In March of this year cancer claimed the life of one of this country’s finest singer-songwriters.
Laura Smith shuffled off this mortal coil just 11 days before what would have been her 68th birthday.
Borealis Records, her music label for a number of years, said she faced her cancer with her indomitable sense of humour, never at war with the disease but instead determined to be at peace with it.
“It was a peace that she shared with all who visited her in her last month. She always had a smile for each.”
In passing, Smith left something special behind for each and every one of us, a final record called As Long As I’m Dreaming.
In 2019, she had initiated a recording project that was to have been essentially a “best of” album to showcase songs from her earlier work. The completion of that project took on a much greater urgency when she was diagnosed that winter with inoperable cancer.
The scope of the project was also expanded to include more than just her early work.
To that end, she booked studio time in Mahone Bay to record two new songs, Road To Glory and the title track, As Long As I’m Dreaming, both of which are exceptional offerings. She wrote the first after reading Roméo Dallaire’s Shake Hands with the Devil. The second was inspired by the death of a friend’s father in the Second World War.
Smith completed those sessions just weeks before she died.
In addition to the new tracks the record features archival material from her coffee house days in London, Ont., as well as a swingin’ cover of the jazz standard If I Were A Bell, recorded in Hamilton, a demo session from Toronto and several longtime fan favourites.
Included in that cluster are Shade Of Your Love, My Bonny, I Go There and Four Letter Word, all from 1994’s B’tween The Earth And My Soul, as well as It’s A Personal Thing and I’m A Beauty from 1997’s It’s A Personal Thing. In the mix too are I Built A Boat and The Blues and I from 2013’s Everything Is Moving and her recording of Tony Quarrington’s Passchendale from For King and Country.
This record beautifully captures everything that made Smith so very special to those of us who loved her work, her immense passion, her emotional depth, her soulfulness, her creative brilliance, her honesty and her frankness, all of it powered up by that magnificent voice.
Listening to Smith once more I was deeply moved, at times to the point of tears, struck once again by just what we lost when she passed away.
In addition to the 18 songs packaged here As Long As I’m Dreaming includes an extensive booklet containing the lyrics and session credits for each song, several pieces of Smith’s artwork and selected pieces of her poetry and prose.
It’s a beautiful package one her many fans will treasure.
Fast Facts
- Laura Susan Smith was actually born Meredith Susan Battey in London, Ont., in 1952 and put into foster care.
- When she was adopted she took the surname Smith.
- She began to play music at age 19, first teaching herself piano chords, then guitar .
- Her first public performance took place at Smale’s Pace, the London coffee house where she worked as a waitress.
- In the years that followed she earned two East Coast Music Awards, as well as multiple ECMA and JUNO nominations and a Gemini Award.
Doug Gallant is a freelance writer and well-known connoisseur of a wide variety of music. His On Track column will appear in The Guardian every second Thursday. To comment on what he has to say or to offer suggestions for future reviews, email him at [email protected].