photograph by Tim Lytvinenko

“I couldn’t really live without music. You just make time for it.” – Wade Smith, criminal defense lawyer

Wade Smith knew he loved music when he co-founded Raleigh’s oldest string band 50-odd years ago, but he never mistook it for his life’s purpose. That place was already taken – by the law. “My only dream has been to be the best lawyer I could possibly be,” he says. “I’ve worked and worked and worked for it.” Over the last half-century, Smith, 77, has built Tharrington Smith, which he co-founded, into one of the state’s leading law firms, and burnished his own reputation as North Carolina’s top criminal defense lawyer. But the former Morehead Scholar has always made time for music. Bloomsbury, the band he created with fellow lawyer Wade Hargrove and singer Lemma Mackie (who has since passed away), has played at the Tavern on the Green, the Greenbriar Hotel, and across the pond. Smith sings and plays the guitar, banjo, and fiddle. At 65, he took up the violin, and he still gets Bloomsbury together every Wednesday night to practice. They play folk, rock ’n roll, bluegrass, and show tunes. Bloomsbury also includes Smith’s daughter, Karen Smith Linehan, and her husband, Terry Linehan.

Bloomsbury’s next concert will raise money for Raleigh Little Theatre’s amphitheatre programs:
July 18, 8 p.m., Raleigh Little Theatre. Tickets: raleighlittletheatre.org.