The Sit Down with Caitlyn Smith
Back in October, during Country Music Week, Caitlyn Smith followed up her standout performances at Country to Country with a second UK trip of 2022, where we not only learnt that there was more on the way following her April release “High” but that this was only the first part of the project. Twelve months after taking us to these highs, she now shares the balance in life by incorporating the opposite end of the emotional spectrum to deliver “High & Low”. Just before the album’s April 14th release (available to pre-save/pre-add HERE) we caught up with Caitlyn over Zoom to dive into the full details of this stunning record.
Hi friend. How are you doing?
“I’m good. How are you, Jamie?”
I’m doing great mate. Are you back in Nashville now before the gigs this weekend?
“I am down in Nashville. I’ve been mostly here since the beginning of the year, just writing and being in town which is really great plus it’s a beautiful sunny day today so I can’t complain.”
Well, here it’s about as stereotypically British as it can be weatherwise in London. Fifty shades of grey isn’t actually a steamy novel, it just describes the sky over here. Are these shows this week in town, the first dates of the tour or have you done a couple already?
“I kicked off the tour last week in Texas, where I hadn’t really done any headline stuff before, so it was a tonne of fun. Texans are amazing and they love country music. I kicked off with three shows down there, then had the Easter holiday and back up in Nashville this week before we’re pretty much at it until June.”
Well, beyond touring, we’ve finally got the full record coming out this week.
“It’s so crazy and it feels a little surreal that the release date is finally here, so I’m pumped.”
From when we had chatted last year and touched on the full project, I kind of in my head wasn’t sure if you we’re going to split it where the highs came first, and the lows followed but I really like how you have jumbled them around. The cool thing with that is the way it really fits the premise of the record with the yin and yang or equal and opposite effect that highs and lows have where sometimes there are elements of both.
“I think my original plan was to split it like a side A and side B with the high and the low, but as I was writing the record and even during the sequencing, I realised that not every song has truly a high or truly a low. They all hold space for variation of emotion, and it might be bittersweet like it might be a low but there’s also a fond memory, so I started messing around like you said with the sequencing. It felt like it flowed better because that’s how life flows too.”
The things you have said before about making this record were you are opening up to being more vulnerable, not just highlighting positives in life and how everything isn’t as clean cut as things just being a real high or a real low. Some of the LOW songs, start from a happy place where you reflect back as it has come down and that has passed like with “Lately” or “I Think Of You” which not everything is sad about the whole story.
“They’re not sad right away but the overarching emotion of missing and the memory is the theme of the song. There is this wonderful quote, I don’t want to mess it up, but it is “the most beautiful things are wrapped in ribbons of pain” and my friend Aimee Mayo told me that. I think that’s true because the most beautiful songs ARE wrapped in ribbons of pain.”
Hi friend. How are you doing?
“I’m good. How are you, Jamie?”
I’m doing great mate. Are you back in Nashville now before the gigs this weekend?
“I am down in Nashville. I’ve been mostly here since the beginning of the year, just writing and being in town which is really great plus it’s a beautiful sunny day today so I can’t complain.”
Well, here it’s about as stereotypically British as it can be weatherwise in London. Fifty shades of grey isn’t actually a steamy novel, it just describes the sky over here. Are these shows this week in town, the first dates of the tour or have you done a couple already?
“I kicked off the tour last week in Texas, where I hadn’t really done any headline stuff before, so it was a tonne of fun. Texans are amazing and they love country music. I kicked off with three shows down there, then had the Easter holiday and back up in Nashville this week before we’re pretty much at it until June.”
Well, beyond touring, we’ve finally got the full record coming out this week.
“It’s so crazy and it feels a little surreal that the release date is finally here, so I’m pumped.”
From when we had chatted last year and touched on the full project, I kind of in my head wasn’t sure if you we’re going to split it where the highs came first, and the lows followed but I really like how you have jumbled them around. The cool thing with that is the way it really fits the premise of the record with the yin and yang or equal and opposite effect that highs and lows have where sometimes there are elements of both.
“I think my original plan was to split it like a side A and side B with the high and the low, but as I was writing the record and even during the sequencing, I realised that not every song has truly a high or truly a low. They all hold space for variation of emotion, and it might be bittersweet like it might be a low but there’s also a fond memory, so I started messing around like you said with the sequencing. It felt like it flowed better because that’s how life flows too.”
The things you have said before about making this record were you are opening up to being more vulnerable, not just highlighting positives in life and how everything isn’t as clean cut as things just being a real high or a real low. Some of the LOW songs, start from a happy place where you reflect back as it has come down and that has passed like with “Lately” or “I Think Of You” which not everything is sad about the whole story.
“They’re not sad right away but the overarching emotion of missing and the memory is the theme of the song. There is this wonderful quote, I don’t want to mess it up, but it is “the most beautiful things are wrapped in ribbons of pain” and my friend Aimee Mayo told me that. I think that’s true because the most beautiful songs ARE wrapped in ribbons of pain.”
