Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike Open for The SteelDrivers in Nashville July 12

Valerie says, "Many years ago I worked in an ad agency across the street from 3rd and Lindsley. I use to go there for lunch everyday and visit with the owner, Ron. One day, I decided to ask him if my trio could play some music there! He thought about it, and said, hmm...sure! My group was called 'Fresh Cactus' which to this day, I wander how I came up with such a strange name.

I return there as "Valerie Smith and Liberty Pike" after many years of being on the road and not being in the fast life of Nashville. I am in town these days working on a new project and this gives me a chance to visit Nashville again!

I am very excited to announce that "The SteelDrivers" are the main act, but they have been kind enough to let me join in and open up for them! Please view my new video, "Engineer", shot in Bell Buckle, TN during "Moon Pie Days".

When it comes to making music, there’s nothing wrong with playing by the rules, but that’s never been the right way for Valerie Smith. While the energetic singer/songwriter knows and respects the tried and true ways of bluegrass—and knows the penalties that can follow a departure from them—she’s held fast to one simple rule of her own: “I sing from my heart,” she says. “I do my own thing.” And today, a dozen years after her first album and on the eve of the release of her latest, she can look back with pride at a musical path that’s all her own, even as she looks ahead to the next dozen with the confidence of a seasoned artist who’s built a devoted following in the best way it can be done—just by being herself.

Only Nashville could give birth to a band like the SteelDrivers: a group of seasoned veterans –each distinguished in his or her own right, each valued in the town’s commercial community – who are seizing an opportunity to follow their hearts to their souls’ reward. In doing so, they are braiding their bluegrass roots with new threads of their own design, bringing together country, soul, and other contemporary influences to create an unapologetic hybrid that is old as the hills but fresh as the morning dew. This is new music with the old feeling. SteelDrivers fan Vince Gill describes the band’s fusion as simply "an incredible combination."

Since the release of The SteelDrivers (2008) and Reckless (2010), The SteelDrivers have been nominated for three Grammys, four IBMA awards and the Americana Music Association’s New Artist of the Year. They were presented the International Bluegrass Music Association’s award for Emerging Artist of the Year in 2009. That same year the band spent a week in Georgia as part of the cast in the movie "Get Low". The movie, that starred Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek and Bill Murray, featured a soundtrack that included four tunes by The ‘Drivers. In 2011 the English pop star Adele began performing the SteelDriver song "If It Hadn’t Been For Love" in her live performances.

July 12, 2013
3rd and Lindsley
3RdAndLindsley.com
Opening for "The SteelDrivers"
Doors open at 8:00 Menu/Food will be available