The Great American Love Story, as Told by Conner Smith’s “Smoky Mountains”
Photo by Luke Hutcherson.
While Alabama might not have captured Conner Smith’s heart, North Carolina holds a special place. After all, the Tar Heel State is the home of his fiancée, Leah Thompson (i.e. half of the reason he decided to entitle his debut album, out last Friday, “Smoky Mountains”).
Smith, a Nashville native, inadvertently gives me a mini-geography lesson while telling me about the inspiration behind his album. It turns out that the Smokies, so named because of their ever-present mist, are a sentimental metaphor for the intertwining of two hearts from different states. “Part of the reason we called it ‘Smoky Mountains’ was because of how interwoven Leah’s and my love story is,” Conner explains. “She’s from North Carolina, I’m from Tennessee, and the Smoky Mountains connects the two.” If that doesn’t make your heart melt, I don’t know what will.
As soon as you press play on the album, you can’t help but feel a rush of excitement. The project opens with a nostalgic title track and the sounds of nature, which seemingly catapult you back in time to your own personal fondest memories of the Great Outdoors. Just the energetic title track alone makes you want to go play outside like you did when you were a kid and run through an endless grassy field just like Conner does in the “Smoky Mountains” music video.
As you listen down the album, a timeless love story emerges. From Conner being instantly smitten the first time he met Leah to his fear of heartbreak and subsequent decision to take a chance on love, “Smoky Mountains” explores the highs and lows of the couple’s relationship and ultimately culminates at a summit where their love stands as resilient as the enduring peaks of the infamous mountain range the album is named after.
“Having a debut album is kind of a daunting task,” Conner admits. After signing a record deal at eighteen and then having to wait until after the pandemic to officially start releasing music, Smith, now twenty-three, has never been more prepared to release his first major project.
“I wanted each song to have a different sort of emotion to it that adds to this larger story of the last three years of my life, which have been so formative. Twenty to twenty-three is a pretty formative period of your life, and I really felt like I grew up and figured out a lot more of who I am and who I want to be as a man, so I tried to have these songs capture that in a way that was still great country music,” he says.
And great country music it is. The twelve-track album is an impressive first big step onto the country music scene – as it arguably should be, coming from someone who’s had a guitar in his hand since the age of four.
Unlike a lot of other country music artists, Smith grew up in Music City with a passion for writing songs. He wrote his first, a worship song, when he was six. According to his mom, Conner didn’t have the guts to write a song for a girl yet, so he wrote love songs for Jesus. By the time he was twelve, he was performing one of those songs on SportsCenter, where his little league team made a guest appearance prior to winning seventh place in that year’s Little League World Series.
Smith has been playing the guitar since he was four-years-old. Photo via Conner Smith’s YouTube.
“I really felt like I grew up and figured out a lot more of who I am and who I want to be as a man, so I tried to have these songs capture that in a way that was still great country music.”
– Conner Smith on the heart behind his debut album.
As evidenced by his debut project, Smith and his songwriting abilities have since come a long way. Today, the two songs that Smith says he’s most proud to have written are “Meanwhile in Carolina,” a sonic fairytale that proves he and his fiancée were destined to be together, and “Roulette On The Heart,” a deeply reflective ballad that Smith wrote after he and Thompson took a one-week break from their relationship.
“About three months into dating, Leah needed some space,” Conner says. “She had a lot going on and she was just trying to figure some stuff out, so it was kinda that in-between where I was like, ‘Oh gosh, I’m either going to get really hurt here or this is going to be the best thing ever,’ so I thought of that idea, you know, I’m genuinely playing roulette on the heart. We took about a week of a break and then she was ready to go again, but I was thankful for it because it gave me a lot of song ideas, and that was the key one that came out,” he shares. “I think ‘Roulette On The Heart’ is probably her favorite song I’ve ever written as well. That song just feels special – it feels like a song that could last for a long time in country music.”
The “Smoky Mountains” album cover. Photo via The Valory Music Co.
Smith thoughtfully concludes the album with “God Moments,” a reflection on those seemingly unexplainable events that occur throughout our lives that many people tend to write off as mere “coincidences.” They’re never actually coincidences, though, as Smith knows well. After all, God moments are not only responsible for the launch of Smith’s career, but also for the fostering of his and Thompson’s initial connection.
“The Lord just intervened on it,” Smith tells me after walking me through the story of how he and Thompson first met. At the time, Smith and his guitar player were out in California – where Thompson currently lives – doing a shoot for CMT. “We were playing a very unimpressive acoustic show at this hotel, and my guitar player and close friend knew Leah and we had mutual friends, so he invited her and her roommate out,” Conner reflects. “She came out to the show, and the moment I saw her was kind of a defining moment for me in my life. She just had a calmness about her, and I was so attracted to it. We became friends after, and then for about three or four months, we were just friends.”
