Ernie Smith’s final album, ‘Another Side of Ernie Smith,’ captured his love for country music
While visiting Boston in the early 2000s, Ernie Smith met David Turano, an American musician and fixture on the New England reggae scene. Kindred spirits, they developed a musical bond that resulted in three albums by Smith and numerous live shows together.
Another Side of Ernie Smith, the last of those albums, was released in late 2025 by Small Axe Productions, a company Turano operates in Rhode Island. The 12-song, unplugged set hears Smith — who died on April 16 at age 80 in Miami, Florida — expressing his love for American country and folk music.
He does renditions of four of his songs — Bend Down, I Was Country, Dear Mama and Girl.
There are covers of Me And Bobby McGee, a song written by Kris Kristofferson and made famous by Janis Joplin; Rider in The Rain by Randy Newman; The Older I Get by Alan Jackson and Fred Neil’s Everybody’s Talking, theme song from the 1969 movie, Midnight Cowboy.
Turano, known as Davey Dread, co-produced Another Side with Smith, whom he said had, “A love for all the greats. He loved Frank Sinatra, Neil Diamond and had a great knack for writing.”
Ernie Smith Living at His Best, released in 2002, and Live in Rhode Island 2003, were the other albums the singer-songwriter recorded with Turano and his Soulshot band.
They also performed alongside him at the 2008 and 2009 Air Jamaica Jazz Festival in Montego Bay.
Bend Down was one of the songs that announced Smith in the 1970s. Ride On Sammy, Life is Just For Living, Pitta Patta, Duppy Gunman and a cover of Kristofferson’s Sunday Morning Coming Down, made him one of the leading artistes in Jamaica during that decade.
The thanksgiving service for Ernie Smith takes place on May 16 at Metropolitan Baptist Church in Davie, South Florida.
— Howard Campbell
