See Caitlyn Smith’s Moving ‘Live From the Vault’ Performance
Caitlyn Smith unleashes a bluesy, stripped-down performance of “Before You Called Me Baby,” the lead track from her 2016 five-song EP Starfire, in a new video for the series Live From the Vault. Armed with a ringing Fender electric guitar and raw, soul-piercing vocal, Smith delivers the tune with gritty, soulful abandon. The song was inspired by Smith’s husband, fellow musician (and frequent co-writer) Rollie Gaalswyk.
Smith describes her Starfire EP as “genre-less,” a project that finds as much common ground with Patty Griffin and Kathleen Edwards as it does with Carrie Underwood and Carole King. But as a songwriter, she’s excelled in the country genre, getting her first big cut, “It Ain’t Easy,” on Jason Aldean’s monster 2011 LP My Kinda Party, and following that with hits by Lady Antebellum (“747”), Rascal Flatts (“Let it Hurt”), Garth Brooks (“Tacoma”) and Cassadee Pope (“Wasting All These Tears”).
“So many songs on this record are just me opening up my chest,” she tells Rolling Stone Country of Starfire. “We just kept the vocals raw and emotional. We didn’t set out to make it sound like anything other than just my heart exploding.”
Live From the Vault is a weekly music series that derives its name from the unique location where the performances take place: a decades-old bank vault in downtown Nashville. The clips showcase the wide variety of indie artists in Music City, from Americana to rock & roll and soul.