The night the pair met, Thompson invited Smith to go to church with her that Sunday. Smith and his guitar player, however, had 8AM flights out of California booked for that time. Nevertheless, the Lord had other plans.
“Sunday morning, we woke up and all the flights were canceled,” Conner tells me. “We weren’t leaving California until the next day, so we ended up going to church with Leah, and that was like the day we actually connected and became friends. It was very much a ‘God moment.’”
“God’s just the type that would cancel a flight/So forever wouldn’t get away/I guess it’s true what they say about Him/How He works in mysterious ways,” Smith accordingly sings in “God Moments.”
Smith and Thompson in 2023. Photo via @connersmithmusic on Instagram.
“She came out to the show, and the moment I saw her was kind of a defining moment for me in my life.”
– Conner Smith on meeting his fiancée, Leah Thompson, for the first time.
“One of my prayers is to have a daily flow of God moments,” Conner informs me. “I’ve found that living in a way of dependency on the Lord to where I can’t take the credit for what happens has been such a key thing for me to try to practice and teach myself. This job is like an entire world and business built around you as a human, and the attention’s on you all the time. It’s not very conducive to how I feel like humans are meant to live,” he acknowledges. “There’s a verse – Psalm 127 – that essentially says, ‘If man builds a house that the Lord has not blessed, then his work is in vain,’ so I try to look at that through my career and be like, ‘Alright Lord, whatever happens, you do it and you take the credit.’”
“For me, the daily rhythms of coming into humility and just recognizing that no matter how hard I work, only the Lord has control, allows me to release a lot of the anxiety of this job. If God is the inspirer of all creativity, then, for me to inspire my best, I gotta submit myself to His will. I’ve just found in my life that there’s the life I have when I’m in control, and there’s a life that I have when I let the Lord be in control, and they’re two vastly different things. I’ve been very, very blessed to get to see that firsthand and to have the right people around me to disciple me and help me grow,” Conner reflects.
Needless to say, Smith’s prayers have been answered. “There’s been so many moments throughout my career that were just absolute God moments,” Conner shares. “For example, after I signed my record deal, Covid happened and just halted everything. It was like I had kind of been put on the shelf for two years. I’m obviously eighteen and ready to chase down this dream, but after Covid, I felt like I didn’t know when it was ever going to happen,” he says.
“I got to a point where I was working really hard and writing so many songs, and it felt like the music was finally at a place where I was ready to let people in on it, but nothing was happening. I just got really mad, and I was journaling and I kind of yelled at God in my journal. I just said, ‘Lord, I’ve done everything I can. You have to do something because I can’t make anyone care – I can’t make anything move.’ Three days after I wrote that in my journal and surrendered it to Him, I got a call out of absolutely nowhere – there was no merit for this in any way – but I got a call that Thomas Rhett was going to take me on tour,” Smith shares. “I had no songs out, I had nothing going. Thomas Rhett and I had met once or twice, and then he called Scott Borchetta and said that he was going to take me on tour. And that was what started my whole career.”
“A similar thing happened with ‘I Hate Alabama,’” Conner tells me of the massively popular tenth track off of his debut album. “I basically get sent this song that I don’t think the label’s ever going to let me put out, it’s recorded underground, and I don’t really have plans to put it out on streaming platforms. But we were like, ‘Listen, this song just feels special, and we’re going to get it out, and we’re going to get it out ASAP,’ so I just threw it on Instagram and it blows up. We officially put it out seven days later, and then Alabama loses for the first time in two years the day after we put out the song. That changed my life.”
If there’s anything we can learn from Smith’s example, it’s that we have absolutely nothing to lose, but rather everything to gain by having an active prayer life and a strong faith in God. Doing so will open our hearts and minds and allow us to recognize all of the incredible, life-altering events that take place in our lives every day.
“I think it’s really special that ‘God Moments’ closes out the record because it kind of puts a stamp on the chapter a little bit and it does so in a very kinda catchy country way that just feels right,” Smith says of the song.
Wise beyond his years, it’s clear that Conner Smith is only just getting started. His long-awaited debut proves that he’s destined for big things – as in Thomas Rhett big. With a strong faith, a demeanor humble enough to impress even the Good Lord above, and a discography that’s impossible not to love, Smith is virtually guaranteed a place in the Country Music Hall of Fame.
“Smoky Mountains” represents everything that is the Great American Love Story, while simultaneously encapsulating all the best parts of the Great Outdoors. Most importantly, it recognizes God’s guiding hand through it all. It’s a beautiful and honest collection of carefully-curated songs that’s guaranteed to stand the test of time - just like the Smokies themselves.
