Corey Smith Readies New Album With Zac Brown Producer

In a genre whose biggest artists tend to be those signed to major label deals, Corey Smith is the exception — an indie-minded country singer who’s spent the past decade breaking rules and selling records. 

When he releases While the Gettin’ Is Good on June 9th, though, he’ll do so with the help of Sugar Hill Records. Smith recently signed with the label, joining a roster of country traditionalists, Americana A-listers and roots-rockers who couldn’t care less about the trends of Music Row. For a songwriter who had already sold more than 1.5 million digital singles on his own, partnering with someone like Sugar Hill — a label that’s driven by music, not sales sheets — seemed like a smart way for Smith to increase his reach without cutting off his DIY roots.

“Every major label said no,” says Smith, who funded the recording sessions himself before shopping the album around Nashville, looking for likeminded partners. “A lot of indie labels said no. And then Sugar Hill came to the table, and they were the first label that said what I had been hoping to hear from somebody during the entire process, which was, ‘We just think this is a great record, and we want to put it out and figure out a way to sell it.’

“That’s not putting the cart before the horse,” he adds. “That’s the artistic way to do it: make good music, and then let the label figure out how to sell good music, as opposed to making something that we know we can sell.”