Friday, Dec. 25, 2009

Corey Smith rings in the New Year

If there's an independent artist out there giving the major label acts a run for their money, it's modern country artist Corey Smith.

The Athens, Ga.-based singer-songwriter has carved out a niche for himself as a sought-after headliner, with sold-out shows and ticket sales rivaling major label acts. Recently, Smith's new album "Keeping Up with the Joneses" landed at No. 1 on iTunes' Singer/Songwriter Album Chart. Since its release, the album has remained at the top of the chart ahead of notables like James Taylor, Brett Dennen, Amos Lee, and Simon and Garfunkel.

"Keeping Up with the Joneses" is Smith's sixth release on his own Undertone Records.

Kicks! caught up with the 32-year-old father of two for a phone interview from his home in Jefferson, Ga., to chat about his upcoming New Year's Eve performance and his new album.

So you're rehearsing for your upcoming tour? Yeah, we've been off since the day after Thanksgiving and we don't go back out until the day after Christmas. So we're in rehearsal keeping our chops fresh and working on some new material for the tour.

Tell me what you're rehearsing and what fans can expect from your show.

We're going to be introducing several songs off of the new record. That's my focus right now, is promoting the record. I'm really proud of the record. It's the first record I've made that I don't think I'm going to be embarrassed to listen to in a few years. I feel like it's a big step forward and I feel like it's the best collection of songs that I've written. So I'm going to promote that record and introduce songs off the record into the show.

At the same time, I know people come to the show expecting to hear a lot of the older songs and sing along and have that experience that they've had before at my shows, just letting go and having a good time and forgetting about their worries. We're also going to work on arrangements on older material and try to give them new life and make them more exciting.

You have quite the independent success story. How do you feel about achieving so much as an independent artist?

I'm happy and I'm grateful but I'm not one to bask in the glory of some pastaccomplishment. I'm always looking ahead. Yeah, we've done really well as being independent. We've done really well without radio and without access to the mass media, but at the same time we face a lot of challenges and if we don't find ways to meet those challenges, we're going to be taking steps backwards and that's not what I want to happen. So I'm not one to focus on the past. I'm just trying to look forward.

Tell me about your new material.

I think it's just better. They're better songs than the songs on my last record. I think with my last record, "Hard-Headed Fool," I had already tasted success. I had been surprised by the fan base that I had and I was finally making a living playing music. I think it affected my ego and I think I got a little complacent in my writing. I thought that if I wrote a song, that it was going to be good and I didn't critique it. I wasn't as critical of myself as I should've been and I let a lot of mistakes fly and I realize that now.

With "Keeping Up with The Joneses," I was much more critical of myself and I think I had to suffer from that crisis of having my ego collapse and realizing that I wasn't as good as I thought I was or as people were telling me I was. It was a painful process, but I think that hopefully the improvement's apparent on the record.

You mentioned an "ego collapse" - did you go through something like that?

No, it's not like I went through a breakdown or anything, I just went through a period where I doubted myself and wondered if I could do it, if I could live up to everyone's expectations. I realized after I put out my last record that within a year or so afterwards, that I had failed. I didn't accomplish what I wanted to accomplish so it was painful, but it's what motivated me to work that much harder on making this record what it is.

What inspired the title track, "Keeping Up with the Joneses"?

It's an autobiographical song. ...Even though the title would lead you to believe that it's about keeping up with appearances, like the old saying 'keeping up with the Joneses' it's actually about not doing that and being happy with what you have. I think it's mainly a result of the conflict I just mentioned and my sort of resolving that conflict and being content with who I was and what I was capable of and continuing to strive to do better - not because of what people were going to think or the money or the fame that might come from it, but simply for its own sake. Just being happy with what you have, but continuing to strive for something better, just because that's what we do, you know.

It's hard to do that sometimes, speaking from experience. What did you find helped you be happy with what you have?

I certainly don't want to come across like I have the secret to life figured out and I'm blissful all of the time. I think when I just look at where I am with my family and having a house, having a way to get around and having security and having health, when I look back on my childhood and I didn't have those things - I just feel blessed. For most of us, it's not hard to find things to be grateful for in our lives. You just have to make up our minds to look for those things. If we look for things to be upset about and angry about and resentful about then there's no shortage of those, either. But it's in our heads. If we decide to be grateful, then we can be.

Have you thought of any New Year's resolutions yet?

Oddly enough, I haven't. Maybe I haven't realized it's that close yet. The funny thing is that my New Year's resolutions are the same every year, which tells me that I must not be changing that much.