The more self-assured alter ego of singer/songwriter
Caroline Smith,
Your Smith mixes vibrant adult-alternative pop and slinkier R&B in her electro-acoustic songs. After releasing two indie folk albums with her backing band
the Good Night Sleeps, she started to explore blues, R&B, and electronics on the solo effort
Half About Being a Woman in 2013. Completing the transformation, she introduced
Your Smith with the Bad Habit EP in 2018.
Raised in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota,
Smith learned guitar from her father. She eventually started playing shows around town and released her first album at the age of 16. Moving to Minneapolis to attend the University of Minnesota in 2006, she started a residency at 400 Bar, a venue known for having hosted local hero
Mason Jennings as well as artists like
Conor Oberst and
Elliott Smith. Multi-instrumentalist David Earl, bassist Jesse Schuster, and drummer Arlen Peiffer became her regular backing band,
the Good Night Sleeps. As
Caroline Smith & the Good Night Sleeps, they recorded the album Backyard Tent Set, releasing it in 2008. Two years later, they returned with
Little Wind, and
Smith and Schuster issued Live at the Cedar.
Smith went solo for 2013's
Half About Being a Woman, then, following a series of collaborations that required trips out West, relocated to Los Angeles. She started billing herself as
Caroline Smith (
Your Smith) at shows in early 2018 before presenting the project's debut EP, Bad Habit, on Neon Gold that August. It sported a cover photo of
Smith with a cigarette in her mouth, a prop she also used on-stage.
Your Smith followed up with the EP Wild Wild Woman on the same label in 2019. It featured a number of songwriting collaborators, including Schuster and
Ethan Gruska. ~ Marcy Donelson