William "Smitty" Smith

Who is William "Smitty" Smith?

William Daniel Smith, also known "Smitty" Smith, was a keyboardist and session musician.

He had been playing together with Steve Kennedy, Eric Mercury and Diane Brooks in a Toronto band called the Soul Searchers that was fronted by Mercury and Brooks. After the Soul Searchers broke up, first Kennedy and then Smith joined a group called Grant Smith & The Power. In 1969 Smith, Steve Kennedy along with Ken Marco and Wayne "Stoney Stone formed Motherlode and went on to have a hit with When I Die. The group broke up in 1970 and Smith fronted a second version of Motherlode that was soon to break up after releasing one single.

Smith became a session musician and played on and contributed background vocals to recordings by artists such as Eric Mercury on his Funky Sounds Nurtured in the Fertile Soil album, Mark Tanner on his No Escape album, Ricky Lee Jones on her Flying Cowboys album etc. He also released a solo album Smitty which included a song "Sweetie Pie" that he co-wrote with Eric Mercury. In the early 1980s Smith played keyboards and background vocals in Mike Finnigan and The Right Band.

He died in 1997 of a heart attack.