Already hailed for a mix of Country craftsmanship and youthful mass appeal, Conner Smith turns the creative page on ‘The Storyteller’ arriving on October 4th via The Valory Music Co. A five-song contemplation on questions of ultimate substance, the reflective roots standout was conceived in flash, four tracks co-written in sequence, plus a solo-penned revelation casting everyday life as a breathing work of art. Produced by Far From Saints/The Wind and the Wave’s Dwight Baker with the raw, real-world recording philosophy of physical instruments and live takes, Conner fills his voice with thoughtful passion and coming-of-age clarity. Along the way, purpose and presence reveal themselves as elements of a tale worth telling.
We last spoke to Conner at the start of the year, (read HERE) just before he made his first trip across the pond to play C2C: Country to Country in Berlin, London, Glasgow and Belfast as part of the CMA presented Introducing Nashville round alongside Lauren Watkins and Karley Scott Collins, so the fact he has a brand new project about to drop gave us a great opportunity for us to catch up with him.
It's great to see you again man, Berlin back in March seems like a lifetime ago. “Yeah I was quite jetlagged in Berlin but I’m more rested now, that seems a lifetime ago for me too, there’s no doubt.”
Well, you have been a busy guy and it’s exciting times right now having put a project out in August and we’re now building up to another one with ‘The Storyteller’. “Yeah, this has been a process of following the music right now, we put out these last songs to kind of prepare the way for this next chapter, The Storyteller era and idea. I kind of wanted to put out some songs before that, just so people could see where we were going but yeah, man we have been real busy and having fun along the way.” So, this isn’t really a continuation of the ‘Smoky Mountain Sessions’ which you recorded over a couple of days in Asheville where you wanted to space out the eight new songs across the two projects but the five on ‘The Storyteller’ is firmly the next chapter. “Yeah, it’s been really cool over this last year where we got to put out a record and do a semi deluxe version with the ‘Smoky Mountain Sessions’ but all of it for me was building up for this ‘The Storyteller’ idea. This new record are songs that I wrote in two days, all four of them, well there are five songs, four of them I wrote back to back in two days and then right in the middle is a song called ‘Faith From A Farmer’ that I wrote by myself. It was just one of those things where I felt that the skies kind of parted and songs fell out, I wanted to give them the credit because it felt like there was some real gold and they were really special so, I’m excited. I think this is a different style, it’s a different layer and I think as a new artist there are still so many sides to show people and see what people connect to.”
‘The Storyteller’ is the first track and the name of the project but also the name of the tour you’re going to head out on so, you’ve kind of told the fans without actually telling the fans that you would be having something on the way. The emphasis on storytelling is something that is very evident through the five songs, you obviously have ‘Rollin Down The Road’ which is this huge banger amongst them but through the rest of them it really does focus on the story itself and I think you had said before the Asheville project that you didn’t want to just be someone who plays big songs but you write songs and you want to tell the story behind them, which really does come out with ‘The Storyteller’. “I think there is always a balance of depth and consumability for the fans, I’ve been so lucky over the course of my career to have songs that have connected with people, especially at this early stage of my career where there is so much wet cement on who Conner Smith is as an artist. When it’s all said and done, I’ve been an artist for forty years and I hang up the hat to retire, it’s what do I want to be known for? That’s a songwriter. I want to be known as a songwriter for this generation who really said things that matter, that’s my biggest thought, right? I wanted songs which reflected that and I think there is a beautiful balance between the ‘I Hate Alabama’, ‘Take It Slow’ and ‘Creek Will Rise’ with the ‘Faith From A Farmer’, ‘The Garden’ and ‘Nostalgia’. I don’t know how it comes together yet but like I said at the beginning, I’m just following the music and following what feels genuine in that season of life or that day in that room on that write so, we’ll see where that takes us.”
Let’s talk about the absolute banger, the big song out of the five. You’ve got Cleto (Cordero) from Flatland Cavalry on there and that’s a hit, you can just tell straight away is going to be one of those songs which people don’t quite get sick of but people are going to be hearing all the time! How did this collaboration of ‘Rollin Down The Road’ come about? “I am a massive Flatland Cavalry fan, that is kind of where the genesis of this project starts because I have always been drawn to their music, I have always been drawn to storytelling and Cleto was like my favourite guy, he’s like a real life cartoon character when you watch him on stage, he’s just brilliant. They actually just got back form over there.”