I LOVE that! That’s another gem you’re sharing with me, that’s up there with “songwriters hurt your feelings, so you don’t have to”!
The one song for me that I’ve been drawn more to as I listen to the album and whether that may be because last time, we spoke you had said that whilst “High” itself was the real highest high and this song was the real low but also with you producing the record “Alaska” sounds very different to when it is just you with your guitar. I really hear how it is being from a very vulnerable place.
“Yeah, absolutely. I think it probably is the lowest low because it really was the lowest emotional place that I lived in, in this record. There are songs like “The Great Pretender” where it’s not really a low but more something that I’ve been wrestling with my whole life with putting on a mask and even things like dealing with loss and things like that that I carry but I think “Alaska” is the most current.”
With “The Great Pretender” and also “Writing Songs and Raising Babies” that is where you show the idea of taking off the mask really. In the modern era of social media and today’s culture, “The Great Pretender” is so relatable because it is what everyone does, that is the title of the tour and the song is a key message behind the album idea of taking the mask off, why did you decide to put that last on the record?
“I had actually completed the entire record and turned it into the label then I had another session the week after with Bob DiPiero and Joe Clemmons, who are two of my favourite collaborators. We were actually just writing on Zoom, and I had this idea rattling round in my brain called “The Great Pretender” which just came off a lot of things that I’d been dealing with and living through, then when we wrote the song I knew right away, I was like oh no, I think this song needs to go on the record. I sent it to my label, and they were like yeah, this totally needs to go on the record. The beautiful thing about this song and the growth that I’ve gone through in this record from the girl that tracked the first song, I’ve seen footage of me closed body, so nervous and so much anxiety to when I recorded “The Great Pretender”. I didn’t have time to fly back to Nashville, I was in Minnesota at the time, so I recorded the whole thing in my little ten by ten office. When I decided to put it at the very end, it really seemed like the perfect period at the end of the sentence of this growth period. It was like the last layer falling away in a way of all of the things that I’ve been digging through and working through in my life, that was the last thing for me to really work on. It was the last song because it was the last song, we recorded but also a great final statement.”
The one song for me that I’ve been drawn more to as I listen to the album and whether that may be because last time, we spoke you had said that whilst “High” itself was the real highest high and this song was the real low but also with you producing the record “Alaska” sounds very different to when it is just you with your guitar. I really hear how it is being from a very vulnerable place.
“Yeah, absolutely. I think it probably is the lowest low because it really was the lowest emotional place that I lived in, in this record. There are songs like “The Great Pretender” where it’s not really a low but more something that I’ve been wrestling with my whole life with putting on a mask and even things like dealing with loss and things like that that I carry but I think “Alaska” is the most current.”
With “The Great Pretender” and also “Writing Songs and Raising Babies” that is where you show the idea of taking off the mask really. In the modern era of social media and today’s culture, “The Great Pretender” is so relatable because it is what everyone does, that is the title of the tour and the song is a key message behind the album idea of taking the mask off, why did you decide to put that last on the record?
“I had actually completed the entire record and turned it into the label then I had another session the week after with Bob DiPiero and Joe Clemmons, who are two of my favourite collaborators. We were actually just writing on Zoom, and I had this idea rattling round in my brain called “The Great Pretender” which just came off a lot of things that I’d been dealing with and living through, then when we wrote the song I knew right away, I was like oh no, I think this song needs to go on the record. I sent it to my label, and they were like yeah, this totally needs to go on the record. The beautiful thing about this song and the growth that I’ve gone through in this record from the girl that tracked the first song, I’ve seen footage of me closed body, so nervous and so much anxiety to when I recorded “The Great Pretender”. I didn’t have time to fly back to Nashville, I was in Minnesota at the time, so I recorded the whole thing in my little ten by ten office. When I decided to put it at the very end, it really seemed like the perfect period at the end of the sentence of this growth period. It was like the last layer falling away in a way of all of the things that I’ve been digging through and working through in my life, that was the last thing for me to really work on. It was the last song because it was the last song, we recorded but also a great final statement.”
The other thing I have seen ahead of the release is that you have got some new merch including the album coming out on vinyl. Like a lot of people that became a very expensive hobby during the pandemic and the good news for me is that it looks like we will be able to get it easily over here as I’ve seen it listed for when it’s released on a very large multinational company’s website that shares it’s name with a rainforest. It’s a two disc, is that right?
“Yes, it’s two.”
Yes, that’s awesome!
“I know so it’s a real experience. I could have smushed the whole thing on one, but I like it. “Starfire” was a two disc and I enjoy a two-disc record, it’s more of an experience if it presses.”
Lastly, I know things are crazy busy right now and we haven’t heard anything concrete but on a scale of you have something booked this year, it’s just waiting for the right time to tell us and the other end being this year is looking wild so it may have to wait until 2024, where sort of are we at the moment with plans for you to com back and see us?
