Texas country music singer Granger Smith will make his first appearance in Tuscaloosa on Friday at The Jupiter Bar. This will be Smith’s first time visiting Tuscaloosa.
“I love college football so much,” he said. “Anytime we go to a big college town, it’s a big deal. Add on the huge legacy and football tradition at Alabama, that makes it even bigger.”
Smith, who is a 2002 Texas A&M graduate, will play in more than 10 different college towns, such as Lawrence, Kan.; Stillwater, Okla.; Nashville, Tenn.; Baton Rouge, La.; Oxford, Miss.; and College Station, Texas.
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“We don’t really set out to play college towns, but we end up booking them,” Smith said. “A lot of our fans are college-aged, and a lot of the college towns have venues that are the kind that we play. It’s kind of a coincidence, but I love it.”
Last year, Smith released his ninth studio album to date, “Dirt Road Driveway.” It debuted at No. 1 on the iTunes Country Chart and No. 15 on the Billboard Country Albums Chart. It is also on iTunes’ Best Albums of the 2000s. The album also produced a No. 1 music video on CMT with the song “Miles and Mud Tires.”
“This album has been a great one for me, the crew and the team. It’s one that’s gotten us to Tuscaloosa – I’ll put it that way. It’s gotten us a lot farther than we’ve ever gone,” Smith said. “Our touring has expanded throughout the nation because of it. I’m really grateful for the opportunity this album has brought me.”
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Aside from music and touring, Smith said he is involved in two different charity organizations: Drive Now, Text Later and The Boot Campaign.
Smith said he decided to get involved with Drive Now, Text Later when he visited a town that recently lost two high school students to texting and driving. He said he knew then that he wanted to travel to different high schools and speak about the dangers of texting while driving.
“I just wanted to talk about how easy it is to put the phone down and get where you’re going,” he said. “It actually saves lives.”
Smith started an organization called The Boot Campaign to show his support for the United States’ armed forces. Every year, he walks 100 miles from Austin to Ft. Hood, Texas, in combat boots to raise money for the organization. He said his support for troops has awarded him the opportunity to tour in Iraq and Kuwait multiple times.
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“It had a really big impact on me, seeing how hard they work,” he said. “These men and women are volunteering to sacrifice everything, so I can essentially come back and play music for a living. Where there is bad stuff happening, it was nice to put on a country music concert. It had everyone completely forget where we were. At that moment, everyone was back home, enjoying a country music concert. That really showed me the power of music.”
If you have never heard of Granger Smith, maybe you have heard of his country-boy alter ego, Earl Dibbles, Jr. What started as a joke has turned into something that has gained Smith even more fans. Dibbles, Jr. has been acting as the encore performer at Smith’s shows and plays a collection of his own songs such as “The Country Boy Song” and its sequel, “Country Boy Love.”
Granger Smith will play Friday at The Jupiter Bar. Doors open at 8 p.m., and the cover is $5.
