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.
