Plateprat med Billy Q. Smith
Olav Nilsen
16.10.2025
If someone offers to buy you a drink, what do you order?
Before 5:00 PM, a cappuccino, after 5:00 PM, a beer.
Describe yourself using at least five words.
Impulsive, distractable, politically liberal with a face made for radio.
If you were to choose a pseudonym or artist name, what would it be?
Billy Q. Smith (which came out of nowhere, but it stuck; I reckon Q stands for Quincy)
What’s your relationship with libraries?
I love libraries and have spent much time in them (as a youth I borrowed many a vinyl album from my local library); sorry to say that librarians through the years have asked me to keep my voice down!
What are your five favorite albums?
Impossible to list, but they probably would be by Otis Redding, the Staple Singers, Bob Marley, the Rolling Stones and the Stanley Brothers.
What have you been listening to lately?
I mostly listen to traditional bluegrass music these days. I am 64 years old and have pretty much exhausted all the other genres that I love. With traditional bluegrass I keep discovering new recordings. But I do occasionally revisit favorite artists like Blind Willie Johnson.
Is there an album you think is underrated?
Terry Reid’s “River.” He recently passed away, so I revisited it. Wow! Side A is amazing. Side B does meander a bit.
Is there a classic album you've never quite connected with?
Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side Of The Moon.”
What are your three favorite album covers?
Ones by R. Crumb. Big Brother and Holding Company’s “Cheap Thrills” (1968),
R. Crumb & His Cheap Suit Serenaders’ “Number Two” (1976)
and the compilation release “The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of” (2006).
Do you collect records – and if so, why?
I collect music. I mostly am happy just to have digital transfers of recordings but do hold on to records, tapes and CDs for the liner notes (and in part because they are a small investment which might hold their value).
What’s the biggest difference between when you started collecting and how it is today?
When CDs came along during the mid-to-late 1980s, they pretty much replaced tapes (vinyl at that time had been dead for years). I assumed CDs would be here forever, but I was wrong. While vinyl has made a comeback. Many CD-only releases have gone out of print and are hard to find (some have been released on streaming platforms, but many have not).
Favorite physical record store?
Most of my favs are gone, but I love Down Home Music in El Cerrito and Amoeba Music in San Francisco, which is a converted bowling alley (I love how Amoeba Music preserved the building and updated the neon sign in the style of the historic one).
What was the last record you bought?
I just found a 1967 Cooke Duet LP on eBay which I didn’t have, so I snatched it up at a fair price. The title is “Striving For That City.”
What’s the best record purchase you’ve ever made?
In the 1980s I would purchase Japanese imports of Otis Redding records at Down Home Music. Given the scarcity of those albums at the time, I would say that those were my best purchases. I wore those records out!
Which three records are currently at the top of your wantlist?
No specific ones now, but I am always hoping to come across more radio transcription recordings by country music artists such as Hank Williams and the Stanley Brothers.
Such recordings were pressed onto acetate discs and were meant for limited use; they were often thrown away by the radio stations which received them. Occasionally they show up on the auction market, but I’d have to win the lottery to obtain one. And then, I’d have to get a special machine just to listen to it!
In your opinion, what’s the greatest guitar solo ever recorded?
It would probably be one by Jerry Garcia or Jorma Kaukonen. But I don’t consider music to be a competitive sport, so I try to not rank performances.
What’s your favorite song in a language or dialect other than your own?
Probably D.L. Menard’s best known number, "La Porte d'en Arriere" (originally issued with the title in English, as “The Back Door”). It's a song about a man who gets wasted one night and tries to sneak into his home through the back door.
Who’s your favorite lyricist of all time?
Bruce Springsteen.
What’s your favorite movie or TV series?
I love Orson Welles, but the nod here goes to David Suchet’s 1989-2013 portrayal of Agatha Christie's detective Hercule Poirot.
Vinyl, CD, cassette, or streaming – what’s your preferred format?
I prefer to play digital music on my iPod, a revolutionary device dating back to 2001 which, sadly, Apple no longer supports.
By Matthieu Riegler, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0,
Would you describe yourself as an audiophile?
No.
What kind of setup do you use to play music at home?
I have a complex system with excellent speakers in my home, yet I am happy with a portable JBL speaker or my Apple AirPods.
Which concert will you never forget?
I was fortunate to see Bob Marley and the Wailers and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band as a teenager in 1978.
What’s your favorite festival?
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in San Francisco. It started as Strictly Bluegrass in 2001. I attended the first 15 or so years faithfully and then went to sort of a every other year approach. As Yogi Berra said, “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”
How do you think your friends perceive your taste in music?
Odd! Eccentric!
Amateur boxer Al Ross’ Doggie Diner was founded in Oakland, CA in 1948. His restaurant’s slogan was “Nothing Finer Than Doggie Diner.”
Billy Q. Smith
Billy Q. Smith is a bluegrass music enthusiast who resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.
He is an electrical worker by trade and enjoys listening to radio.
Mr. Smith has learned much through the years listening to deejays Bonnie Simmons, Johnny Otis, Chris Strachwitz, Tom Diamant, Ray Edlund, Peter Thompson, Todd Gracyk, Richard K. “Dick” Spottswood, Ray Davis, Eddie Stubbs and others.
His favorite music artists are Otis Redding, the Staple Singers, Bob Marley and the Stanley Brothers.
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