Nate Smith survived the 2018 Camp fire. Now the country singer is topping charts in Nashville

Nate Smith would be the first to tell you that he makes for a peculiar nominee for new artist of the year at Wednesday night’s Country Music Assn. Acts like Hardy, Warren Zeiders and Koe Wetzel have brought heavy guitars into commercial country music, while Nickelback has become a reliable draw at country festivals including this past April’s Stagecoach in Indio, where Smith was also on the bill and did a faithful cover of Foo Fighters’ “My Hero.” In May, Smith dropped a version of “Bulletproof” featuring Avril Lavigne, the veteran pop-punk singer whose music he loves for “the desperation in her voice”; Lavigne, who was once married to Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger, teamed with Smith again for “Can You Die From a Broken Heart,” a soulful power ballad from “California Gold.” “I’m friends with Chad because we’re both signed to the same management company,” Smith says over drinks during a recent visit to Los Angeles. “And I thought he had the coolest shirts I’d ever seen in my life.” Nate Smith performs at April’s Stagecoach festival in Indio. “It was the craziest time of my life.” In Nashville, another song of Smith’s — this one called “Wildfire” — took off on TikTok; the buzz earned him a sit-down with a publishing executive where he played “Sleeve,” a sensual, Fleetwood Mac-ish soft-rock number he says tells “the story of me and my ex-wife and how that s— really sucked.” The exec offered to sign him on the spot, and he had a record deal not long after. “That’s my whole message.” Smith has set aside two months at the top of next year to make a new record near Mt.