Revelation, Of A Sort
What two album cuts released five years apart teach us about country music’s current moment. Also, sort of a Connor Smith review.
The year starts slowly with releases, but now in March things are picking up. A strategy oft undertaken by the up-and-coming artist is to time a release during a low point of the year. It is aimed at reducing competition. At least this is the hope. With today's world being swamped by a deluge of weekly releases, this strategy is probably less viable than once was. Still it is pursued. This year, Connor Smith aimed his shot and released his debut record in the early year post holiday lull period.
Smith, like many a young country music artist, is a social media phenomenon who experienced the now required viral moment prior to experiencing success by the traditional metrics. He is most known for his song I Hate Alabama from a couple years back. It was well timed and fit in with the short lived college football obsession trend that ran through country music. For about a year, songs like Luke Combs’ South On You, Megan Maroney's Tennessee Orange, (to a much smaller extent) Ray Fulcher's Love You Son, Go Dawgs and yes, Smith's I Hate Alabama had a strong showing in the streaming world.
An album did not immediately follow that song, but a record label agreement did. Now, nearly two plus years later, the album has finally arrived. I surprisingly enjoyed it. It was not as faceless as a lot of debut records are. Many artists get forced into a box early on in their careers. Labels look to curate a list of artists They think a fresh face is needed to appeal to teenage girls or some other demographic and they look to fill their whole lineup to appeal to various demographics. The teenage girl, the twenty something country rock guy, the veteran, the prestige act, the radio act..... etc… Not every label fills every slot, but they all carefully curate their lineups. When a new artist gets signed, they were signed for this reason. Therefore, when looking at debut records, one should realize that although it may tell you something about the artist's personal inclination, it also can tell you a great deal how the industry views the music landscape at that moment. This is what I found to be the most intriguing aspect of Connor Smith's debut record.
Let’s take a look at the record. You'll find a lot of upbeat music that certainly borrows the most propulsive moments from rock. However, the album as a whole is couched in deeply warm, and even neotraditional organic tones. Acoustic guitar is aplenty throughout the record, and drives the tracks more often than its electric alternative. Also dobro. It's a worthwhile listen, Smith has the presence and charisma to hold your attention. Certainly not without flaws, but overall worth your time.
I want to call the readership's attention to the closing track "God Moment". Out of all the songs, it most reveals a significant amount about the industry views on things. The demographics of country music listeners have a strong overlap with contemporary Christian music. At least more so than other genre audiences. This means that lip service and more is paid towards religion and faith. It isn’t just the overtly religious songs that are demonstrative of this audience share. Many country singers have strong cultural connections to Christianity, either in their personal faith or the general milieu of growing up in the Bible Belt. Even artists that produce overwhelmingly secular material pepper in phrases of a religious bent (Lord knows, the Man upstairs, the good Book, I've been saved etc..). Take a listen to the recent Morgan Wallen record and you find that although Wallen‘s lifestyle certainly seems to be strongly hedonistic, spiritual culture and the lifestyle of the Bible Belt surrounds the mentality and approach of the album. Even Wallen's self conception is often framed in biblical terms. See I Wrote The Book, Devil Don’t Know, Man Made A Bar, In The Bible.
Many times even an artist who usually puts out secular themed music will drop the occasional religiously themed song. See Baptism by Kenny Chesney, Believe by Brooks & Dunn, I Saw God Today by George Strait, and even something slightly more unorthodox like the noted bro country architect Brian Kelley’s Sunday Service In The Sand.
This is not unexpected given audience and artist backgrounds, beliefs and demographics. It also means that even if it is not de rigueur to put out some religious content early on in a career, it is a smart move that can result in crossover growth. Connor Smith, or most likely his label, chose to release God Moments to capitalize on this exact dynamic.
As a song it is fine, not incredibly deep but perhaps elegant in its simplicity. It contains straightforward reflections on Smith’s relationship with God and how he finds God in the small and big moments all throughout his life. Led by acoustic guitar and soft drums, with dobro featuring heavily in both the harmonies and solo parts of the song, this song falls squarely into the organic and country side of modern country music.
