Aside from a devoted corps of college-age, beer-drinking fans, most have never heard of Corey Smith, the guy headlining Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre on Saturday.
The soft-spoken native of Jefferson could easily be the envy of every singer/songwriter trying to make a living in the music business. Smith had been moonlighting as a guitar player in clubs around Athens and Atlanta while he was still a social studies teacher at North Gwinnett High.
Crowds instantly took to his style and his songs about drunkenness, sexual liaisons and country music conventions.
Smith recalls early gigs at bar-and-grills like the Wild Wing Cafe in Marietta that drew up to 500 fans. When he sold out the Georgia Theatre in Athens in 2005 following the release of his third album, he quit teaching.
His music hits a sweet spot among young Southerners, and Smith works hard to make them happy. He plays up to 180 dates a year, offers free downloads of his songs, cheap concert tickets and generous meet-and-greets, where fans often tell him his music has changed their lives. When Smith launches into standards that put him on the map but never made the charts -- songs like “Drinkin' Again” or “Twenty-One” -- his voice is drowned out by crowds whooping and singing along.
“Corey is still not affiliated with a major label, and we remain committed to making his art as discoverable as possible through whatever resources we have available,” his manager, Marty Winsch, said. “We try and define success through day to day accessibility to happiness, which is hard to quantify.”
Smith spoke with the AJC recently about the appeal of his music.
Q: The boozy sing-along quality to your songs has drawn a comparison to Jimmy Buffett. Are you comfortable with that?
A: My music has a lot of imagery and stories from the barroom. That’s not all of my music; it just seems to be the more popular stuff. In teaching school, I learned that sometimes you have to put sugar in people’s medicine. If you can be funny or identify with the kids, then they’ll listen to you when you’re telling them important things.
I look at my songwriting the same way. I can be honest and write about my times in college or what happened on a Friday night. And it’s popular, which is great. It’s more likely then that people will listen to my more serious songs, which are about love and commitment, spirituality or society and politics.
Q: In a lot of your songs, you present an image of a poor, white Southern male who embraces all races and religions. Are you trying to dispel certain Southern stereotypes?
A: That’s one of the biggest goals I have. Popular country music perpetuates a stereotype of a Southern working class male. I know I don’t fit that stereotype and lots of people I know don’t fit that stereotype. I don’t think popular country music does a service to the working class in the South. I don’t think it does a lot for social justice in the South. It perpetuates some pretty nasty ideas.
Q: What influences your songwriting?
A: The authors in the academic world are a much bigger influence on my music than musicians. From Walter Parker to Erik Erikson to Joseph Campbell. The ideas in those books are interwoven all through my music but most people don’t know they’re there. At heart, I'm more of a social studies teacher than I am a musician.
Q: How do their ideas show up?
A: The main idea in the song “Keeping Up with the Joneses” is that I’m officially a product of the social system. When I was a kid, my mom used food stamps, and essentially a state grant is what paid for me to go to college. Without the help of the state, I wouldn’t be who I am.
The government plays a role in helping people who are disadvantaged get a leg up.
Q: Arguing for more government isn't exactly a common country-music message.
A: Automatically when people hear someone singing with a Southern accent, they assume that person’s a Republican. I’m not going to say what party I belong to, but why is that? Why does that stereotype have to go along with it?
Event preview
Corey Smith with Colt Ford and Will Hoge.
Parking lot opens at 4:30 p.m.; doors open at 5:30 p.m.; show starts at 6:30 p.m. Saturday. $29. Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, 2200 Encore Parkway, Alpharetta. 404-733-5010. www.vzwamp.com .
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