The Sit Down with Smithfield
Smithfield have been a rising force in music since forming in Texas nearly fifteen years ago, and they have achieved over one hundred and fifty million global streams, 40 Grand Ole Opry appearances and a regular fixture at CMA Fest with their sold-out annual fan parties. The duo has enjoyed critical acclaim while building a loyal fanbase worldwide with their powerful vocal harmonies and emotionally resonant songwriting. The duo of Trey Smith and Jennifer Fiedler first made the trip across the pond for C2C: Country to Country Festival in 2023 and are set for their long-awaited return in August and September for a run of shows that includes performing at this summer’s The Long Road Festival.
I appreciate you taking the time to hang and looking forward to you guys coming back to see us, not too far away.
“It's getting closer, we were talking about that yesterday, how it just kind of crept up on us and here we are like a month and a little bit out, so I'm just excited to get back over there, it's been long enough at this point.” (T)
Firstly, let's hop back in time to 2023 when you were over here for C2C, what are your memories of being over here in London, getting to play that festival and getting to meet the UK fans for the first time?
“Yeah, I remember being so nervous to play over there because it was our first time, but the rumours were true. You guys really do love music and listen intently, that was my biggest takeaway. We were the earliest slot on the first day at something like 10AM and I remember telling Trey side stage, there was like no one there when we were sound checking, where I'm like, nobody's gonna be here, no one's going to care, but whatever, we'll put on the best show we can. Then we get out there at ten and you guys came in by the droves, we were shocked by that, like 10AM in the morning and you guys showed up, so you love your country music and I just remember feeling like, okay, the UK are our people. Our music, called country with heart is a little more heartfelt and it's not exactly the party music but you guys tend to just appreciate lyrics so much and that’s what I took away from it. I know that our music is going to do so well in this market and be able to connect with so many people, which is what it's all about, it's just about finding your people in your community and I felt like after that performance, we had three that weekend and we were like the UK are our people, that was my big take away.” (J)
When you come back, you're playing a nice variety of venues because you've obviously got the two festivals and we'll talk about The Long Road in a little bit but looking at the other places you're playing, you’re doing Forty-Five Vinyl in York and Hey Joe in Brentwood, which are both Nashville style listening rooms. Then Rodeo’s in Birmingham has much more of a party vibe and the last show in London is at a stunning church in St. Pancras, so it must be quite nice to be able to mix up the type of venues and the type of sets that you are playing, depending on the atmosphere and the environment.
“Absolutely. I think it's fun to play different venues like that. Like Jen said, our music is called country with heart, so it does translate really well in those listening room style venues and I can't wait for St. Pancras just because I'm thinking about how the acoustics in those old churches are always so good and I'm just thinking about how our harmonies in a place like that are going to sound awesome. Then you like to play the shows where you can jump around the stage and move around too. We're going to have a full band for Rodeos and British Country Music Festival which are the only two shows on this run that will have a full band, so it's nice to have a variety and be able to show the UK both sides of what we do. We can do the intimate, storytelling songwriter round style acoustic set, but then we can also get up on the stage and put on a pretty damn good show too.” (T)
So, by the sound of it, when you play at Long Road, it's just going to be the two of you. In terms of the capacity there, it's about 10k and it's just a really nice site with how it's themed. It has a big main stage, the second stage is a tent, one of them is the front porch of a cabin which looks really cute and the other is like a juke joint in the woods so it’s really cool and it’s a good vibe crossing county, roots and Americana, which I’m sure you will enjoy but also getting to see an outdoor festival over here for the first time.
“Definitely, we've heard a lot of great things about The Long Road and honestly, we were pretty pumped when they told us that we got a slot on it.” (T)
“It's getting closer, we were talking about that yesterday, how it just kind of crept up on us and here we are like a month and a little bit out, so I'm just excited to get back over there, it's been long enough at this point.” (T)
Firstly, let's hop back in time to 2023 when you were over here for C2C, what are your memories of being over here in London, getting to play that festival and getting to meet the UK fans for the first time?
