NAPA, Calif. (CelebrityAccess) While checking out the BottleRock music festival in Napa, Calif., which kicked off yesterday, CelebrityAccess got to tie up some loose ends by chatting with singer/songwriter Caitlyn Smith.
Smith was to be featured in a Q&A about four months ago but the doggone phone interview didn’t record. However, she performed at BottleRock yesterday and that gave us a chance to start over. This interview is the very definition of awkward because, well, we weren’t going to go over the same material twice and there was only a few minutes to chat so we did what any professional interviewer would do: we talked about her publicist.
Smith is traveling with husband and oft-times co-writer Rollie Gaalswyk who would normally be playing in her band but is currently handling the role of tour manager. Smith is still promoting her debut album, Starfire, which has been a long time coming, delayed, in part, by the birth of her son. She was also proud to tell the BottleRock crowd there’s one in the oven.
Smith has written songs for Garth Brooks and Meghan Trainer, and a song written with Gaalswyk, “Wasting All These Tears,” became a Top 10 hit for Cassadee Pope and inspired the couple to move to Nashville.
All that being said, Smith is a phenom and can bring down the house via the song “Tacoma,” where this petite, brilliant songwriter (and former church choir singer) can grab a room’s attention with its blistering finale. For instance, at BottleRock:
So, OK, you have a toddler on tour with you?
Caitlyn: Not with us but most of the tour. And one on the way. You know what? Just throw a baby on it. That’s what I always say.
We definitely a little gypsy family. The description of my job means he’s coming with us.
Rollie, you’re like the tour manager, and handling all these interviews. How long has this been going on?
Rollie: That kind of thing I’ve done in the last few years, just whatever kind of needs to be done. It’s a small operation, and growing. Just kind of whatever needs to be done, I just fill in the gaps.
Do you see this as your role in the future.
Rollie: No. I’m not as outgoing as Caitlyn. I can be by myself a lot more than she can. I do what I need to but it wouldn’t be my dream job.
Caitlyn: I’m so very grateful that he is doing all this but I don’t want that for him. We had a tour manager on the Starfire tour, which is very necessary. We just really needed to do that but you lose a lot of money doing that, so you have to balance it out by touring cheaply. You’re not pulling in a lot of money.
Keep your publicist, Ebie McFarland, though.
The best. The best money we’ve ever spent. I attribute so much of the success of this record to the things that she has been able to achieve. We paid for the record ourselves and hired her independently. The magic that she did, in three or four months, was the reason why I got my record deal. I’m certain of it.
She just sent me a link to some special bloody marys in Napa.
I gave her that link!
Well, she sent it to me!
So what’s your plans
Tim & Faith start next week. We’ll go out in July with Sheryl Crow. We’re doing a few festivals, like Lock’n Festival in Virginia, and Pilgrimage. And then we’re heading out with Amos Lee in the fall. That will be the last day I can fly, pretty much, then I’ll go have a baby, make a record and do it all over again.
We did three dates with Tim & Faith last year, just me. This time Rollie’s playing and I got two more guys so it will be a little more full.
