Corey Smith

Corey Smith will bring his blue-collar mix of country, blues and rock back to Retrievers Sports Bar & Grill Wednesday night.

This performance marks yet another return trip to where Smith’s career took off years ago. The concert begins 8 p.m. and tickets are $20 and can be purchased online or at Retriever’s.

“I’m happy to see all the success Corey’s had since he first played here some time ago. It’s great he keeps coming back and playing for us,” Nathan Queen, general manager at Retrievers, said.

Smith has played at Retrievers around 15 times, Queen said.

“This is the first place Corey played outside of Athens when he was first coming up, and we’ve gotten to know him really well since then,” Queen said.

“Retrievers is one of the places that kicked off his career. He played here when no one knew who he was and he continues to come back,” Bobby Shubert, promotions coordinator and bartender at Retrievers, said.

There are approximately 500 total tickets being sold for the concert, with close to 170 to be sold before Wednesday night, Shubert said.

Smith is the first of a string of artists playing at Retrievers this week, with rock band Velcro Pygmies playing on Thursday and country artist Brian Davis on Friday.

“We don’t have a hard set list for the show because Corey always plays to the crowd at the venue, whatever they want to hear he’ll play,” Queen said.

Smith gained fame with his college town hit album “Undertones,” featuring “Twenty-One.” Initially Smith played exclusively at venues surrounding the University of Georgia in Athens, Ga.

Shubert said, “He always puts on a great show live. He has a huge fan base in the Southeast and especially college towns like Statesboro. It’s going to be a ton of fun.”