Granger Smith surprised fans on Friday (Nov. 18) with the release of a 12-track album called Moonrise. Smith said he «didn’t expect» to release an album this year, but the opportunity to write and record the project came alongside the chance to star in a movie, also called Moonrise.

Smith signed on for the movie first, playing the role of Will Brown, a country singer who is grieving the death of his wife while raising three children. It parallels reality in some ways — Smith and his wife, Amber, lost their son River to drowning in 2019.

When it came time to talk about music for the film, Smith was informed that the songs had yet to be written, so he took it upon himself to do the job.

“Last holiday season when I accepted the lead role in the movie, I spoke with the director about a song mentioned prominently in the script called ‘Forever Forward’ among others,» he explains in a press release. «I said, ‘Can you send me this song, so I can learn it?’ and she replied, ‘Oh, we don’t have that yet, but we’ll find it!'»

«So, I decided the easiest thing to do would be to write the songs to fill in the gaps for the film,» he adds.

Smith took inspiration from unfinished songs of the past and penned the album in his trailer between scenes, over the course of five months. He wrote with songwriters Ben Stennis, High Valley’s Brad Rempel, Corey Crowder and more. The album was produced by Smith and John Marlin, and each track will be featured in the movie in some way.

«This was so different than any other process of music making that I’ve been involved in with, and I LOVED every minute of it,» Smith says.

Watch a trailer for Moonrise here. The film will be out via PureFlix on Dec. 15.

Granger Smith’s Moonrise Tracklist:
1. «Never Been» (Granger Smith, Ben Stennis, Brad Rempel, William Blake Bollinger)
2. «I Wanna» (Steven Olsen, Corey Crowder, Granger Smith)
3. «Tailgate Church Pew» (Granger Smith, John Marlin)
4. «Still Find You» (Justin Wilson, Granger Smith, Andy Albert, Jordan Schmidt)
5. «Damn Guitar» (Granger Smith)
6. «In This House» (Thomas Marc Archer, Granger Smith, Matt Alderman, Mitchell Tenpenny)
7. «Broke In» (Granger Smith, Jared Mullins, Cameron Montgomery)
8. «Something Is Changing» (Granger Smith, John Marlin)
9. «Black Suit» (Granger Smith, Dusty Saxton, John Marlin, Chris Lee)
10. «Something to Go On» (Granger Smith, Rodney Clawson, Kyle Fishman, Justin Wilson)
11. «Forever Forward» (Granger Smith, John Marlin)
12. «Moonrise» (Andy Albert, Jordan Schmidt, Granger Smith, Justin Wilson)