Nate Smith

Sunday, August 13 at 8 p.m.

Featuring a mix of gritty backwoods soul, rock ‘n’ roll swagger and velvet-thunder vocals, Nate Smith’s personal journey inspired him to be a beacon of country-music hope, an inspirational mission he puts front-and-center. A California native, former worship leader, and lifelong music lover, Smith approaches that mission with a background as eclectic as it gets. Learning guitar at 13, Garth Brooks, Elvis Presley and Bob Seger were among those informing his powerful, fire-from-within vocals, while Michael Jackson made him crave the spotlight and Nirvana gave his sound a jagged edge. In 2018, Smith lost everything he owned in the devastating Camp Fire which tore through Paradise, California, now known as the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in the state’s history. Although his family was safe, he struggled to cope and turned back to music, hoping that it would help comfort himself and others. Help it did, inspiring a month-long road trip across the U.S. to Music City, writing music and playing dive bars along the way. Since making it to Nashville, the singer has made a huge splash with songs such as “I Don’t Wanna Go To Heaven” and its corresponding version with Tenille Townes, as well as his Platinum-certified multi-week No. 1 hit “Whiskey On You.” Lauded as the “breakup song of the summer” by Country Now and “an enormously satisfying country kiss-off anthem” by Stereogum, “Whiskey On You” amassed over 7.5 million total global on-demand streams in its first week, reaching No. 10 on the Country On-Demand Streaming Chart. The track also debuted at No. 84 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 14 on the Hot Country Songs chart, marking Smith’s first career entry on the chart. He also re-entered Billboard's Emerging Artists chart at No. 1, becoming the top emerging act in the U.S. for the first time. “Whiskey On You” has amassed over 230 million total global on-demand streams to date.