Corey Smith, ‘Twenty-One’ – Song Spotlight

Corey Smith remembers eagerly waiting to reach the legal drinking age, and years later, looking back longingly at that same year, in his new single, 'Twenty-One.'  The song comes from his forthcoming album 'The Broken Record.'

The song revolves around an uncomplicated acoustic guitar figure, with piano and a very restrained rhythm section fleshing out the arrangement as minimally as possible. That puts the focus squarely on Smith's laid-back, almost-spoken singing voice and wistful narrative, which is how his fans like it.

The story starts with a teenage Smith using a fake ID and baseball cap to sneak into bars to meet girls: "I was breaking hearts and taking names and numbers just for fun / Stealing kisses, wishing I was twenty-one."

Later, he revisits the same bars as a grey-haired grown up, and once again, decides that 21 was the place to be: "We drink until we feel a whole lot cooler than we are / Then I look at all those college girls, so innocent and young / I check them out and say, 'Damn, I wish I was twenty-one.'"

We gotta get Smith and John "hold onto 16 as long as you can" Mellencamp in a debate room soon to try and figure out what the best year in a young man's life really is. In the meantime, 'The Broken Record,' Smith's fifth album, is due out this summer, and you can catch him in concert all over the southeast this spring.

Listen to Corey Smith, 'Twenty-One'