Northern Kentucky musician Jordan Smart keeps a folder of the most harrowing images he’s seen from Gaza — a private archive that fuels both his outrage and his art. Since the war began, he has turned his platform into a rallying cry for Palestinians while also speaking out against ICE raids and other social justice issues closer to home.
“For better or worse I’ve never been too good at keeping my mouth shut,” Smart wrote in an Instagram post in November of 2023. “I know most of y’all are here for music and I don’t share much often, in fact lately it’s been nothin’ but awful news…it’s just that I can’t in good conscience see unjustified atrocities carried out in our world for 50+ days on end and just look away and try to self promote. These platforms we have are powerful tools that enable us to make positive change.”
Smart has also used his unique ability to craft compelling, stark portraits of truth to pen blistering protest songs about the war in Gaza, the fatal police shooting of Ryan Hinton in Cincinnati, the American healthcare system and other social justice issues that will appear on his upcoming album, Confessions of a CEO.
Smart, a singer-songwriter based in Ludlow, Kentucky, has been releasing original music for over a decade. Whether he’s singing about pickles or humanitarian crises, Smart’s Dylanesque vocals and folk stylings perfectly complement his insightful and powerful storytelling. In 2023, his song “Apple Don’t Fall” — a poignant, honest portrait of living with addiction — earned him the top prize in the prestigious Gems in the Rough contest, hosted by the YouTube channel GemsOnVHS.
Long before penning protest songs about the war in Gaza, Smart was using his platform to advocate for the issues — and people — he believes in. Back in 2016, Smart opened twice for Sen. Bernie Sanders on his presidential campaign trail.
Shortly after the Oct. 7 attack and the start of the war in Gaza, Smart began posting videos and original songs about what numerous international human rights organizations have described as a genocide against Palestinians.
Local leaders, including from the The Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center, have criticized calling the war a “genocide” as antisemetic, while local advocates from groups like the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) have pushed back on this claim.
“I’ve always written politically conscious [music] and I guess I’ve written from a humanitarian perspective, like, that’s always been a thing,” Smart told CityBeat. “I’ve been posting songs on social media that are relevant to current events and news headlines and articles that I would read for like 10 years or something. I think that I have been more active in doing that in the last 18 months because I think that this issue and the genocide in Gaza, as a parent, that some of the stuff that I’ve seen has just deeply affected me. … To me, it just it feels like [the war in Gaza] is kind of like the crux of all the things that are wrong with society and the world, all meeting in one just absolutely abysmal scenario.”
“We’re seeing human rights being stripped away from people in so many different ways, shapes and forms, all over the place — whether it’s here or abroad,” Smart continued. “And I know that it is inherently political to speak about it, but it also just feels inherently human to stand up for it and against certain things, you know?”
Smart first used the word “Palestine” in his song “Hope That I Don’t Dream,” which appears on Quiet Skies Vol. 1, a benefit album with songs from local and international musicians released on Aug. 6. The proceeds go directly to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.
He first debuted the song on Instagram in November of 2023. Smart says that the song is inspired in part by a photo he saw of a Palestinian grandfather holding his dead granddaughter. That photo also inspired him to abandon his fear of speaking out about the war in Gaza.
“Yeah, that that was kind of the turning point, and the first verse of the song talks about the early [days of] the genocide,” Smart said. “There was a video of a grandfather with his granddaughter who was killed, and she’s got pom-poms in her hair, and she just looks so perfect and innocent and peaceful and just like a little child that is dressed the way my daughter would have been. And I saw this Palestinian grandfather, holding her and kissing her eyelids, and he looked shockingly at peace. And there was something about that image that I was just like, whatever I’m afraid of, whatever I’m afraid of losing, whatever I’m afraid of encountering in my personal life or business-wise or anything, it’s nothing compared to what people in Palestine are facing.”
In June of 2024, Smart released his most popular protest song to date, “Who Would Jesus Bomb,” a straightforward folk song that asks, “Who would Jesus bomb?/Tell me who would Jesus bomb/Would it be kids in Palestine, or how about Vietnam?”
It was that song that ultimately helped grow his platform and gain him the attention of notable people in Hollywood and Washington, D.C.
“Who Would Jesus Bomb” also helped shape his forthcoming album, Confessions of a CEO.
Across 11 songs, Smart transforms his outrage at current events into urgent, soulful protest anthems that echo the spirit of Woody Guthrie, Nina Simone and other voices of resistance.
Smart’s storytelling prowess is on display on “Can’t Padlock An Idea,” a song about the Highlander Research and Education Center, a social justice leadership training school and cultural center in New Market, Tennessee. He recounts the events of March 29, 2019, when a white supremacist set fire to the center.
There’s a bit of levity and humor in the fifth track on the album, “Talking Second Coming Blues,” where Smart plays the part of an intolerant and racist bigot waxing poetic about liberal yard signs, illegal immigrants and JD Vance. “Flicked my television on and there my hero stood/I clapped my hands and messed my jeans and shouted, ‘God is good!’/The camera panned, to my dismay, away from JD Vance/There sat the true embodiment of Satan’s evil plans — yep, you guessed — the Pope!”
The album ends with Smart asking for an end to the war in Gaza. “I’m screaming into the void, end the genocide,” Smart sings on the aptly-titled “End the Genocide.”
Confessions of a CEO will be released in September. Smart and other local musicians will be playing at a Gaza benefit show on Friday at 8 p.m. at The Lounge in Northside.
For more information about Smart, visit jordansmartmusic.com. You can stream Smart’s music on Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal.
This article appears in Aug 20 – Sep 2, 2025.