Darden Smith wrote his first song when he was 10 years old. And it has been a continued love for songwriting that has propelled him through a lifelong career as a musician, and now, as the creative force behind the Be An Artist Program.

During more than 25 years as a professional musician, Darden has long transcended traditional singer-songwriter boundaries, and his varied, fascinating legacy continues to evolve. His dozen critically acclaimed albums, recorded from New York to Nashville and London to Los Angeles, weave together rock, pop, country and Americana influences with the musical roots of his home state of Texas. He enjoys broad appeal on both the American and British music scenes, where he has been likened to songwriters such as Leonard Cohen, Elvis Costello and Nick Drake.

Known in the music business for his consistent creative excellence as a songwriter and musician, it is Darden’s enthusiasm for pushing into new territory that frequently has set him apart. His most recent release, Marathon (2010), is not only an album but also a dramatic song cycle for the stage and the foundation for a book collaboration. Marathon’s triple focus has been yet one more turn for an artist who has also, among other things, composed a symphony, produced a BBC radio documentary, scored dance troupe compositions — and founded the Be An Artist Program.

Darden, 49, now divides his time between songwriting, touring and expanding the Be An Artist Program, which was first conceived to foster creativity in school-age students. He also works frequently with managers on corporate retreats, U.S. soldiers returning from combat and small-business entrepreneurs. Darden was recently appointed the 2011-2012 Arts Entrepreneur in Residence at the Oklahoma State University School of Entrepreneurship, where he plans to explore new approaches for the Be An Artist Program.

Growing up in rural central Texas in the 1960s and 1970s instilled in Darden a driven, independent artistic vision. He spent his early childhood on a farm outside of Brenham, the small town where he was born in 1962. Singing in his local church’s choir sparked a hunger to connect with music, and by the third grade Smith was learning to play the guitar. His guitar teacher taught him how to play dozens of Neil Young songs, and, more importantly, instilled in him the idea of writing his own songs.

“I was already writing poetry. And I loved playing the guitar,” Darden says. “My teacher told me that songs were simply poems set to music. And in that moment, I discovered what I loved to do.”

After his family moved to the suburbs of Houston when he was a teenager, Smith took refuge from his unfamiliar world by studying the songs of Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt, and by writing songs of his own. Later, at the University of Texas at Austin, he immersed himself in the burgeoning music scene, where he discovered the blues, reggae, rock and the music coming out of the U.K. By the time he graduated in 1985, he was a regular headliner on the local and Texas music scenes.

He released his debut album, Native Soil, in 1986, and it landed him a publishing deal writing songs. “I was stunned that someone was going to pay me to do what I would do for free,” Darden says. “So was my father.”

Epic Records signed him the following year, and his next album, Darden Smith (1988) produced two country chart hit singles. A duet album with the British songwriter Boo Hewerdine in 1989, Evidence, earned a glowing 3½-star review from Rolling Stone, and Darden’s projectory expanded beyond the country music scene. Two albums from the pop division of Columbia Records followed: Trouble No More (1990) and Little Victories (1993), which included his Top 10 pop hit single, “Loving Arms.”

After releasing Deep Fantastic Blue (1996) on an independent label, he was commissioned by the Austin Symphony Orchestra to write a symphony – even though he’d never learned to read music. “Grand Motion” premiered in 1999 and, as Darden says, “It changed my life. It showed me that I was a musician, not just a songwriter, and that I could do anything I wanted if I would only say ‘Yes.’ ”

“I was realizing my own creative evolution, and I saw immediately how important it was to help others recognize their own creativity, too, especially at a young age.”
On recognizing his changing approach to music at the time when he founded the program

That willingness to say “yes” is exactly what he now tries to instill in students through the Be An Artist Program. “You never know what you can accomplish until you try,” he says. “I didn’t know I could write a symphony, but I knew that I loved writing songs, and that was enough to get me started.”

A stylistic trilogy of rich, reflective albums — Sunflower (2002), Circo (2004) and Field of Crows (2005) — evolved during the same period that Darden created the Be An Artist Program. What began as an informal series of songwriting workshops in 2003 at his son’s elementary school in Austin slowly expanded into the foundation for the Be Artist Program.

“Certainly there was a connection between what I was doing as a musician at the time and what I was starting to develop in the schools,” Darden says. “I was realizing my own creative evolution, and I saw immediately how important it was to help others recognize their own creativity, too, especially at a young age.”

Other Austin-area schools were soon eager to host the Be An Artist Program, which rapidly developed a popular reputation among teachers, school administrators, parents — and, most importantly, students. “That’s the key,” Darden says. “Talking directly with students about finding what they love to do. And then encouraging them to go out and do it, every day.”

Even as the Be An Artist Program expanded in schools across Texas, and later the United States and Western Europe, Darden continued to focus on his own interests as a musician. He released Ojo (2007) and also established his own label, Darden Music. Its debut release, After All This Time: The Best of Darden Smith (2009), chronicled the evolution of his career with tracks from every one of his studio albums since 1986. The 2010 release of Marathon coincided with a series of workshop stage productions, and Darden continues to refine what he ultimately envisions as a touring theatre piece.

In melding his interests in music, education and community involvement, Smith has forged with the Be An Artist Program “another career that has nothing to do with the music business,” he says. “Instead, it’s the essence of music – it’s creativity.”

And most importantly, he adds, “I’m still doing what I love to do.”