Angel Mine

(Smotherman/Royer) Micheal Smotherman is a true master songwriter, with a haunting voice. An Oklahoma boy, he played for many years in Roger Miller’s band. Glen Campbell once recorded seven of Micheal’s songs on one album. One of my favorites of his is ‘Do I Ever Cross Your Mind’, written with Billy Burnette, recorded by Ray Charles (the title track of his 1984 album) and featured again on Ray’s last album in a duet with Bonnie Raitt.

Micheal and I agreed that I would try to produce him sometime in the late 90s but it took several tries to even get close to capturing his magic. After a number of misfires in large studios I took him over to Todd Cerney’s home studio and the three of us started working on the elusive task of getting to the bottom of Micheal Smotherman. Several of the tracks were recorded or finished at Todd’s. Other tracks were recorded in a small house that stood behind my home in Nashville. Seems like the more humble the setting, the better he sounded.

Angel Mine is a song Micheal and I wrote for the project. The original track for it was laid on a mandocello, a bizarre instrument I bought at a flea market near the river locks in a bad section of London. The minute I played it I was captured by the sound. After the mando part went down, Todd and Micheal laid on several overdubs. The track is from the Album ‘Conjure Man’, a project Micheal and I are very proud of.

Angel Mine