Arthur Q. Smith

Arthur Q. Smith was born in Griffin, Georgia, in 1909. From the 1930s to the 1950s he performed on Knoxville radio WNOX’s famed Midday Merry-Go-Round. When James Arthur Prichett joined the Merry-Go-Round, he adopted the stage name Arthur Q. Smith. The “Q” was probably added to distinguish him from “Fiddlin’” Arthur Smith and Arthur “Guitar Boogie” Smith, respectively a fiddler and an electric guitarist of the same era. Arthur Q. sang in a pleasant if occasionally faltering tenor reminiscent of the vocals of Hank Williams Sr.—good old basic hillbilly singing. And Arthur Q., like Ol’ Hank, was an excellent songwriter. Arthur Q. Smith died at the age of fifty-four on March 21st, 1963.