Yeah, they did. They played our main outdoor festival at the end of August so, I managed to catch them and they are awesome. “There’s just a magic there with them. I was just a massive fan of theirs and Dwight, who produced this record, is their producer. I hit up Dwight on Instagram and just said, man I love what you do, would love to work together and he’s a straight up Texas country guy, whilst myself I’m way more poppy than he’s used to but he agreed to write and was fired up for it. I flew down to Texas, he lives in Austin and it just happened that Flatland Cavalry was playing the Austin rodeo that week so they were in town all week and Cleto came to write with us. We connected and within an hour of us meeting each other, Cleto and I were really connecting personally and we wrote ‘The Garden’ then right after that, I’d had the chorus to ‘Rollin Down The Road’ in my head for months and said hey what do you think about putting some verses on this so, that’s how we came to do it and as we were writing it, I thought man, wouldn’t it be cool if we wrote a verse that Cleto could sing.”
I didn’t know that he produced for Flatland too, so that’s cool to know. He’s someone that we know over here quite well through The Wind and the Wave but also what him and Patty have been doing with Kelly Jones as Far From Saints. How was Dwight (A. Baker) to work with as a producer, he sat in the chair for the ‘Smoky Mountain Sessions’ as well as this new one so what does he bring to the room that you think is good for you and really attracted you to him? “I think there is a rawness to his production with an authenticity to it that is really cool and I think he has a good balance of giving a song its due. I had just never tried that before, the Nashville scene and the Texas scene are so different where I am so Nashville at my very core. I’m from here, I grew up here, I was born in Tennessee and I got a publishing deal at sixteen with Ashley Gorley who’s like the biggest songwriter ever so, everything about me is Nashville and unashamedly because this is my town and I love it. I was very curious to see what it be and what would it sound like if I could have someone from outside of that box to push me, what I think Dwight did so well was that he encouraged the songwriter in me and he encouraged the artist part where we were able to write some really cool songs and just not chase commercial success, not chase country radio but just chase art, then see what happens from there.”
We mentioned how Dwight has a big connection to over here and you came over here for the first time back in March where it was just you and your guitar up on stage with Karley (Scott Collins) and Lauren (Watkins) who has also just been over here and I actually saw her play last week in London. “Yeah, we were talking whilst she was back over there and reminiscing on our journeys.” She was opening for Morgan (Wallen) over here and he didn’t have a London date on this run because he played a huge festival in the summer, so between his shows, her and Larry Fleet did their own show at Scala in London where it was awesome to see her play again with a band where that is hopefully something that we will get to see from you as well at some point real soon. “The UK has been amazing to us, I mean we had the first ever number one on country radio over there and it lasted for a couple of weeks which was really special but absolutely would love to get a full band over there and play these songs. There’s obviously been such a rise of country music everywhere but in the UK, it has been fun to watch from afar. Then when you are over there, the fans are incredible and it’s only going to continue to grow. We just got to play a show with Luke Combs about a week ago who is like the king of it all, country wise in the UK and I was talking to him about it so I would love to get back over there and play as many shows as we can.”
I thought I would leave the most important topic until last and if people didn’t already know that you were proud to be a Tennessee Volunteer, on the ‘Smoky Mountain Sessions’ project you made sure that they do now with ‘Song For Tennessee’. The Vols are two and o right night now even though you haven’t actually played a school that can play football yet and you aren’t playing one again this week but given the fact we have some new teams down in the SEC this year and the playoffs expanding, are hopes high out in Knoxville right now? “I respect your knowledge here and how you are really dialled in. We’re feeling really good because of what we have, since we have had our new coach, we’ve always had the best offence in the league for the last three years, statistically offence wise it’s been through the roof but now we have a quarterback who could well win the Heisman and our defence looks incredible. Our defence looks better than our offence so that’s where we are in for a good treat. We play Oklahoma the week after this one and hey, NC State were a top twenty five team even if we did embarrass them. Oklahoma will be a real test but mark my words, I think we will beat Oklahoma by fourteen to seventeen points.”
The other thing for the Vols and also for me as an Auburn fan is that we both avoid Texas this year because after that win over Michigan, they are not just joining the SEC this season, they are a real threat to everyone. “Yeah, I agree, I think Texas are going to be real good. You’re an Auburn guy right? We were down there last week to play a show there last Friday and one of my good buddies is the backup quarterback for the Tigers right now so, I hate that you all lost last week but where I’m at, I kind of need the starter to have more games like that so my buddy can get in.”
Well, I’m not wanting any more Payton Thorne horror shows like we saw against Cal so hope your buddy can push him and start getting plenty of reps. Anyway, it’s great to catch up man, look forward to seeing you again when you can make it back over and best of luck with this new project. “Thanks Jamie, I appreciate you man.” The new EP “The Storyteller” from Conner Smith will be released via The Valory Music Co. on October 4th and is available to stream or purchase HERE whilst you can keep up to date with Conner socially by checking him out on INSTAGRAMTIKTOK & FACEBOOK.