Caitlyn Smith‘s High & Low album is out! The 14-track record was co-written entirely by Smith, teaming up with an impressive list of hit songwriters, including Miley Cyrus, Shane McAnally, Lori McKenna, Bob DiPiero and more to bring the project to life.
High & Low follows Smith’s High EP released in April of 2022. The singer-songwriter added six tracks to High‘s original eight songs, which marked the first time Smith also produced her own project, by herself.
“There are a couple of reasons why I split it up, the first one being more of a practical reason,” Smith tells Everything Nash. “It was the first time I had self-produced a record, and it definitely took a lot more time than I had originally imagined. I had that first batch of songs finished, and so we decided just to release that. But also, just as a music listener, I consume things differently than I did ten years ago. And I think we all do, where our attention spans are shorter.
“People don’t really take time to sit and listen to whole records right now,” she remarks. “Some of my favorite artists released their last few projects in chunks, and I thought, ‘Man, that was such a great digestible amount of music.’ I wanted to do the same.”
Smith is certainly no stranger to the studio. In addition to recording several of her own projects, she has also written hits for several other artists as well, including Gabby Barrett‘s “Goldmine,” Lady A‘s “747,” Cassadee Pope‘s “Wasting All These Tears” and the iconic Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton duet, “You Can’t Make Old Friends,” among others. But for all of her time in the studio, Smith realized being a female singer producing an album by herself is something that wasn’t seen — an unfortunate stereotype Smith took upon herself to help break.
“I think when I moved to Nashville 13 years ago, I didn’t see any other artists and especially female artists, really doing that.,” the Minnesota native reflects. “And so I just thought, ‘Oh, okay, that’s just up to these people to produce. That’s fine.’ But it was something that I was always curious about, producing my own record. And one of my favorite collaborators on this album is Jenn Decilveo. We wrote a bunch of the songs, ‘High,’ ‘Maybe In Another Life,’ ‘Mississippi.’Jenn is an incredible writer, but also a producer out in LA, and she was so encouraging to me to just try it and go for it.
“And so to have another awesome female voice who’s out there doing it and producing records going, ‘Hey, you need to try it. You need to do it. What’s the worst that can happen?'” she continues. “She was really that encouraging voice that pushed it over the edge for me.’
Smith is currently on her Great Pretender Tour, performing acoustic shows all over the country, and celebrating the new music of High & Low. Smith, who is joined on the tour by Alex Hall, is doing her Great Pretender Tour in partnership with DTour, to raise support and awareness for independent music venues.
“I really wanted to do something for these independent venues after seeing Exit/In in Nashville close, and some of my favorite little venues here in Nashville close their doors, I just started thinking about the rest of the country, and we could do what everybody else does and go to the Live Nation venues, but I really wanted to do something that was a little different, and that raised awareness in these communities of these awesome venues, and brought people into these great little spaces.
“I wanted it to be an intimate experience for my fans,” she continues. “My favorite way to listen to music is stripped down with just a guitar and the story and the song. And so, we’re doing this tour just like that. I’m gonna bring my piano, my guitar, and my stories in these little sweet rooms. It’s a really special experience that I’m really excited about.”
Smith is also celebrating an ACM Awards nomination, for New Female Artist of the Year. Find music and tour dates at CaitlynSmith.com.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of EB Media / Shervin Lainez