I
t seems as if cellist Nathaniel Smith began preparing for life as a touring musician at 5 years old. His “superhero” mother would drive him and his sister from their Mississippi home to Alabama each Saturday for music lessons. The trek took six hours round trip, but these weekend journeys helped pave Smith’s career in music. “I came from a really music-loving family,” Smith said in his relaxed, Southern dialect. “They started me off on the violin when I was 3, and I started playing the cello when I was 5. I learned from that same teacher for 10 years.” Normal expectations for a prodigious 15-year-old cello player would probably peak at hopes for a full ride to a prestigious college. However, by the time Smith was 15, the age that typical success is defined as a learner’s permit, the young cellist had “taught” the
you did not teach Yo-Yo Ma a song when you were 15. That’s almost better than actually teaching Yo-Yo Ma a song at 15, and the jury is still out on that one. Besides the Saturday excursions for music lessons, Smith also went to summer fiddle camps, which he confesses, “sounds so dorky but they’re the best things ever.” It was at one of these music camps that he met a young singer-songwriter from Wimberley, Texas, named Sarah Jarosz. “[ Jarosz] saw me play with Natalie McMaster and said a cello would be cool (to add to her live shows). Then Wintergrass was our first gig and one of our first times playing together. I flew up the night before the set. It was just the three of us playing together, and it just felt right. It felt right. [ Jarosz] was super happy and super stoked about it. I was just super stoked to be there with two of my favorite
American Songwriter magazine. Now, at only 21 years old, Smith has decided to call East Nashville his home. Despite his busy schedule with Jarosz and two other touring artists, Natalie McMaster and Jeremy Kittle, Smith is “super, super stoked” to be called an East Nashvillian. “It’s such a beautiful part of town,” Smith says. “I’m not used to living somewhere where there are so many good places to eat and so many things happening five minutes away. I’m used to having to drive 30 minutes to get to a decent restaurant in Mississippi. I love it. I still haven’t explored it as much as I want to, but I’m going to, for sure. I was asking people about the happening spots in Nashville … and it just seemed like everyone was moving to East Nashville. Everyone I knew, anyway. So I was like, ‘Might as well do that.’ It’s been a great decision.”
“I was like 15 at the time and Yo-Yo Ma was asking me my opinion ...
IMAGES COURTESY OF NATHANIEL SMITH
‘It’s freaking great, Yo-Yo. It sounds awesome!’ ” great Yo-Yo Ma a song for a studio session and played a show on the historic “Austin City Limits” stage. For Smith, the word “taught” is a strong one, especially when it involves him “teaching” Yo-Yo Ma anything. When Smith describes his meeting and hanging out with one of the most celebrated classical musicians of all time, it is not a story told with arrogance or pride but with the utmost humility. “I was playing with Natalie McMaster,” Smith said, while taking very careful effort to explain that Yo-Yo Ma did not need instruction from a teenager. “She was asked to guest on (Yo-Yo’s) “Songs for Joy and Peace” record. She knew that he needed a cello, so he asked us to get together. “He flew me up when he recorded it. He would ask my opinion, you know? I was like 15 at the time and Yo-Yo Ma was asking me my opinion and what I actually thought. I was like, ‘It’s freaking great, Yo-Yo. It sounds awesome!’ “I mean,” says Smith with a laugh, “what was I going to say? He’s an amazing person. I’ve only met him that one time just for that day, but he was just such a kind guy. He just came up and gave me a huge hug when he first walked in. I figured it said somewhere (online) that I ‘taught’ Yo-Yo Ma, but I don’t know if I actually taught him. I got to hang a little bit and he asked my opinion.” The surest sign of success in music must be when you have to clarify that, in your opinion,
people. I thought, ‘Man, we could be a band!’” From there, the Sarah Jarosz Trio was formed, headed by Jarosz and backed by Smith and fiddle player Alex Hargreaves. Smith, with a heaping helping of humility, describes their progression as a band in one year, where they had more than 1,000 pre-sale tickets for a show, as “kinda funny.” It was during that year that the Sarah Jarosz Trio performed on the “Austin City Limits” stage and began earning national acclaim from NPR, The New York Times, and
Smith is currently on a national tour with Sarah Jarosz promoting her third album, “Build Me Up From Bones,” released back in September on the Sugar Hill label. Smith is also excited about recording his own instrumental albums, and he sees East Nashville as a great environment for inspiration and collaboration. Nathaniel Smith’s work can be found at nathanielsmithcello.com and sarahjarosz.com.
The Sarah Jarosz Trio kicking out the jams at the Savannah Music Festival. L to R: Smith, Jarosz, and Hargreaves
January | February 2014 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM
23