Boston country artist tells stories of feminine strength on high-octane Americana rock n’ roll album out on vinyl/digital on Friday September 25
When Elisa Smith stood on stage last fall at the Grand Ole Opry to accept the award for Female Country Song of the Year at the 2025 Josie Music Awards, for her heartfelt ballad “Nashville Don’t Forget Me,” a million thoughts raced through her head as she ran through an impromptu acceptance speech. And in that wild and unexpected moment, she also thought of her grandmother.
Smith thought of her grandmother’s life and her loves, her appreciation of country music, and her admiration for that iconic Nashville stage. And she knew her grandmother was looking down from heaven, gleaming with pride. It was a full-circle moment for the Boston artist, an Illinois native raised on a steady diet of vintage country and ‘70s-era rock and roll, and fostered another connection with her loved one, harnessing a sense of feminine pride, passed down from generations, and channeling it into excellence.
Now Smith readies her most ambitious project yet, in her new album Perfume, a high-octane collection of anthemic Americana songs about bad-ass women, and a celebration of diverse, powerful, and untold stories, from strength to vulnerability and from joy to heartache, all while capturing the complexity and beauty of the female experience.
“Perfume is feminine power — that thing that women have that allows them to dig deep and keep going, even when they feel they can’t,” Smith says. “That thing that turns heads, that manifests in creativity, joy, sadness, anger, love. Kacey Musgraves refers to it as a ‘deeper well’. I wanted to write an album that celebrates the mystery and power of perfume. The album is a collection of female perspectives and stories that celebrate women in all our struggles and in all our triumphs.”
Perfume also arrives with a twist. The album officially drops on Friday, September 25, with signed pressed vinyl available on her artist website and the digital downloads available for purchase on Bandcamp. It surfaces alongside opening track and lead single “Angels (Who Take No Shit),” and the remaining songs will be released to streaming platforms with one new single every three weeks, extending the album’s promotional cycle out to Spring 2026.
It’s a unique approach to releasing an album, offering the vinyl first and then revealing the songs on streaming platforms gradually over the next eight months. But it allows each song on Perfume the space to breathe and relay its own story, with each streaming single release unveiled like a chapter in the album’s overarching storyline. And aligned with its feminine undercurrent, 10 percent of all the proceeds from record sales will be donated to Rosie’s Place in Boston, the first women’s shelter founded in the United States back in 1974.
“I think deeply about my song choices and each of them deserves a moment in the spotlight,” Smith says. “Releasing them all as singles gives each song space to share the story around it. I also just didn’t want to wait until next summer to release the whole album!”
The follow-up to 2024 EP Spirit on the Run, which featured “Nashville Don’t Forget Me,” Smith has been meticulously crafting this album over the past four years. She provides all the vocals on Perfume, while surrounded by a remarkable list of players: Longtime collaborator Erin Bonnie (fiddle and background vocals); Devin Malone (electric guitar and baritone guitar); Brad Sample (electric guitar and baritone guitar); Kurt Ozan (acoustic guitar, dobro, pedal steel, and keys); Tim Denbo (bass); and Caleb Gilbreath (drums and percussion).
Produced and written by Smith and recorded at Battery Life Studio in Nashville, with mixing by four-time GRAMMY winner Chuck Ainlay (George Strait, Miranda Lambert, Peter Frampton), the stories that emerge across Perfume are pulled from various aspects of Smith’s life, both personally and observationally. It draws from music to motherhood and both the crazy and mundane situations she finds herself dealing with each and every day.
“This is definitely the most autobiographical album I’ve ever written,” Smith reveals. “I really pushed myself lyrically to dig into what I wanted to say and share about my own experiences of being a woman, mother, daughter, sister, human. My other projects have never come close to this type of vulnerability.”
