The hard way

The word "cope" is used often by Mindy Smith. She was an adopted child who had to cope with rejection at school and, at 19, the death of her mother. Smith dealt with the pain by entering Cincinnati Bible College. Later, she spent several frustrating years as a singer in Nashville, where she performed on so many open mikes and writer's nights that she lost track. She slept on various friends' couches and was "pretty much homeless for a while," she says.

These days, Smith is coping with a new phenomenon: success. She is reaping national praise for her country-pop debut album, "One Moment More," which blends haunting Appalachian-style singing with pop-rock reminiscent of Shawn Colvin, and is suddenly on a fast track.

She first became known through the lead single ("Jolene") on the tribute album "Just Because I'm a Woman, Songs of Dolly Parton." She appeared on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" this week and has performed with Parton on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno."

"It's a little overwhelming," says Smith, who performs a 7 p.m. show tomorrow at Capo's in Lowell. "I've gone from nothing to this. I can't believe the support I'm now getting."

Smith's rising status is a testament to her willpower. One new song, "Fighting for It All," states: "You can try to keep me down, but you'll never get my will. . . . You'll never take my will to fight."

Other songs, though, describe her fragility and a creeping loss of hope, which began with teachers saying she had no musical talent. The tune "Raggedy Ann" finds her "making believe I'm happy" even though she's "falling apart at the seams." And the opening "Come to Jesus," featuring acoustic guitar, mandolin, and lap steel, suggests turning to Christ when life doesn't seem worthwhile. She's not preaching, she's just offering an alternative.

"Sometimes I'm self-destructive, and sometimes I go the faith route," she says. "That's how I cope with life. I just wrote these songs from an honest place. I'm not trying to be a big star, and I'm not a Christian artist. My music is open to anybody."

Smith, who is in her early 30s, grew up in the Long Island town of Smithtown, N.Y., and later moved with her father to Knoxville, Tenn., after her mother died. She absorbed a lot of mountain music there, then headed to Nashville.

The mix of influences she picked up along the way is quite unusual. They range "from Sarah Vaughan to the Sundays and the Cure, then Appalachian music and bluegrass by Alison Krauss and the Cox Family," Smith says. "Then I got excited by Shawn Colvin. Any woman who can play guitar like that and make her own records is someone I'm attracted to. Then I discovered Patty Griffin and Julie Miller -- two of the best songwriters of the past decade. I also listen to Eva Cassidy. I'm all over the place. If it's good, I want to hear it."

After toiling a few years in Nashville, where she worked as a cashier to make ends meet, Smith was discovered by Steve Buckingham, a vice president with Vanguard Records who has worked with Parton, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Dionne Warwick.

"I've done this for quite a few years," says Buckingham, a 25-year veteran. "But you don't come across many artists like Mindy, believe me. I remember when I first heard her in the fall of 2002. A musician in Nashville gave me a demo of hers, and I was driving out of town and put it on my CD player. The first song was `Come to Jesus.' I listened to eight bars of it and pulled over and called my assistant and said, `Find this girl.' I knew immediately that she was special."

More record labels soon jumped into the hunt, but Smith chose to go with Vanguard because they let her make the record the way she wanted, with sparse instrumentation that didn't distract from her voice. Then came the boost from Parton, who became aware of her through Buckingham and invited her to be on the tribute album.

"She's been a tremendous help. If Dolly decides she wants to be excited about something, she doesn't play around," Smith says. "Dolly also comes from hard times, and she still connects with that. I'm just fortunate she has reached out to me.

"My whole life has been a roller coaster," says Smith. "But I'm blessed that I made the record, and I'm floored that people are getting onboard with it."

O.A.R. rising: The mainstream has yet to embrace O.A.R., but word-of-mouth has helped enable the band to book an impressive two nights at the Orpheum Theatre starting Thursday. "We've been built on a grass-roots business model," says saxophonist Jerry DePizzo, paying homage to such predecessors as the Dave Matthews Band, Phish, and Foxtrot Zulu.

The name O.A.R. stands for Of a Revolution and was hatched after band members Marc Roberge and Chris Culos studied abroad in Israel during high school. It was a life-changing event for them, hence the "lofty" name of O.A.R., says DePizzo. The band formed in the Washington, D.C., area, then jelled while attending Ohio State.

"We've toured nine months of the year since 2001," he says. "When the band first started, it was heavily influenced by island music, especially the reggae of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Burning Spear. That was a common influence, and it's been expanding ever since. "

Adds DePizzo: "We don't really rehearse as a band. Very often we just get out in front of people and work things out that way." Fittingly, the band has received a big push from the jam-band community. (The group played the Bonnaroo Festival last year.)

O.A.R. incorporates more high-energy funk and theatrical pop than it used to. The band is very idealistic ("The glass is always half full with us," DePizzo says), and some lyrics are almost gushy; witness a few songs on the latest studio album, "In Between Now and Then."

At the Orpheum, O.A.R. shares a bill with Robert Randolph & the Family Band, which it met on last summer's Sprite Liquid Mix Tour. "We clicked immediately, and by the second show Robert was onstage with us," says DePizzo. "There's definitely a mutual respect there, and we're looking to keep it going."

Bits and pieces: Yes is coming to the Tsongas Arena on May 15. Tickets, $50-$75, go on sale tomorrow at 10 a.m. . . . Red Martinis, a new jazz room, opens in the Spin Nightclub in Saugus next Friday. . . . Sarah Borges has started a Tuesday residency at ZuZu! . . . Jim's Big Ego, the Audrey Ryan Band, and others perform a benefit for Howard Dean at the Middle East Downstairs on Wednesday. . . . Inner Visions, a Virgin Islands reggae band, is at the same club Feb. 19. . . . Ultrasonic Productions plans a tribute to "Jesus Christ Superstar" at the Regent Theatre May 14-16. Auditions are Feb. 20-21. More details at www.ultrasonicproductions.com. Tonight: Matt Nathanson and Erin McKeown at the Paradise; John Troy Band at Toad; Kevin Connelly at the Plough & Stars; the Blushing Brides at the Attic in Newton. Tomorrow: Moonraker, Chauncey, and Violet Nine at T.T. the Bear's; Paved Country at the Plough; Pressure Cooker at Johnny D's; Georgia Overdrive at Toad. Sunday: Laguardia at the Middle East Upstairs (and Urge Overkill downstairs); Thalia Zedek at T.T.'s; Frank Morey at the Independent; and a Bob Marley birthday tribute at Bill's Bar with the Berklee College Bob Marley Ensemble featuring Matt Jenson.

(Mindy Smith is at Capo's tomorrow at 7 p.m. (early show only, with Kerri Powers opening). Tickets $10 in advance, $12 day of show. 98 Middle St., Lowell; 978-453-5755 or www.capofolk.com.)