Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Beth Terry.
Hi Sarah Beth, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’m an Appalachian storyteller who figured out pretty early that sometimes a song is the only way I know how to explain myself.
I grew up in Kentucky, and music and storytelling were just part of the fabric of life. I started writing songs young, and somewhere along the way I got stubborn enough to believe I could actually make a life doing it. That took me to Nashville and into rooms with some incredible writers and artists. Over the years, I’ve written thousands of songs, had hundreds recorded by other artists, made records of my own, toured, played some wonderful stages, and collected enough strange road stories to last me the rest of my natural life.
But my career has never really traveled in a straight line.
I’ve been a songwriter, recording artist, performer, comedian, and professional smart-mouth. Social media opened up another lane for me when my “Cigarette Mom” comedy took off and introduced me to an audience that might never have found me through country music alone. What started as me making people laugh became this huge community of folks who understood my particular brand of Appalachian humor.
Then something happened that I didn’t exactly see coming.
I started talking more openly about my faith.
I created Feral Christian, which is basically Bible study for people who love Jesus but might not feel particularly polished about it. I teach from the porch, keep my Bible open, ask the questions I actually have, and try to make Scripture approachable for people who may have felt intimidated, judged, overlooked, or like they had to get themselves cleaned up before they were allowed through the door.
And it grew.
That has probably been the biggest surprise of this chapter of my life: realizing that all these seemingly unrelated things I’ve done were actually teaching me how to do what I’m doing now. Songwriting taught me how to tell the truth in three minutes. Comedy taught me how to make people comfortable enough to listen. The road taught me how to talk to just about anybody. Heartbreak taught me compassion. And faith taught me that God wastes absolutely nothing.
So these days, I’m still writing songs. I’m still performing. I’m still making people laugh. But I’m also teaching the Bible and watching this beautiful little community grow around the idea that you don’t have to have it all together to come sit on the porch.
I’m not sure I could have planned this career if I’d tried.
But looking backward, I can see the fingerprints of God all over it.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Oh, absolutely not. If there was a smooth road available, apparently I missed the exit.
This business will humble you in ways you didn’t know you needed humbling. I’ve had seasons where I felt like I was one phone call away from everything changing, and seasons where I wondered if the phone was ever going to ring again. I’ve had songs I believed in completely get passed over, projects stall, doors close, relationships change, money get tight, and plenty of moments where I wondered whether I was stubborn or stupid for continuing.
One of the harder lessons has been learning that talent doesn’t guarantee timing. You can work incredibly hard, be good at what you do, do everything you think you’re supposed to do—and still watch somebody else get the opportunity you prayed for. If you let it, comparison will eat you alive.
I’ve also had to reinvent myself more than once. There were times when I thought a chapter ending meant I had failed, when really I was just being moved into the next one. Songwriter became artist. Artist became comedian. Comedy opened the door to a completely different audience. And eventually, all of those things somehow led me back to my faith and to Feral Christian.
There have been personal struggles along the way, too. Heartbreak, disappointment, friendships changing, getting older in an industry that places an enormous value on youth, and figuring out who I am when nobody is applauding. I think one of the hardest things for any performer is learning the difference between being loved and being validated. Applause feels wonderful, but it makes a terrible foundation for your identity.
My faith has changed the way I look at all of it.
I used to think every closed door was rejection. Now I understand that some doors were protection, some were redirection, and some simply weren’t mine.
I wouldn’t volunteer to relive every hard season, but I also wouldn’t erase them. They gave me most of the stories I tell, most of the songs I write, most of the compassion I have for other people, and probably most of my sense of humor.
Turns out, smooth roads don’t make very interesting storytellers.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
At the heart of everything I do, I’m a storyteller.
I’m a songwriter first. I’ve written thousands of songs over the course of my career, with hundreds recorded by other artists, and I still love sitting down with nothing but an idea and figuring out how to turn it into something another human being can recognize themselves in. I specialize in writing songs that sound lived-in. I’m much more interested in the truth than perfection.
I’m also a recording artist and live performer, and somewhere along the way I accidentally became a comedian. My “Cigarette Mom” character took off online and introduced hundreds of thousands of people to my particular flavor of Appalachian humor. She’s exaggerated, obviously, but like most good comedy, there’s enough truth in there to make people say, “Oh Lord, I know her.”
More recently, I created Feral Christian, which may be the work I’m proudest of right now. It’s Bible study from the porch for people who love God, are curious about God, are coming back to God, or maybe got hurt somewhere along the way and aren’t quite ready to walk back through a church door. I’m not interested in pretending I have every answer. We open the Bible, ask real questions, laugh a lot, occasionally get uncomfortable, and figure it out together.
I think what sets me apart is that I don’t change voices depending on which hat I’m wearing.
The woman writing the country song is the same woman telling the inappropriate joke, and she’s the same woman sitting on the porch with a King James Bible in her lap. For a long time, I thought those pieces of me were supposed to live in separate rooms. Now I think the thing that makes my work mine is that I finally quit separating them.
I’m Appalachian. I’m a songwriter. I’m funny. I’m flawed. I love Jesus. None of those things cancels out another one.
I’m proud of the songs and the cuts and the career milestones, because I worked very hard for them. But I think what makes me proudest is when somebody tells me, “You made me feel like there was a place for me.”
Whether that happens through a song, a joke, or a Bible study, that’s the work I want to keep doing.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
One of my favorite memories is sitting at the old upright piano at my Granny’s house when I was about four years old and realizing I could figure it out.
I remember playing around with the keys and suddenly understanding that certain notes belonged together. It was this enormous “aha” moment in a very little girl’s mind. I didn’t have the vocabulary to call it melody or harmony. I just knew that somehow it made sense to me.
Looking back now, I think that may have been the first moment I met the thing that would become such a huge part of my life.
There’s something really special about knowing that before there was a music business, before there were songs or stages or audiences or any ambition attached to it, there was just a four-year-old girl at her Granny’s old upright piano thinking, “Oh. I understand this.”
I think some part of me has been chasing that feeling ever since.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sarahbethterry.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/sarahbethterryofficial
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/officialsarahbethterry
- Twitter: https://x.com/CigaretteMomOff
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@sarahbethterry?si=evN4laln7pZUSeBn