And it’s fueled by an explosive sound that blurs genre lines, with a heavy dose of rock and roll and a little bit of cosmic mysticism riding shotgun along Smith’s familiar lanes of country and Americana. The galloping “Angels (Who Take No Shit)” sets a supercharged tone, and tracks like the yearning pop-country cruiser “Mama Was a Lead Foot,” about pushing life to the limit; the heartfelt lyricisms and outlaw country of “Motherin’”, a relatable composition to anyone who raised a child; and the dramatic, seductive grandeur of “Smut” wouldn’t sound out of place in the next Netflix show set out in America’s heartland.
“I feel like I’m finally coming back home to my roots,” Smith adds. “I love vintage rock and roll and Americana and I feel like my last few projects have lost sight of that. I feel like this album has elements of all of my favorite artists, everything from the Rolling Stones to Def Leppard to Loretta Lynn to Neil Young.”
Despite being Smith’s first new release in a few years, the vinyl drop of Perfume puts an exclamation point on a rather potent year. She continues to perform live around Boston, and the three-time nominee in both the Boston Music Awards and New England Music Awards made another appearance at the New England Music Awards in the spring, not long after she dueted with Kier Byrnes on The Kettle Burners’ SOTY contender of a single, March’s “My Baby’s Happy.”
In fact, it was a chance encounter with Byrnes four years ago that put Perfume into motion. She and Bonnie were out late one night to see a friend’s band at a local venue, and she noticed a guy sitting at the bar while rocking what she calls “a very cool hat.” It was Byrnes, of The New England Americana Association.
“And so I turned to Erin and said, ‘I’m gonna get that guy’s hat.’ And so I went over and introduced myself and I’ve now had that hat for four years,” Smith says with a laugh. “He and I are also now very good friends and have played a bunch of shows together. That night, I came up with this idea of Perfume. It was perfume that fueled that whole interaction between me and Kier, and why I now have his hat. So I went home and started thinking more and more about this concept of Perfume. What it is, what it means, how it shows up. And slowly but surely, I wrote a ton of songs and chose the ones that fit the theme.”
Some of the songs on Perfume were penned several years ago (“The Hard Way” and “Made to Break” and some in recent years as Smith explored generational power (“Angels,” “My Daughter’s Hands,” and the title track), how womanhood reminds us of who we are (“Mama Was A Lead Foot,” “Gimme A Mustang,”), and how it allows us live and feel (“Spilled Whisky,” “Motherin’,” “Smut,” “Spin Me Round Again”).
The wonderfully-named “Angels (Who Take No Shit)” kickstarts our introduction to Perfume with an instant invitation.
Says Smith: “I wrote ‘Angels’ based on the Kitty Wells song ‘It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.’ I love this song and it itself was written in response as a female perspective to Hank Williams’ ‘The Wild Side of Life.’ I thought about all the honky tonk angels that have come before me: Kitty, Patsy, Loretta, Dolly, Tanya, Reba, and so many others. I’ve watched so many of their interviews and read the words they said and they really took no shit. They didn’t pull any punches, especially Dolly. And so I wrote this song about my two greatest heroes, Loretta and Dolly, quoting as many of their songs as I could to describe them. They were such a powerful force for music and women and have inspired me everyday to keep going, keep writing, and keep playing.”
The high-flying “Gimmie A Mustang” was written after Smith and Bonnie were given a Ford Mustang as a rental car during a recording session in Nashville, ironically while the two were in Music City to record new music. Co-written by the duo and longtime best friends, its freewheeling, high-flying nature was captured as they galavanted around town.
“While I was driving around, I was struck with a song idea – something about if you give me a Mustang, I’m gonna use it,” Smith says. “So when I picked up Erin the next day, I told her about my idea. We headed to the studio and then that night as we were grocery shopping at the Turnip Truck in East Nashville for the week, we were bouncing around shooting lyrics back and forth. We cut a demo when we got home and the next day we recorded ‘Gimmie A Mustang.’”
And “Smut,” with its gravitational pull and seismic allure, slows down the tempo but ramps up the drama. It’s a lust song for the sinister, those feeling a little bit naughty without any semblance of guilt, opening up feminine desire that burns in every woman.