“Yeah, I remember being so nervous to play over there because it was our first time, but the rumours were true. You guys really do love music and listen intently, that was my biggest takeaway. We were the earliest slot on the first day at something like 10AM and I remember telling Trey side stage, there was like no one there when we were sound checking, where I'm like, nobody's gonna be here, no one's going to care, but whatever, we'll put on the best show we can. Then we get out there at ten and you guys came in by the droves, we were shocked by that, like 10AM in the morning and you guys showed up, so you love your country music and I just remember feeling like, okay, the UK are our people. Our music, called country with heart is a little more heartfelt and it's not exactly the party music but you guys tend to just appreciate lyrics so much and that’s what I took away from it. I know that our music is going to do so well in this market and be able to connect with so many people, which is what it's all about, it's just about finding your people in your community and I felt like after that performance, we had three that weekend and we were like the UK are our people, that was my big take away.” (J)
When you come back, you're playing a nice variety of venues because you've obviously got the two festivals and we'll talk about The Long Road in a little bit but looking at the other places you're playing, you’re doing Forty-Five Vinyl in York and Hey Joe in Brentwood, which are both Nashville style listening rooms. Then Rodeo’s in Birmingham has much more of a party vibe and the last show in London is at a stunning church in St. Pancras, so it must be quite nice to be able to mix up the type of venues and the type of sets that you are playing, depending on the atmosphere and the environment.
“Absolutely. I think it's fun to play different venues like that. Like Jen said, our music is called country with heart, so it does translate really well in those listening room style venues and I can't wait for St. Pancras just because I'm thinking about how the acoustics in those old churches are always so good and I'm just thinking about how our harmonies in a place like that are going to sound awesome. Then you like to play the shows where you can jump around the stage and move around too. We're going to have a full band for Rodeos and British Country Music Festival which are the only two shows on this run that will have a full band, so it's nice to have a variety and be able to show the UK both sides of what we do. We can do the intimate, storytelling songwriter round style acoustic set, but then we can also get up on the stage and put on a pretty damn good show too.” (T)
So, by the sound of it, when you play at Long Road, it's just going to be the two of you. In terms of the capacity there, it's about 10k and it's just a really nice site with how it's themed. It has a big main stage, the second stage is a tent, one of them is the front porch of a cabin which looks really cute and the other is like a juke joint in the woods so it’s really cool and it’s a good vibe crossing county, roots and Americana, which I’m sure you will enjoy but also getting to see an outdoor festival over here for the first time.
“Definitely, we've heard a lot of great things about The Long Road and honestly, we were pretty pumped when they told us that we got a slot on it.” (T)
By the time you do come over, people will have heard about this new album that's coming in September, so tell us more about it and what do you hope is the message that people are going to take away from this record when they finally get to hear it?
“Yeah, so this is “Country With Heart, Part Two” which actually completes that whole album and that whole story that we're telling. It’s our first album ever after fourteen years of being a band, going through the highs and lows of this industry. It's taken us a long time to get to an album but what makes this one special is we're doing our first vinyl record with it which is going to be part one and part two, along with two of our biggest songs “We’ll Figure It Out” and “If It Ain’t You” which don’t exist on any album or EP at all so there’s finally going to be a physical tangible thing that has our two biggest songs on it. Then there's going to be a bonus unreleased track that we're actually not going to release until 2027 digitally, so just some really fun, exciting things around our first album with the vinyl record as the focus of it. My hope and takeaway is that we put together a really heartfelt letter that's inside the insert of the vinyl so I'm just going to kind of take away from that. It's more than just a collection of songs, you know, it's our journey in music with the highs, the lows, friendship, family, faith and relationships, all from two sides of the story, two perspectives. You don't get that with any solo artists, we come together with beautiful harmony with every single chorus and element of our music, which is what makes us so special, I think. I just hope it stands out, it might not be the typical thing that works in country music, but it's what we do, it's what it's what we bring to the table that's unique and different. It's just Smithfield being our authentic selves and I think that's a beautiful thing to grow into as an artist and finally be able to put out a project that speaks to who you are as an artist and as a person where the whole point is to connect with people and connect with your community of fans. I believe that this record will do that.” (J)
You've said how this will be the whole story of your journey, but looking at the two most recent songs that came out, you wrote both of those with Karen, so are the new songs that will be on part two generally from a more recent pocket in time or are some of them ones that are a bit older, that you knew would live on the first album and you just needed to wait for it to come?
