Jared Smith: music made with purpose

A Mississippi artist’s upcoming project will be rooted in sound doctrine aimed at being helpful

When I moved to Mississippi in 2007, it was the first time I’d had the opportunity to experience different types of live music outside of choral events and church services. Music has always held a place in my life as a passion and live performances have created a special kind of love in me for the artists who pour themselves out on stage. There’s an old Jackson music scene of legend, one heard in whispers of The Colour Revolt and Jonezetta at the long-lost Be-bop Record Shop. College town favorites like The Red Thangs from Oxford or Rock Eupora from Starkville play at dive bars and venue halls all over the nation. And then there are musicians like Jared Smith, whose Mississippi notoriety reaches from the coast to the Delta — and yet he is somehow our best kept secret. The occasions I’ve been privileged to hear Jared are arrayed among my favorite live performances.

I’ve heard Jared perform in a pipe & cigar shop, in multiple coffee shops, in friends’ houses, in churches, on porches, in car rides, and outside. He has a beautiful voice and can use it in environments suited for intimate acoustic sets just as naturally as leading an energetic congregation in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs…