Arthur "Fiddlin'" Smith
b. 1898, Bold Springs, Humphreys County, Tennessee, USA, d. 1973. One of the 14 children of an old-time fiddle player, he started to play the fiddle at the age of four, and later the banjo, began playing locally in his teens. He seriously thought of a musical career around 1925, when he worked as a lineman for the railroad. Several of his siblings also played instruments and around 1929, he first played on the GRAND OLE OPRY with his guitar playing brother, Homer. In 1930, he teamed with brothers Samand Kirk McGee and played the OPRY as the Dixieliners, soon after giving up his railroad work and becoming a full-time professional musician. His excellent playing, coupled with the McGees’ guitar and banjo, soon made the Dixieliners one of the most influential of the OPRY bands, who even through the Depression were in great demand. Surprisingly they did not record together until reunited in the '60s. Smith recorded under his own name and was accompanied by the Delmores, probably because the record company initially thought that their name would attract even more attention. 
He first recorded fiddle tunes for Bluebird Records in 1935, including his now famous Mocking Bird. At the time they were not successful and to keep his contract, his next recordings featured vocals, with More Pretty Girls Than One being very successful. He left both the OPRY and the McGees in 1938 and relocated to Hollywood, where he appeared in b-westerns and toured with Jimmy Wakely and the Sons Of The Pioneers, played all over the States and wrote songs. In the early '50s Beautiful Brown Eyes, co-written by Smith and Alton Delmore, was a US country and pop hit for Jimmy Wakely and also for pop singer Rosemary Clooney. He eventually returned to Nashville in the late '50s, where he rejoined his old friends the McGees. This time they did record together and played numerous folk festivals and other concert appearances. Noted authority Charles K. Wolfe in THE GRAND OLE OPRY, THE EARLY YEARS 1925-35 comments that ‘Arthur Smith's fiddling style was more influential in the South than that of any other fiddler except possibly, Clayton McMichen’. This artist should not be confused with ArthurGuitar Boogie Smith or Arthur Q. Smith (real name James A. Pritchett), a Knoxville songwriter, who sometimes co-wrote songs with Jim Eanes.