“Yeah, we’re really trying to sort it out. We’ve got something in the works in summer, which I know is difficult for booking shows, but I still might show my face over there anyway. We’re working out details right now so fingers crossed it will all come together and that’s where I’m at.”
That’s really good news and with this record, particularly “Alaska” as an example of hearing a fuller sound which I think the steel is a big part of that but whilst I’ve seen you loads where it’s just you and your guitar, hopefully you can have some friends on stage with you next time.
“Oh, I hope so too! Fingers crossed!”
Amazing! Thank you so much my friend, best of luck with the record which is stunning, and we’ll catch you again soon.
“Thank you so much my dear and I’ll see you real soon.”
“Yes, it’s two.”
Yes, that’s awesome!
“I know so it’s a real experience. I could have smushed the whole thing on one, but I like it. “Starfire” was a two disc and I enjoy a two-disc record, it’s more of an experience if it presses.”
Lastly, I know things are crazy busy right now and we haven’t heard anything concrete but on a scale of you have something booked this year, it’s just waiting for the right time to tell us and the other end being this year is looking wild so it may have to wait until 2024, where sort of are we at the moment with plans for you to com back and see us?
“Yeah, we’re really trying to sort it out. We’ve got something in the works in summer, which I know is difficult for booking shows, but I still might show my face over there anyway. We’re working out details right now so fingers crossed it will all come together and that’s where I’m at.”
That’s really good news and with this record, particularly “Alaska” as an example of hearing a fuller sound which I think the steel is a big part of that but whilst I’ve seen you loads where it’s just you and your guitar, hopefully you can have some friends on stage with you next time.
“Oh, I hope so too! Fingers crossed!”
Amazing! Thank you so much my friend, best of luck with the record which is stunning, and we’ll catch you again soon.
“Thank you so much my dear and I’ll see you real soon.”
“High & Low” Track listing
1 High – Intro (Caitlyn Smith, Miley Cyrus, Jennifer Erin Decilveo)
2 High (Smith, Cyrus, Decilveo)
3 Dreamin’s Free (Smith, Lori McKenna, Shane McAnally)
4 Lately (Smith, Troy Verges, Gordie Sampson)
5 Mississippi (Smith, Verges, Decilveo, Jordan Minton)
6 Good As Us (Smith, Ben West, Dave Barnes)
7 Alaska (Smith, West, Sampson)
8 Maybe In Another Life (Smith, Decilveo)
9 I Think Of You (Smith, Ruston Kelly)
10 Nothing Against You (Smith, McAnally, Matt Jenkins)
11 Downtown Baby (Smith, Sampson, Simon Wilcox & Thomas Salter)
12 Writing Songs and Raising Babies (Smith, Aimee Mayo, Christopher Marsh Lindsey)
13 I Don’t Like The World Without You (Smith, Sampson & Verges)
14 The Great Pretender (Smith, Bob DiPiero & Joe Clemmons)
Caitlyn Smith’s self-produced new album “High & Low” is released on April 14th through Monument Records and is available to pre-save/pre-add HERE. We are eagerly awaiting news of her return to the UK but if you happen to be Stateside, you can find dates and ticket information for her current “The Great Pretender Tour” on her WEBSITE and everyone can keep up to date with Caitlyn socially through INSTAGRAM TWITTER & FACEBOOK.
1 High – Intro (Caitlyn Smith, Miley Cyrus, Jennifer Erin Decilveo)
2 High (Smith, Cyrus, Decilveo)
3 Dreamin’s Free (Smith, Lori McKenna, Shane McAnally)
4 Lately (Smith, Troy Verges, Gordie Sampson)
5 Mississippi (Smith, Verges, Decilveo, Jordan Minton)
6 Good As Us (Smith, Ben West, Dave Barnes)
7 Alaska (Smith, West, Sampson)
8 Maybe In Another Life (Smith, Decilveo)
9 I Think Of You (Smith, Ruston Kelly)
10 Nothing Against You (Smith, McAnally, Matt Jenkins)
11 Downtown Baby (Smith, Sampson, Simon Wilcox & Thomas Salter)
12 Writing Songs and Raising Babies (Smith, Aimee Mayo, Christopher Marsh Lindsey)
13 I Don’t Like The World Without You (Smith, Sampson & Verges)
14 The Great Pretender (Smith, Bob DiPiero & Joe Clemmons)
Caitlyn Smith’s self-produced new album “High & Low” is released on April 14th through Monument Records and is available to pre-save/pre-add HERE. We are eagerly awaiting news of her return to the UK but if you happen to be Stateside, you can find dates and ticket information for her current “The Great Pretender Tour” on her WEBSITE and everyone can keep up to date with Caitlyn socially through INSTAGRAM TWITTER & FACEBOOK.