“So, one of the ones you're referring to is “Let You” with Karen Kosowski and Emma-Lee which was written, gosh, probably at least five years ago, I'd say. That song has been on quite the journey because it's actually been cut by two other artists since we wrote it. One of them was a Canadian artist and it actually got to like top 10 or something crazy like that at Canadian country radio and then there was another trio in the US that cut it then put it out as well. I think at one point we were just like, are we missing something here? What's going on, everybody keeps cutting this song. I think sometimes when you write a song, maybe your headspace just isn't in the right place to do it yourself at the time and not to sound cliche, but the timing wasn't right. I think we got to this record and we were just like, this is a great song, this is a jam, we need to put this out, record this and put our spin on it as almost the way we saw it on the day we wrote it. It kind of was a beautiful journey to get around to this record and be on this record, then “All Over Nashville” is the other one you're talking about and I’ll let Jen talk about that because I feel like this was your title that you came in with.” (T)
“Yeah, so this is “Country With Heart, Part Two” which actually completes that whole album and that whole story that we're telling. It’s our first album ever after fourteen years of being a band, going through the highs and lows of this industry. It's taken us a long time to get to an album but what makes this one special is we're doing our first vinyl record with it which is going to be part one and part two, along with two of our biggest songs “We’ll Figure It Out” and “If It Ain’t You” which don’t exist on any album or EP at all so there’s finally going to be a physical tangible thing that has our two biggest songs on it. Then there's going to be a bonus unreleased track that we're actually not going to release until 2027 digitally, so just some really fun, exciting things around our first album with the vinyl record as the focus of it. My hope and takeaway is that we put together a really heartfelt letter that's inside the insert of the vinyl so I'm just going to kind of take away from that. It's more than just a collection of songs, you know, it's our journey in music with the highs, the lows, friendship, family, faith and relationships, all from two sides of the story, two perspectives. You don't get that with any solo artists, we come together with beautiful harmony with every single chorus and element of our music, which is what makes us so special, I think. I just hope it stands out, it might not be the typical thing that works in country music, but it's what we do, it's what it's what we bring to the table that's unique and different. It's just Smithfield being our authentic selves and I think that's a beautiful thing to grow into as an artist and finally be able to put out a project that speaks to who you are as an artist and as a person where the whole point is to connect with people and connect with your community of fans. I believe that this record will do that.” (J)
You've said how this will be the whole story of your journey, but looking at the two most recent songs that came out, you wrote both of those with Karen, so are the new songs that will be on part two generally from a more recent pocket in time or are some of them ones that are a bit older, that you knew would live on the first album and you just needed to wait for it to come?
“So, one of the ones you're referring to is “Let You” with Karen Kosowski and Emma-Lee which was written, gosh, probably at least five years ago, I'd say. That song has been on quite the journey because it's actually been cut by two other artists since we wrote it. One of them was a Canadian artist and it actually got to like top 10 or something crazy like that at Canadian country radio and then there was another trio in the US that cut it then put it out as well. I think at one point we were just like, are we missing something here? What's going on, everybody keeps cutting this song. I think sometimes when you write a song, maybe your headspace just isn't in the right place to do it yourself at the time and not to sound cliche, but the timing wasn't right. I think we got to this record and we were just like, this is a great song, this is a jam, we need to put this out, record this and put our spin on it as almost the way we saw it on the day we wrote it. It kind of was a beautiful journey to get around to this record and be on this record, then “All Over Nashville” is the other one you're talking about and I’ll let Jen talk about that because I feel like this was your title that you came in with.” (T)
“Just speaking to your question though, about some songs were written in this time period and then others were written probably seven or eight years ago, which I think is really cool. There's a song called “Tell Me You Don't” which is going to be on the new album that was written in like 2018. Then “Tonight Talkin’” which is going to be the focus track of the album was written two weeks before we went into the studio. We literally just had a write on the books, we weren't thinking, oh, this is for the record, this will probably be for the next thing and then we wrote it and we were like, man, I don't know, we need another up-tempo and this is it. It's just crazy how some songs can be written a decade ago and others are two weeks before you go in and record, I find that is just what makes music fun, right? The best song always wins out. Like Trey said, sometimes when you write the song five years ago, I loved writing it, but it doesn't fit the project we're doing now, we’ll save it for when there's a whole album. Maybe it's not a single and you know that but it's such a great song that it needs to live on a project, oh, but we're not in a project cycle right now, so to your point, yeah, you end up saving those for later. “All Over Nashville” and “Let You” though, were written in that same time period and kind of had a similar sonic sound with Karen being a producer herself as well. But, you know, Trey's taken that role on since 2020 and now produces all of our music. This is his first full-blown album as a producer too, which makes this even extra special. It’s like we’re the songwriters, the producers, the artists and the whole shebang.” (J)
Lastly, the one question I did want to ask you both is, obviously, you've been doing this for a long time now and you've been proudly independent for the whole time. You've worked really hard at what you do, you get complete control about how you do things, you haven't got all these people telling you what you can and can't do but you guys chose to move from Texas to Nashville to make music. Yes, the sound in Texas is a little different but there are more and more artists like CoJo, Parker McCollum, Corey Kent, Koe Wetzel and Treaty Oak to name a few, are choosing to stay there to make music rather than basing what they do out of Nashville. When you guys moved and made that choice to head to Nashville, what was the draw to you that you felt that was a better fit for the way you wanted to create?