This is about as surprising as a deer crossing a highway. It happens every day. This organic template is en vogue nowadays, so it smartly contributes towards establishing Smith’s country bona fides. However, it is soft enough around the edges that it fits in with the tamer ballads found on Christian radio. This is right about what you would expect for a crossover aimed song.
Careful consideration is also given to God Moment’s context on the album. It is the closing track, frequently a place for a reflective moment. It also occurs after eleven prior tracks firmly established Connor Smith as not being a super religious singer. This way, less affiliated audiences are not turned off. A little bit is given to everyone, thereby opening up maximum opportunity for this young artist to connect and grow commercially.
However, also similar to a deer crossing the highway, you don’t expect to run into it every time you get in the car. There was no guarantee that this kind of song would hew to a traditional template. It was only a handful of years ago that a band by the name of LOCASH attempted a similar pivot. LOCASH was a band that came up in the middle of bro, and never carved out an identity for themselves. They experienced some trend capitalizing success, and have a couple of songs that played well on the radio. They have fizzled since their peak of success in the late 2010’s. However, back in 2019, they were aiming to build off of the success of the previous record and expand audiences. At that point it was clear that bro country was, if not dead, then quite nearly there and that pop country was the fresh flavor of the decade. Many tried to make this transformation. Parmalee has been the poster child. Only some succeeded.
The resulting album, Brothers, started off pretty strong. The lead off single only got up to twenty six on country airplay charts, but the follow up- One Big Country Song- was a genuine smash. It peaked at number two, and cracked the top fifty on the Billboard Hot 100. To this day, it is far and away their highest streaming single. Missed opportunity to call the song One Last Big Country Song because that was just about the last anyone heard of them. The follow up single sputtered, and they were soon dropped from their record deal.
What I found curious about this album is how it encapsulates the band’s attempt at expanding themselves to reach a broader audience. To their credit, in some respects it worked. One Big Country Song was indeed different from prior material, was well aligned with the meta at the time, and successfully reached large amounts of listeners. The fifth song on the track list was a religiously themed number. Similar to Smith, they attempted to curate a religious audience. They put out God Thing.
God Thing was also a song about noticing God in their life, reflecting on the relationship, and recognizing and giving thanks for what the Man upstairs has done. For example, the time the narrator wrapped his car around the tree and emerged unscathed, or finding the girl he eventually wed. The similarities end there. God Thing, unlike the subdued reflective organics of God Moment is a snap track nightmare of a pop country track. Truly a creature of the moment, the Sam Hunt meets Chris Tomlin influence is very clear. The mix is nearly entirely composed of robotic rhythmic drum loops and finger snaps. A solitary guitar lick repeats itself ad nauseum. This beat genuinely was killing country music.
I find it intriguing how two different artists, on different labels attempted to do the exact same thing and took two very different routes to try and get there. It is indicative of change having occurred.
Often snobby country music consumers- very much like myself- flip on the radio or give a quick gander at the country charts and wave it off as being too far gone for help. We say things like, “We just need to ditch the mainstream because it will never get better”. And I think we forget that ultimately that this is a world of (at least to some degree) incentive structures. As the audience, we provide incentive. There has been a noticeable shift in consumer preference over the last five years, and the change from God Thing to God Moment is what those shifting preferences have manifested, even among the slow to change, risk averse, molasses morass of mainstream Nashville country music. The change is clear if you look for it.
I think it is a real sign of how far things have come. Heck, this Connor Smith album, although somewhat traditional, especially when compared to pre pandemic Nashville fare, is not perceived as a Jon Pardi- eque one man swimming against the stream type. This sound is firmly within the Overton Window that the standard mainstream release exists in. Yes, southern pop material still is wildly popular and we even have trap influenced country (as soon as pop finally starts letting go of trap, country just needs to bring it back. Of course.) But from a bird's eye view, there are also plenty of those warm organic country songs we so enjoy and appreciate. It is clear that in spite of its excesses, the genre’s biggest stage- the mainstream- is in a fundamentally more diverse and countrified place compared to where it was five years ago.
Great essay! Aside from the performers, are many producers and writers working both sides of the street: “secular” country and Christian? My hunch is yes, even more so than performers themselves, but I don’t know…