“‘Smut’ is great fun,” Smith reveals. “I recently got into reading smutty little novels and I know a lot of other folks have, too! So I wrote a song about it. There’s a lot of people making commentaries about why women are reading more of these titillating books but honestly, I think women have always read these books, now they’re just talking about it more instead of hiding them behind magazines while riding the train. I thought it’d be fun to write a song that sounds like how a smut novel reads, and so that’s what I did.”
Throughout its 11 tracks, Perfume is a declaration from Smith, one rooted in history and a hope for the future, where tales of female empowerment are as prevalent as the ones we constantly hear about men. It’s a masterclass in lyricisms, songwriting, and storytelling, and should impress even the titans of country music – including a certain Gath Brooks, with whom Smith shares a personal bond.
She credits getting her start in music while she was studying at Harvard University, when a chance encounter with Brooks helped cement her love for country music and performing. She was attending a lecture the country superstar and Trisha Yearwood were giving at the Cambridge institution, and when Brooks mentioned that he still gets stage fright when performing, Smith, sharing in the fear, stood up during a Q&A session and asked how he deals with it before a show.
“I loved to perform, but I had such bad stage fright that I couldn’t bring myself to get on stage,” she recalls. “So I raised my hand to ask him how he overcomes his nerves. He asked me my name, and what I play, and I told him I play country music. He smiled and said ‘Well this is what we call being baptized by fire! Get on up here and play us a song!’”
Smith didn’t realize it at the time, but that day was a turning point – one that would lead to the Josie Awards, to the Grand Ole Opry, and to putting together Perfume, carrying the torch for all the women who came before and lighting a path forward for those to come.
“Garth gave me his guitar to play and I played a song for him and the other 400 people in the room that day,” Smith concludes. “Afterwards, he gave me a huge hug and told me to keep singing my heart out. And that’s what I’ve been doing ever since.”
Connect with Elisa Smith:
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Appearing on ‘Perfume’:
Elisa Smith: Vocals
Erin Bonnie: Fiddle and background vocals
Devin Malone: Electric guitar and baritone guitar
Brad Sample: Electric guitar and baritone guitar
Kurt Ozan: Acoustic guitar, dobro, pedal steel, and keys
Tim Denbo: Bass
Caleb Gilbreath: Drums and percussion
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‘Perfume’ production credits:
Produced by Elisa Smith
All songs written by Leah Waldo (Elisa Smith)
“Give Me a Mustang” co-written with Erin Bonnie
Recorded at Battery Life Studio in Nashville, Tennessee
Engineered by Caleb Gilbreath
Edited by Sean McLaughlin
Mixed by Chuck Ainlay
Mastered by Eric Conn
Vinyl Pressed by Echo Base
Photography by Lena Nugent
Cover Design by Elisa Smith
A special thanks to Jon, Marren, and Josephine Waldo, Elisa’s parents and sisters, Chuck, Donna, Bunks, Boo, and Meems, Pat and Doug Waldo, Stephen Ainlay, and Stephen Webber, Elisa’s friends at Old North, and to everyone who made this record possible. Ten percent of all proceeds from record sales will be donated to Rosie’s Place, the first female shelter founded in the US in 1974.
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Elisa Smith short bio:
Elisa Smith grew up in a small town in Illinois. She loved music from an early age, she was enraptured by her grandmother’s stories of Nashville and the Ryman in the ‘50s and ‘60s and her father’s love of classic rock from the ‘70s. Rock n roll and vintage country run in her blood. Her songs elicit feelings of nostalgia, pride, wanderlust, heartbreak, and good ol’ fashioned boot-stompin’ mischief.
Smith’s soulful sound blends elements of Americana, folk, and traditional country music. A three-time Boston Music Awards nominee for Country Artist of the Year and three-time nominee in the New England Music Awards for Country Artist of the Year, her heartfelt lyrics and evocative performances have earned her a dedicated fan base. In November 2025, she earned Female Country Song of the Year at the Josie Music Awards in Nashville, accepting the award on stage at the Grand Ole Opry.
Her forthcoming new album Perfume, set for release on vinyl in September 2026, followed by a series of the album’s streaming singles, promises to be a powerful next step in her musical journey.
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