“When I write a song,” says Darden Smith, “the way it ends up is usually not the way I thought it would be when I started.” And that notion of exploration, of following the path of the unexpected, has been a constant force in his career as a musician. Smith has transcended traditional singer-songwriter boundaries and over the past 25 years has assembled a varied, fascinating musical legacy as fulfilling to his listeners as it has been to himself.

His 10 critically acclaimed studio albums, recorded from New York to Nashville and London to Los Angeles, weave together rock, pop, country, folk and Americana influences with the musical roots of his home state of Texas. Based in Austin since 1982, Smith, praised by All Music Guide as “a singer-songwriter blessed with an uncommon degree of intelligence, depth, and compassion,” has created a distinctive, admired body of work and has long enjoyed an international following as a compelling live performer.

Beyond his foundation as a singer-songwriter, Smith has, among other things, composed an orchestral piece for the Austin Symphony, written and produced a documentary for BBC Radio 2, scored compositions for experimental dance troupes and created a dramatic song cycle for a theatre production now underway. And his “Be An Artist Program,” which he founded in 2003, is a popular series of in-school workshops that seek to foster creativity in students across the United States and Western Europe.

His most recent release, After All This Time: The Best of Darden Smith, is an enchanting 16-song collection chronicling what No Depression called “the restless stylistic evolution” of “an artist beyond category.” It neatly encapsulates Smith’s distinguished career with selections from every one of his studio albums, plus two new tracks. The debut release on his own Darden Music label, After All This Time draws its title from his 2002 No. 3 single on the BBC Radio 2 chart. It includes his 1993 hits “Loving Arms” and “Little Victories” as well as “Reminds Me (A Little of You)” from Evidence, his acclaimed 1989 collaboration with the British singer-songwriter Boo Hewerdine.

“Sierra Diablo” is a new track included as a preview from Smith’s upcoming album Marathon, which is scheduled to be released in the spring of 2010 and promises another stylistic shift from his most recent work. Also included is “Dying’ To Be Born Again,” a new honky-tonk, gospel-twanged piece recorded in 2009 with Harlem Parlour Music Club, which “brings me back around full-circle to roots music, where I started,” Smith said.

Growing up in rural Texas in the 1960s and 1970s instilled in Smith a driven, independent creative vision. Born in Brenham in 1962, Smith spent his early childhood on a farm outside of the small town in central Texas. “I grew up in the country playing by myself and walking around everywhere,” he said. He credits those hours wandering through nearby fields and woods “for giving me an imagination and a gift for making up stories.” Singing in his local church’s choir, and listening to its pipe organ, sparked a hunger to connect with music, and by the third grade Smith was learning to play the guitar. His guitar teacher taught him how to play every song on Neil Young’s Harvest and After the Gold Rush albums, and, more importantly, instilled in him the idea of writing his own songs. He wrote his first song when he was 10 years old.

When his family moved to the suburbs of Houston when he was a teenager, Smith took refuge from his unfamiliar world by studying the songs of Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt and John Prine, and by writing songs of his own. He was soon slipping into Houston clubs to watch established singer-songwriters perform, and by the time he went on to graduate from the University of Texas in 1985, Smith was making his own mark as a regular performer on the Austin and Texas music scenes.

He released his debut album, Native Soil, in 1986, featuring fellow Texans Lyle Lovett and Nanci Griffith on harmony vocals and earning accolades from All Music Guide as “a gem.” The Nashville division of Epic Records signed Smith soon after, and his 1988 album Darden Smith produced two country chart hit singles, “Little Maggie” and “Day After Tomorrow.” Evidence, his 1989 Chrysalis Records duet album with Boo Hewerdine of The Bible, earned a glowing 3½-star review from Rolling Stone, and Smith’s projectory expanded beyond the country music scene.

His major label deal with Epic was transferred to the pop division of Columbia Records, yielding Trouble No More in 1990 and, three years later, Little Victories, which included his pop hit single, “Loving Arms.” He went on to release on independent labels Deep Fantastic Blue (1996) and Extra Extra (2000).

A stylistic trilogy of lauded albums from Dualtone Music Group followed: Sunflower (2002), which included the hit “After All This Time” and was praised by All Music Guide as “mature, passionate and thoughtful”; Circo (2004); and Field of Crows (2005), described by Harp as “a mesmerizing set of songs with a musical and emotional richness that so many other singer-songwriters only strive for.” In 2007 Smith issued Ojo, a limited-edition recording from a series of live concerts in New Mexico.

An enthusiasm for creative exploration has led Smith to develop unusual pairings within his career as a singer-songwriter. He was the first local artist commissioned to create a work for the Austin Symphony, yielding “Grand Motion” in 1999, and his 2006 documentary for BBC Radio 2, “Songs from the Big Sky,” skillfully explored the relationship between renowned Texas songwriters and the landscape of the Lone Star State. And his most recent venture has unfolded with Marathon, a dramatic song cycle matching 10 mesmerizing works onstage with a storyline based on Norwegian mythology.

Smith’s nonprofit “Be An Artist Program” (www.be-an-artist.com) has melded his interests in music, education and community involvement into an innovative program that uses songwriting to encourage students to explore creativity in a way not usually seen in traditional school classrooms.  In doing so, Smith has forged “another career that has nothing to do with the music business, but it’s still music and art,” he says. “I like working in that big context and doing different things.”

Even as Smith celebrates his 25th year as a professional musician with After All This Time: The Best of Darden Smith, there’s no doubt that new ventures are ahead. For him, being a musician has always been about answering the question, “I’ve done that, now can I do this?” He gratefully credits his co-writers, producers and fellow musicians with fueling and supporting his creative path, and for nurturing his own artistic muse. “I’m more excited about music now than I’ve ever been,” Smith says. “And there’s no end to it.”