For someone who spent his time between karaoke bars in Texas with his mom and later, in Portland, listening to the White Album with his dad, as a kid Elliott Smith had quite a varied introduction to music. Since then, he's made his mark on the scene with karaoke and Beatle's-inspired tunes to boot. Okay, perhaps there's a bit more emotion to it than that.

Elliott's family was very musically inclined. His maternal grandfather was a technically gifted Dixieland drummer and his grandmother, a talented singer. He was born in Nebraska, then moved to Texas with his mother after his parents' divorce, where he began piano lessons at age 9 and frequented karaoke bars with his mother and step-father. Early in high school he made the decision to relocate to Portland with his father. His dad taught him a number of songs on guitar, including a few by the Beatles, and Elliott soon put that knowledge to use.

He began writing his own songs at the tender age of 14 and even formed his first band during his freshman year of high school. They called themselves Stranger Than Fiction and never played out because they were pretty happy just making tapes of their work. Though, if you find those recordings now, you won't see Elliott Smith credited. He was billed with his official name, Steve Smith, of which Elliott has said, "Steve is like ... like jockish, sorta. Big handsome Steve, big shirtless Steve, ya know, like football playin' blond haired Steve. Ya know? I didn't like it." (sweetadeline.net) It wasn't til later in high school that he decided to change it after a friend's nickname for him stuck. Though, to this day it still hasn't been legally changed.

After college, Elliott continued to play in a band called Heatmiser, which he had formed with Neil Gust (a buddy from school), drummer Tony Lash and bassist Brandt Peterson. Their first gig is rumored to have been on Valentine's Day, 1992. Eventually though he went out on his own without the band dynamic, and by 1994 his first solo album, Roman Candle, was released. His next two albums Elliott Smith (1995) and Either/Or (1997) explored everything from co-dependency (both interpersonal and physical, from an ex-girlfriend to alcohol and "dope") to his grandmother's glee club the "Sweet Adelines". Heatmiser played their last show in 1996 and from there on out, Elliott was on his own.

In 1997, filmmaker and long-time fan Gus Van Sant requested permission to use a handful of his songs in the movie Good Will Hunting. The song "Miss Misery" was nominated into the Best Original Song category by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the Oscars the following year. Smith appeared to perform the song Oscar night alongside Trisha Yearwood and Celine Dion - probably a bit surreal to the otherwise quiet and private songwriter and perhaps not exactly where he had pictured himself, while penning the heart-wrenching and personal material that got him there. His album, XO, came out later that year.

2000 saw the release of Figure 8 and the summer of 2003 should bring the 6th self-titled release from Mr. Smith. It's rumored to be a double album which (in this profiler's opinion) is long-overdue. Turns out that a combination of karaoke, Beatles tunes, and musically predisposed family members have helped produce an artist way beyond his time.

-Julie Smith