Country music has increased in popularity over the past few years, and so has my own interest in it. What used to be an appreciation for the hipster-approved Townes Van Zandt and Gram Parsons has extended to digging on Linda Ronstadt, Tanya Tucker, Nanci Griffith, Lyle Lovett etc. Safe to say I love me some Country! Sammi Smith was a name I didn’t know until recently, but her debut album He’s Everywhere blows me away.

Born in California, Smith once said of her childhood, “I moved around more than dust,” living in Oklahoma and Arizona. A friend of Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson, Smith covers Kristofferson’s “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” and “Help Me Make It Through the Night” on He’s Everywhere, released on the short-lived Mega Records out of Nashville. He’s Everywhere, re-released as Help Me Make It Through the Night was Mega’s biggest hit, with the title track topping the Billboard Country charts.

The strings on opener “Saunders Ferry Lane”, paired with Smith’s smoky voice, create a cinematic atmosphere. The vibe is perhaps more torch song than classic Country. “There He Goes”, then, could be a Patsy Cline track. With vibraphones, steel guitar and a strong vocal take, it’s simply gorgeous. Kristofferson’s storytelling brilliance (not unlike that of Mickey Newbury, a favorite of Smith’s) shines through on “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down”. This track captures the sort of Lonesome Country Blues vibe that the album succeeds in owning throughout. “He’s Everywhere” is a great and sorrowful song about not being able to get someone out of your head. “But You Know I Love You” and “Don’t Blow No Smoke on Me” are more straightforward Country tracks (the latter in the honky tonk vein), but the record is no worse off for that. He’s Everywhere ends abruptly during “This Room For Rent”, with an out-of-nowhere cut after the line “She’s heard no word from God, and nothing seems to matter anymore”.

After Mega folded, Smith signed to Elektra but was not well-promoted and seems to have never really gotten her due. She passed away in 2005 and is survived by her children, including her son Waylon Payne, a Country singer.

Listen to He’s Everywhere here.