The son of an English professor mother and a shipwreck diver/underwater archaeologist father, indie-folk singer-songwriter, artist, and Los Angeles native ZG Smith has calledNashville home for a decade. Before moving to Tennessee, he spent his youth surfing, dialing in complex percussion routines on an award-winning high school drumline, experimenting with various elicit substances, and eventually earning a bachelor’s degree in Ethnomusicology, with a focus on Brazilian percussion, from UCLA.

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Since moving to Music City in his mid-twenties, he's racked up a formidable cache of musical successes including touring extensively throughout the US, Canada, and Europe, being frontman, primary songwriter, and founding member of Americana duo Smooth HoundSmith, and sharing stages with acts likeThe Chicks,Trombone Shorty, CollectiveSoul, and Devon Gilfillian. His poignant and ethereal debut solo EP, NighttimeAnimal, was released in February of 2023 and has garnered airplay and attention from musical curators and press outlets alike, not the least of which include Minneapolis’s The Current, NPR’s World Cafe, Nashville’s Lightning 100, PopMatters, TheBluegrass Situation, NashvilleSCENE, UnderTheRadar, and more. He is currently touring selectively and working on new music.