“Yeah, I'll start by saying, I feel like when we moved here in 2012, I don't think that was quite as common for those guys that are able to kind of home base it in Texas and still do it. I think for us it was our sound, it came down to our sound a lot. We figured out pretty quickly that we weren't that typical red dirt Texas sound and don't get me wrong, we are proud to the bone Texans and that will always be home. If anybody still asks us to this day, we live in Nashville but we're Texans and I just wanted to make that clear. I think it mostly came down to our sound, we knew that what we did, did not thrive in that market and we knew that this is where we needed to come to give ourselves the best shot, to meet the right people, get the right team members and cultivate that team that we needed to be successful in the space that we needed to exist in. So even though we are Texans, we weren't singing Texas country.” (T)
I appreciate you guys taking time to hang this morning and really looking forward to you being back over next month to play some cool venues along with the pair of festivals here plus the one in Denmark too.
28 August 2026 - The Long Road Festival - Leicestershire
30 August 2026 - The Crown Inn & Pub - Selsey
3 September 2026 - Hey Joe Music & Coffee - Brentwood
4 September 2026 - Forty-Five Vinyl Cafe - York
5 September 2026 - Rodeo’s BBQ - Birmingham
6 September 2026 - British Country Music Festival, Blackpool
7 September 2026 - The Cluny - Newcastle
9 September 2026 - St. Pancras Old Church - London
11 September 2026 - Nashville Nights Songwriter's Festival - Odense, Denmark
The new album “Country With Heart, Part 2” from Smithfield will be released on 11th September and is available to pre-save/pre-order HERE. You can find ticket information for all of their European tour dates (listed above) on their WEBSITE and follow along and see all that they are up to socially over on INSTAGRAM FACEBOOK & TIKTOK.
The Long Road Festival takes place at Stanford Hall in Leicestershire between Thursday 27th and Sunday 30th August, with tickets on sale now. You can find ticket details and further information on their WEBSITE and you can be the first to know all updates ahead of this year’s event by checking out their socials on INSTAGRAM or FACEBOOK.
Lastly, the one question I did want to ask you both is, obviously, you've been doing this for a long time now and you've been proudly independent for the whole time. You've worked really hard at what you do, you get complete control about how you do things, you haven't got all these people telling you what you can and can't do but you guys chose to move from Texas to Nashville to make music. Yes, the sound in Texas is a little different but there are more and more artists like CoJo, Parker McCollum, Corey Kent, Koe Wetzel and Treaty Oak to name a few, are choosing to stay there to make music rather than basing what they do out of Nashville. When you guys moved and made that choice to head to Nashville, what was the draw to you that you felt that was a better fit for the way you wanted to create?
“Yeah, I'll start by saying, I feel like when we moved here in 2012, I don't think that was quite as common for those guys that are able to kind of home base it in Texas and still do it. I think for us it was our sound, it came down to our sound a lot. We figured out pretty quickly that we weren't that typical red dirt Texas sound and don't get me wrong, we are proud to the bone Texans and that will always be home. If anybody still asks us to this day, we live in Nashville but we're Texans and I just wanted to make that clear. I think it mostly came down to our sound, we knew that what we did, did not thrive in that market and we knew that this is where we needed to come to give ourselves the best shot, to meet the right people, get the right team members and cultivate that team that we needed to be successful in the space that we needed to exist in. So even though we are Texans, we weren't singing Texas country.” (T)
I appreciate you guys taking time to hang this morning and really looking forward to you being back over next month to play some cool venues along with the pair of festivals here plus the one in Denmark too.
28 August 2026 - The Long Road Festival - Leicestershire
30 August 2026 - The Crown Inn & Pub - Selsey
3 September 2026 - Hey Joe Music & Coffee - Brentwood
4 September 2026 - Forty-Five Vinyl Cafe - York
5 September 2026 - Rodeo’s BBQ - Birmingham
6 September 2026 - British Country Music Festival, Blackpool
7 September 2026 - The Cluny - Newcastle
9 September 2026 - St. Pancras Old Church - London
11 September 2026 - Nashville Nights Songwriter's Festival - Odense, Denmark
The new album “Country With Heart, Part 2” from Smithfield will be released on 11th September and is available to pre-save/pre-order HERE. You can find ticket information for all of their European tour dates (listed above) on their WEBSITE and follow along and see all that they are up to socially over on INSTAGRAM FACEBOOK & TIKTOK.
The Long Road Festival takes place at Stanford Hall in Leicestershire between Thursday 27th and Sunday 30th August, with tickets on sale now. You can find ticket details and further information on their WEBSITE and you can be the first to know all updates ahead of this year’s event by checking out their socials on INSTAGRAM or FACEBOOK.