Joe Smart is a flatpicking guitarist from Washington state. He won the National Flatpicking Championship at Winfield, Kansas, in 2005. From 2016 he played guitar in the O’Connor Band with Mark O’Connor, and he is the guitarist on the band’s debut album Coming Home, which won the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album in February 2017.
Why Smart matters
Most Winfield champions stay on the contest circuit. Smart took his title into a touring band led by Mark O’Connor and played on a Grammy-winning record. For a jammer, his path shows what contest flatpicking is for: clean time, clear melody, and the discipline to back a fiddler without getting in the way.
Life and career
Smart is from Washington. He entered the Walnut Valley Festival guitar contest and won the National Flatpicking Championship in 2005. His prize was a Collings Winfield Model.
By early 2016 Mark O’Connor had a family band with his wife Maggie O’Connor on fiddle and vocals, his son Forrest O’Connor on mandolin and vocals, and Kate Lee on fiddle and vocals. Smart joined on guitar, with Geoff Saunders on bass and banjo. Bluegrass Today reported in February 2016 that the group was in the studio with Smart on guitar, recording a debut album for Rounder Records. In May 2016 the band taped a WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour episode that introduced Smart as a national flatpick guitar champion.
Coming Home came out on Rounder in August 2016. Smart played guitar and sang background vocals. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard bluegrass chart and won the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards in February 2017. The band later played as the Mark O’Connor Band and appeared at the Walnut Valley Festival, the contest Smart had won.
In 2021 Mark O’Connor wrote that hearing Smart and Forrest O’Connor on their new Colorado Guitar Company dreadnoughts pushed him back to the guitar for his album Markology II.
Playing style
Smart’s job in the O’Connor Band is to hold the floor under three fiddles and a mandolin. Coming Home mixes songs by Forrest O’Connor and Kate Lee with fiddle tunes like Jerusalem Ridge and Fishers Hornpipe, so the guitar has to move between song backup and fiddle tune drive. He plays a dreadnought built by the Colorado Guitar Company. Mark O’Connor wrote that the sound of that guitar reminded him why he took up the instrument as a teenager.
Influences and legacy
Smart’s main musical partner is Mark O’Connor, who won the Winfield flatpicking title himself in 1975 and 1977 and the fiddle title in 1974 and 1977. Playing next to O’Connor, Maggie O’Connor, Kate Lee, and Forrest O’Connor put Smart in a band built around three fiddles. His contest background and his band work connect the Winfield stage to a Grammy stage.
Signature tunes and songs
Jerusalem Ridge Fishers Hornpipe Coming Home.
Essential recordings
Coming Home, O’Connor Band with Mark O’Connor (Rounder, 2016)
Awards and honors
National Flatpicking Championship, Walnut Valley Festival, first place (2005) Grammy Award, Best Bluegrass Album, Coming Home, O’Connor Band with Mark O’Connor (2017)
Watch and listen
The O’Connor Band plays a full WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour episode recorded May 16, 2016, with Smart on guitar. Listen for how he keeps the rhythm steady behind three fiddles, then takes his breaks.
What to learn from Smart
Learn Jerusalem Ridge in the key of A minor and practice it as backup first, not lead. Play solid rhythm through the whole tune behind a fiddler before you take a break. The technique to steal is his restraint. In a band with three fiddles, Smart plays what the song needs and nothing more. At a jam, that means fewer fills, a steadier boom chuck, and breaks that state the melody.
Sources
Winners archive, alphabetical, Walnut Valley Festival Joe Smart, Pickers Paradise O’Connor family band to Rounder, Bluegrass Today Coming Home (O’Connor Band album), Wikipedia Mark O’Connor picks up his guitar again for Markology II, Bluegrass Today WoodSongs 849: The O’Connor Band with Mark O’Connor, YouTube
Related players
See the guitar players hub and the guitar guide for more flatpickers. Mark O’Connor leads the band Smart plays in. Other Winfield champions on this site include Allen Shadd, Jason Shaw, and Scott Fore.