Karen Olson sits down with Grant Maloy Smith, Billboard Top 10, multi–award-winning Americana artist whose songs turn American history and real lives into powerful story-songs. His music paints vivid stories of the American experience in Dust Bowl: American Stories, Appalachia: American Stories, and Mississippi: American Stories. Together they explore where his songs really come from—the lived experiences, history, and people that shape them—and how our own stories can become “life songs” in the way we live, love, and show up each day. Karen also shares the ongoing collaboration between Sound Pathways and Indie Collaborative, celebrating the power of creative community to help all of us create the life of our dreams.

Grant Maloy Smith is a Billboard Top 10 recording artist and MusicRow Country Breakout charting songwriter of American Roots music. His Americana theme albums, including DUST BOWL: AMERICAN STORIES, APPALACHIA: AMERICAN STORIES, and MISSISSIPPI: AMERICAN STORIES, have all earned rave reviews from Americana Highways, MusicRow Magazine, Bluegrass Today, Roots Music Report, and more. Over the years, his albums have spent 17 weeks on the Billboard charts, including eleven weeks in the Top 10 on the Americana/Folk album sales chart and #12 on the Country album sales chart. Grant has performed twice at Carnegie Hall and has won numerous awards, including two Grammy® certificates. In 2020, he was inducted into the Indie Music Hall of Fame in Hollywood. Critics have raved about his music, including:

“… lyrics and music as potent as Woody Guthrie ... A reminder of the darker period of Bob Dylan, and it’s that good, that memorable…”
~ NO DEPRESSION magazine

“If you took a few ounces of Willie Nelson and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, mixed them carefully, Grant Maloy Smith would appear ... One day we’ll be talking about how Grant Maloy Smith is a national treasure – like John Prine. I’d be the first to say it’s so.”
~ AMERICANA HIGHWAYS magazine