"David LaMotte makes music as timeless and beautiful as his native Smoky Mountains." - Neil Fagan, Performing Songwriter Magazine "We spend a lot of time sifting through singer/songwriter CDs looking for substance. We found it on Hard Earned Smile." - Mark Keefe, P.D., WNCW-FM "...a broad, mature and human record, brimming with characteristic hope... but with the grounding and aural framework to make it indelibly real... this could just amount to a star-making turn for LaMotte. Big words, but it's a big record." - Mountain Xpress "This is a remarkable album about connections--the connection to personal history and heritage, the connection with other people, and that trickiest of connections, the one between head and heart." - Jan Brick, WERS-FM Boston, MA "Hard Earned Smile has as many musical personalities as LaMotte has picking styles, and is sure to place LaMotte into the class of favorite performers in 1997." - New Texas Magazine David LaMotte's Hard Earned Smile presents a wide range of emotions that are not reflected on his young, enthusiastic face; the songs tell much more of the story. This, his fourth of seven recordings, was recently voted the favorite by fans on the davidlamottefan.com web site. Hard Earned Smile was spendidly produced by Jeff Tarayla. Support from some of today's finest acoustic musicians, including David Wilcox, Bill Mize, Stephanie Winters (the Nudes), Chris Rosser, David Hamburger, and Tom Prasada-Rao, adds to the solid rhythms and sonic depth of his finest collection yet. David LaMotte is one more example of the stellar music scene flourishing in the Asheville, NC area. LaMotte's song Grey Eagle was the closing track on the ISG compilation Here We Are, and the opening track, Dark and Deep, was recently chosen as one of ten winners in the international Songs Inspired By Literature contest. It will soon be included on a SIBL compilation CD with tracks from Emmylou Harris, Aimee Mann and Grace Slick. These increasingly direct examinations of love, loss, and spiritual growth have garnered David LaMotte a huge following. Listen to Hard Earned Smile and you'll understand why.