BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. – Gary Smith, known locally for bringing to life the Bellows Falls public radio station, WOOL-FM, and the farm-to-table restaurant on The Square, Popolo, has recently passed away. Smith resided in nearby Walpole, N.H.
However, Smith’s path to the Bellows Falls area was also derived from a creative and influential path in which he became one of the most sought-after producers during the Boston alternative music scene some 40-plus years ago.
Born in 1958 in Newport, R.I., Gary played guitar in rock bands during high school and studied philosophy at Maine’s Colby College, before settling in Boston in the early 80s. He briefly worked at an architectural firm before joining Fort Apache Studio, where he eventually became the manager, then owner of the studio.
The list of national bands and artists that Smith either produced in the studio or managed included the Pixies, 10,000 Maniacs, Radiohead, Juliana Hatfield, Dinasour Jr., Natalie Merchant, Billy Bragg, and Throwing Muses, just to name but a few.
“Gary took us seriously from the very first minute,” Juliana Hatfield of Throwing Muses said in a recent Boston Globe interview. “That was so important to us, and he didn’t want to change it. He just wanted to make it louder – metaphorically and otherwise – so other people could hear it.
Mr. Smith provided a nonthreatening, warm, enveloping environment and his presence in musicians’ lives extended from the soundboard to the dinner table to everything else. The meals he prepared were as memorable as time spent cutting tracks, and his friendship was a feast as well.”
In the early 2000s Smith bought a farmhouse in Walpole and relocated his studio, where he kept producing and managing his close musical friends. In 2001, he also helped rehabilitated the Bellows Falls community radio station WOOL-FM, which is now owned by the Great Falls Community Broadcasting Company.
“He wasn’t just someone with great ideas, he was someone who made those ideas come to fruition,” Cheryl Gay-Sherwin said in a recent interview. Cheryl was a friend of Gary’s and also contributes to WOOL Radio. “WOOL Radio not only stayed alive in large part to Gary, but also went from a low-power radio station to full-power under his guidance. He did all the licensing and much of the administrative work, and he knew all the right technicians with the expertise needed.”
Along with a music and entertainment space, Gary also launched the Popolo Restaurant on The Square, creating one of the area’s first farm-to-table restaurants by utilizing ingredients from his own farm in Walpole.
“Gary was also the first, locally, who began a campaign to ensure the kitchen staff received working salaries,” Cheryl added. “He was amazingly smart, funny, and he was kind, and you really understood that once he let you into his circle. I was honored to be a part of what he referred to as FOG, or ‘Friends of Gary.’”
“Losing Gary has had a bigger impact on the community than I think most people will know. It breaks my heart that so much of his ‘to-do’ list went undone. He will be sorely missed.”