Corey Smith Brings New Music & His Classic Show Back To Joe’s In Chicago
Corey Smith made his return to Joe’s Bar on Weed St Saturday night, for nearly 16 years Corey has been playing at this iconic Chicago bar. Chicago has always been a place Corey has fit in; Chicago has felt like a second home to this Georgia native & he is always excited to return. Before the show, Corey Smith got to play Windy City tourist visiting the Chicago Cut Steakhouse, a staple in the city over the last 12 years. After a quick tour, Corey made his way back to Joe’s on the chilly winter night.
Click Here To View The Full Jeb Gipson Gallery
Sea Gayle Singer/Songwriter Jeb Gipson returned to open the show, marking his second Joe’s bar experience. This time fans showed up early not to miss Jeb’s set, and the bar was nearly packed by the end of his 45-minute set. Jeb’s latest single “Aint Got The Heart” Dropped a day before he took the Chicago stage. The bluesy song is catchy and will quickly become a fan favorite in Jeb’s set. Just like his debut at Joe’s 6 months ago, Jeb had a flawless set. Let’s hope the next time Jeb returns to Chicago, he can finally make it over to Wrigley Field as his song “If It Aint With You” mentions.
The house music faded out, the lights inside Joe’s dimmed and the crowd was ready for Corey Smith’s return to the Joe’s Bar stage. Over the last 16 years, Corey has been making Joe’s bar his home about every 6 months, that alone is impressive. The crowd was jammed in and the first cord was struck on Corey’s guitar as the fan favorite “Backroad” kicked off the set to the night’s first sing-along, followed by a few more fan favorites “Feet Wet & “Next Year”. You can tell Corey was in a good mood & tonight’s show just felt a little different than his past Joe’s shows. Corey gave us a little story about how his wife and he just celebrated 20 years together this past Summer, before diving into ‘Blow Me Away” a song from 2015’s album “While The Gettin’ is Good”, Corey told us his wife has blown him away ever since the puppy dog phase and still till this day.
Corey has always shined on cover songs, his originals have made him into the artist he is today, but it has been his covers over the last 22 years that have helped mold the live shows. Tonight’s first cover was an Ed Sheeran hit “Castle On The Hill” which Corey made his own while keeping the crowd in the palm of his hand. One of Corey’s weed hits came next in his set “Cellophane” which talks about that little sheet of plastic on the outside of that cigarette pack. You know the one we used to use for illegal stuff back in the day. “My Kinda Lady” rounded out the first part of the set, which is another cut-off of Corey’s 2015 album.
Corey Smith told the Chicago crowd he is a seasoned vet here in this city
“Been coming here for over 15 years and tonight I want to play some old shit, some new, and some I don’t even know what I’m going to play yet.”
Corey has been working hard the last few years on a new album that will finally see the light of day this spring “Suburban Drawl” will be the first album in Corey’s career where he uses co-writers. One thing Corey Smith has prided himself on over his 22-year career was that he wrote every lyric of every song on every album, well that’s about to change. The first new song Corey played for the Chicago crowd was one he wrote with Singer/Songwriter Ben Chapman called “Daddy’s Weed”. We then got lucky to get 4 songs off of one of Corey’s first albums 2000’s “In The Mood”. The first of them being “Drinkin’ Again” followed by “Something To Lose” & “Dahlonega”. Corey’s second cover came from the Wood Brothers and their hit “Luckiest Man”.
Another co-writer Corey has on his upcoming project is the opening act of the night Jeb Gipson, who just happens to be the co-writer on Corey’s newest single “Still In The Running”. Corey welcomes Jeb back as the two duets on the new single which was also produced by Erik Dylan.
Click Here To Download The New Song
If these first two early teases from the new album are anything like the others, we are in for a treat this spring. Corey asked Jeb to stay on stage and play some mountain music together both of them are Georgia natives, the two did a duet on Corey’s song “Can’t Help Myself” from his 2003 album “The Good Life”. Corey was powering through a 21-song set adding in “Carolina” before calling an audible.
Corey has always been vocal about his Georgia Bulldogs, and earlier in the week Georgia blew TCU out of the water in the NCAA National Championship. That night Corey found himself in the middle of the official after-party where he got to mingle with coaches and former players, before the night was over someone found a guitar pushed two tables together, and asked Corey to sing one song. Well, little did they know he just got done writing a second verse for this song on the bus ride over. Corey then told the crowd
Corey With Georgia Football Coaches Kirby Smart & Glenn Schumann
“This has been the best week of my life and I couldn’t think of a better place to end it than at Joe’s On Weed St. In Chicago”
As he went into a song Chicago rarely gets to hear “Every Dawg” and he added in the new second verse for the first time since the after-party.
Corey Smith ended his set in a huge way as he went into a crowd singalong with one of his biggest hits “21”, and then kept the energy with a cover of Flo Rida’s “My House” before ending the set with “If I Could Do It Again”. The crowd didn’t let Corey get too far from the stage with the loud Corey chants asking for an encore. Corey then made his way back down the stairs to Joe’s with just a guitar in hand and went into his final cover of the night Ben E King’s “Stand By Me”. The crowd was still chanting one song though, a song that will forever be a staple in Corey’s live shows. ‘F The PoPo” echoed acoustically throughout Joe’s crowd as everyone sang along. “Get You Home” ended what might have been one of Corey’s top 3 Joe’s bar performances, maybe it was the excitement that his Dawgs went back to back or just the feeling of being back in Chicago, but Corey was on top of his game & delivered one of his best performances to date inside the walls of Joe’s.
Click Here For The Full Corey Smith Gallery
Corey Smith Set List
January 14th, 2023 – Joe’s Bar On Weed St Chicago, IL
Backroad
Feet Wet
Maybe Next Year
Blow Me Away
Castle On The Hill – Ed Sheeran Cover
Cellophane
My Kind Of Lady
Daddy’s Weed
Drinking Again
Dahlonega
Luckiest Man – Wood Brothers Cover
Still In The Running W/ Jeb Gipson
Can’t Help Myself W/ Jeb Gipson
Carolina
Every Dawg
21
My House – Flo Rida Cover
Do It Again
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Stand By Me – Ben E King Cover (Acoustic)
F The Popo (Acoustic)
I’ll Get You Home
