Smith was also a member of country music's first family, through his marriage to June Carter, daughter of Maybelle, one of the original Carter Family, whose songs helped rural America through the Depression. He was admired for his music and his sharp-suited elegance by the young Waylon Jennings.
But as well as an ingratiating ballad style, he had an aptitude for up-tempo rockabilly. Like Eddy Arnold, he purveyed a softer, warmer vocal manner, while keeping the music muscular by placing it in the bluesy small-group setting of Texan honky-tonk.
Carl Smith, who has died aged 82, was a key figure in the changing sound of country music in the early 1950s.
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