Artist Guide

Derek The Change Man Smith (Enters The New Generation)

Listen to Derek "The Change Man" Smith singing "Crazy About You" on YouTube.

See the chart: Top 100 Artists: The New Generation Southern Soul.

April 24, 2026:

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This is a true renaissance man, as smart as a whip, as learned in the southern soul music culture as anyone on the chitlin' circuit. He's a minister, a singer, a composer, a producer and motivational speaker, and he's gone about his "business" with a confidence and patience that belies the usual trajectory of most singer/songwriters. To understand Derek The Change Man Smith you have to understand the role of preachers, pastors and ministers in the Deep South's Bible Belt. They couldn't be more different than their counterparts in the North. They're more human in all that word's disparate aspects.

Being a frequenter of Jackson, Mississippi, I tend to compare Smith to Lexington's (a Jackson-area town) Isaac Lindsey, who also happens to be a bright, young, impassioned and stentorian-voiced minister, radio personality and singer/songwriter. Both Smith and Lindsey are the kind of charismatic individuals who---from a darker perspective---could have inspired Stan Butler's southern soul classic, "Preacher Was A Homewrecker". I'm not saying either one is a duplicitous "Jody" in minister's garb. I'm saying they both have the looks, the willfulness, the youthfulness and magnetism to BE evil, and it's this depth---this potential range of ethical possibilities---that underlies their creative efforts and makes them so much more intense, passionate and resonant compared to preachers, not to mention musicians, in the North.

Derek The Change Man Smith's "Crazy About You" reminds me of the great Tyrone Davis's "Where Are You Lady," recorded at Malaco Records in the label's most glorious days. Davis's lament is drenched in regret. Musically, it sweeps you into a whirlpool of country-western-tinged southern soul, and only its magnificent female background chorus elevates it above Smith's equally powerful testament.

"Oh how I remember... (Davis sings)
When I sent you to West Virginia.
How was I to know
It would hurt me so?
That I would be the one to surrender?

Oh, I will never never forget
When I took you to the train station.
I can still hear your trembling voice.
You said, 'Darling, darling, darling,
Please don't end this relationship.'"

To this day I tear up every time I hear it. Lost loves. Poor life decisions. I've done them all. Smith taps into those same deep emotions in "Crazy About You". Both musically and lyrically, "Crazy About You" will drop you to your knees.

"I can't ignore what I feel.
I try to tell myself
That what I feel ain't real.
I cry about it.
I lie about it.
To tell the truth,
Almost died about it.

Oh baby, I'm still crazy
I'm crazy about you.

I know you moved on.
You got a new family.
I heard you got three kids,
And they say your oldest boy looks like me."

What makes both songs so heartbreaking---in other words, successful---is the ruthless self-reflection with which both men examine themselves. And that last couplet ending with "And they say your oldest boy looks like me," accompanied by a small, self-deprecating laugh, is the detail that never fails to pierce my emotional armor and make me wince.

That's why I say Alabama's Derek "The Change Man" Smith has outperformed his talented Mississippi colleague. "Crazy About You" has amassed a herculean ten million views on YouTube. In addition, Smith has doggedly pursued a touring regimen in small southern venues that has paid off years later (even as I write) in a tour---One Man One Night One Mic Tour---so big and prestigious its tickets are being sold on Eventbrite and feature Smith as the headliner---in some cases above southern soul diva/icon Karen Wolfe. See Concert Calendar.

Two years ago, at the height of "Crazy About You's" popularity, Pastor Derek "The Change Man" Smith was honored with Daddy B. Nice's Best Debut Artist of 2024. "Crazy About You" was a Top 25 Southern Soul Song in 2024 as well as a Top 10 Single in February of that year. Yet I deserve no credit for Smith's dues-paying ascent. The recognition came three years after "Crazy About You" initially appeared on Smith's debut album Here It Is, the first of four full-length albums he's released in the space of five years. A fifth---Memoir of a Certified Lover---is on the cusp of release at the time of this writing.

--Daddy B. Nice

About Derek The Change Man Smith (Enters The New Generation)

Derek Smith was born in Hurtsboro, Alabama, a small town between Montgomery, Alabama and Columbus, Georgia. He graduated from Faulkner University in Montgomery, served in the military for two decades and ministered at various churches for another two decades. His first album, Here It Is, containing what would become his signature hit "Crazy About You," was released in 2021 under the performance name "Derek The Change Man Smith," followed by Jook Therapy (2023), Make Room (2023) and Live And In My Feelings (2024), a compendium of live recordings of his best work. In addition to his music Smith promotes and performs various motivational and inspirational programming from his studio in Keysville, Virginia, where he is CEO of SKD Entertainment.

Daddy B. Nice has praised Smith's work, notably extolling him for the Best Southern Soul Debut in 2024 for his song "Crazy About You," where he was described as arriving "fully grown" as an artist, with a "breathtaking ability" to communicate through music. In an October 2024 Top 10 Singles commentary on the single "Too Many Irons In The Fire," Daddy B. Nice lauded the duo of Smith and Niecy Leshae for recreating the excitement of the legendary J. Blackfoot and Queen Ann Hines. He also reviewed the album Live And In My Feelings, noting its unique combination of live tracks and high sound quality.

See more references and citations to Derek "The Change Man" Smith in Daddy B. Nice's Comprehensive Index.