Local Artist Highlight: Almost Isaac
By Darius Mullin
Michael Smith has always been a singer. When we met up to share some Shawarma House and talk about his music, Smith—also known by his stage name, Almost Isaac—told me that when he was a kid, it was a near-impossible task to get him to stop singing. “People couldn't shut me up. We had a rule at my kitchen table that if you start singing, you get three warnings. On the third warning, you had to go back into the back hallway of our house and scream at the top of your lungs for 45 seconds. And I was the only person that ever had to do it.”
Smith is a native Jacksonian, and growing up music was always a part of his life. “My whole family is really musical. My cousin is one of the worship leaders at Bellevue in Memphis, [and] the head of their music school. So, that whole side of the family—my dad's side of the family—is very, very musical. They're all worship leaders and musicians and stuff.” Some of Smith’s earliest memories are of his older sister playing piano—"I would just sit next to the piano and listen to her play”—and listening to a cassette tape that his parents played for him every night. “I can't even remember what it's called, but it was a musical about this frog that becomes a Christian. Actually, I have a tattoo for this cassette tape. ... That was more important to me than just like, ‘oh, I like music now.’ That was really formative in my faith as well, I think.”
Other musical inspirations included Dragon Tales, K-LOVE, the 1998 animated film Quest for Camelot, and “whatever was in my head.” In fifth grade, young Michael started formal voice lessons. Now 23 years old, the singer has turned a lifelong passion into an established creative endeavor of writing and performing indie folk/rock music. Almost Isaac presently has five songs available via digital streaming and purchasing platforms, with more on the way all the time.
The artist name was chosen simply because his parents almost named him “Isaac” before settling on Michael instead. Plus, “there's too many famous Michael Smiths, and I didn't want to be another one.” Smith finds creative inspiration from musical acts like Bon Iver, S. Carey, and Gregory Alan Isakov. Subject matter is grounded in his own life. “Musically, a lot of my inspiration has come from just my experience. All of my songs are about stories from my life. None of them are made up.”
Almost Isaac as a musical project was, in a sense, born out of Smith’s experience as a student at Union University. After switching majors a few times, the young musician settled on a degree in audio production—in fact, he was the first graduate from that program. It was through the encouragement and guidance of his professors that Almost Isaac took shape:
“I took a songwriting class with [Kelly Garner]. It was my first class with her, and I'd never written a song before. ... I had started writing ‘Without a Sound,’ the song that's out. That's the first song I'd ever written. ... I had like the first couple lines, because I had just broken up with my girlfriend, so I was just trying to process. I was like, ‘I'm going to try to write a song.’ ... Tried to write a song—didn't work. Then we had that songwriting class, and [Dr. Garner] was like, ‘hey, you got to write a song.’ And I was like, ‘I guess I'll finish it,’ and then I finished it.”
“Without a Sound” did not actually end up being Almost Isaac’s first release—that honor went to “Favorite Cölöürë” and “Maybe You’re Right.” It was, however, the first song written and the first song recorded.
“My senior year, Tim Smith, the new commercial music guy, came in and I was taking bass lessons with him. We were about to go on a field trip to Blackbird [Studios], and he didn't warn me at all, but I was in my bass lesson and he was like, ‘Michael, I've never heard any of your songs before. You should show me one.’ Then I showed him ‘Without a Sound,’ because I was like, ‘well, this is the first song I ever wrote, I guess I'll show you this one first.’ And then he was like, ‘okay, cool. I don't need to hear anymore. ... We're going to record that one on Saturday.’ So, we spent the rest of my lesson making a [chord] chart for it. Went in and recorded it... After that—after I heard it—I was sold. I was like, ‘I want to do this.’”
“After I wrote that first song, I kept writing music. ... ‘Favorite Cölöürë” was the next one... and then ‘Talk to Me.’ Within there there's like five or six songs that I hate that I have hidden in my Notes app and my voice notes. But I'm sure every artist has those songs that they write and they get to the end and they're like, ‘not worth it.’”
As a Jackson native who has spent nearly his whole life in the Hub City, Smith has a lot of pride for the musical heritage and potential that he sees around him. “Jackson has some of the richest musical history,” he told me, and so it’s odd when it seems like the music scene is so small. A lot of musical talent gets caught in the twin orbits of Memphis and Nashville, but that’s starting to change. “It's cool to see it get pulled back.”
Smith has a front-row seat to watch the gravity shift: he has performed at local venues and festivals, and joined the staff at Catbird Studios mere weeks after it opened in early 2023. Almost Isaac’s artist bio on Jackson Hidden Tracks says that “he grew up in Jackson, and watching the music community blossom has pushed him to be a better musician.” I asked him for some examples of exciting growth that he sees happening, and the list was not short. “I think Catbird is a huge part of that for me. Just seeing that there's people that want to promote local musicians. ... I play at the Downtown Tavern every Wednesday, and just seeing local musicians go in and out of there. Every night there's a really talented musician that plays there that no one's heard of.” Smith went on, listing growth in groups like Music by KOTA, No Reverse Records, and Hub City Brewing, among others.
Almost Isaac isn’t going to be slowing down anytime soon. “This year my goal is to write things that I have to practice, specifically with guitar. I've written things that I have to practice vocally, like ‘Maybe You're Right.’ That's a high note. But the guitar parts are easy. This year I want to at least write one song that is actually difficult for me to play on guitar.” On top of pushing himself as a musician and songwriter, Smith said he’s working on his next release, a song called “There’s This Fire”—a powerful song that he’s already started incorporating into his live sets. He also mentioned that he’s playing at the new Jax-Mac Festival on March 30, has his first gig in Memphis on the horizon, and might even start working on an EP in the near future.
As we worked through our shawarma and fries, one thing about Michael Smith was readily apparent: his passion for Jackson music. His enthusiasm for performing and writing music is thrilling, but his enthusiasm for building music community in our city is contagious.
From singing about “whatever was in [his] head” to building a musical project based on emotional transparency, Almost Isaac represents just one act in a growing sea of Jackson artists who want to see the Hub City as a musical destination, not just a launching pad.
You can connect with Almost Isaac on music streaming platforms, iTunes, and Instagram.