Corey Smith

Corey Smith, who sings country songs, writes his own material, and plays guitar, entered the world in Jefferson, Georgia, located only a short distance from Athens, the area’s established music hub. Early familiarity with country sounds led him to develop a compositional method that rejected familiar genre subjects such as pickup trucks and nighttime gatherings around rural fires, favoring instead a grounded depiction of modern country living. After finishing high school he enrolled at Gainesville State College, moved later to the University of West Georgia, and completed his studies at the University of Georgia, where social studies formed his major. He had already begun writing songs and performed them at social events, receiving supportive responses from classmates and acquaintances. Once his education ended, Smith spent several years teaching world history, world geography, and guitar at North Gwinnett High School in Georgia before choosing at age 28 to devote himself fully to music. His first self-produced recordings appeared in 2003 with Undertones, followed the next year by In the Mood. Three further albums—The Good Life in 2005, Hard-Headed Fool in 2007, and Keeping Up with the Joneses in 2009—appeared on the Undertone label he operated independently. Chart entry arrived in 2011 when The Broken Record, issued by Nashville’s Average Joe’s Entertainment, reached number 17 on the country listings. He issued the concert set Live in Chattanooga in 2012 and the acoustic Maysville in the Meantime in 2014, each project attracting additional listeners. For the first time he worked with an outside producer, Keith Stegall, whose productions for the Zac Brown Band share a comparable sensibility toward country music. In early 2015 Smith joined the established roots imprint Sugar Hill, resulting in the release of While the Gettin’ Is Good several months afterward.