordion, which she calls her 'acoustic synthesizer', and uses to give
the group's arrangements many and varied textures. She has sung in everything from opera choruses to rock bands, church choirs to all-female folk groups, even
once recording country music for a fellow songwriter. (Photographs left to right by Wayne Vincent - 1983; Jim Zietz - 1989; and T.J. Shuflin - 2009)
INSTRUMENTS: As the group's second guitarist, Jan uses a 2000 Westerly Guild M-20 guitar, set-up and maintained by Holger Notzel at Riverfront Music in Baton
Rouge. Her primary instrumental role is on the accordion. Currently, Jan performs and records with a Monterrey 48, procurred and maintained by Nick Ballarini
of Dallas, Texas, and set-up for Scottish tuning with assistance from accordion great Mark Kenneth (who appeared on 20420). In the studio and live, she prefers
acoustic pianos to synthezisers.
Smithfield
Fair Bios
