Traveling troubadour Corey Smith will be making his first appearance in St. Louis (or Missouri for that matter) this Monday at Blueberry Hill’s Duck Room.

Smith is a roadhouse-style musician who tours constantly, singing twangy, colorful songs about adventures on the road and life in a small town. The Southern-themed tunes (i.e., booze and bibles) meld country, folk, blues and rock. He has four albums with his latest, Hard-Headed Fool, released last month on iTunes (August CD release.) He’ll have a drummer and upright bassist with him onstage.

Smith, who sells shows out consistently throughout the South, lives a quarter mile from his childhood home in Jefferson, Georgia. He got his musical education going to shows in nearby Athens.

I caught up with Smith as he was in the back of his van on his way to a show tonight in Montgomery, Alabama. He was feeling it after a big birthday bash last night near his hometown in Georgia.

How is the music scene in Athens?

It definitely has the reputation with R.E.M, the B52s and Widespread Panic. It’s always had a pretty healthy music scene and most of my music is set in Athens. But it’s also kind of a pretentious music scene where you have to be “cool enough’ to be accepted. Starting out, my music was a little too mainstream for Athens. I actually started out playing in smaller college towns and moved my way up to Athens.

Have you ever played St. Louis?
I’ve never played there, so I’m really looking forward to it. Just from reading comments on MySpace, we’ve had fans from Missouri come out to Kentucky and Texas to see our show, so it’s kind of a word of mouth thing. I think Missouri is similar to Georgia in that it’s mostly rural with a large city (Atlanta and St. Louis), so I’m hopeful that the music will translate there.

What did you listen to growing up?

I spent all my teen years with my grandmother as a Southern Baptist, so there was a lot of gospel and country. My dad was in a Southern rock band so I’d hear Skynard and Marshal Tucker Band and that stuff. I despised country in high school, though. I was more into rock and 1990s grunge.

How long have you been playing?

I’ve been playing seriously for about 15 years. I played the bars when I was 19, doing cover songs and picking up $50 bucks here and there. I didn’t like that life, though, so I quit, went to college and became a schoolteacher. When I got back into music, I decided that I would play and perform only my own songs.

Talk about your latest album.

It is a tremendous difference from past albums. On this one, I wasn’t limited by a budget as a result of doing well on the road. It’s a much bigger-sounding album. There’s still a few acoustic songs, but musically it’s all over the board. There’s country, some rockin’ stuff, little licks of jazz and folk. I think it’s a good representation of my influences. I wanted to give an overall positive message to people about being hardheaded and allowing yourself to make mistakes… being able to not be burdened by past mistakes, but learning from them and moving on.

COREY SMITH with Scott Porter

Blueberry Hill Duck Room

Monday July 23, 9 pm

$10 in advance / $12 DOS