Rambling singer-songwriter Jordan Smart takes one of the roads he’s never traveled.

Jordan Smart left his native Ohio for a life of uncertainty, hitch-hiking, sleeping under bridges and going hungry. He believed such a lifestyle bred songs with more authenticity.

Five years later, Smart, who lived in Monterey as he found his songwriting voice, finds himself back in the place he initially “escaped from.” The place where he can’t go a day without hearing the mantra “Make America great again.”

There have been big changes in the musician’s life, namely the birth of his daughter, who’s just a little over 3 months old now, and a new outlook on life.

“Prior to having my daughter I didn’t care about my future,” Smart says. “I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll get my shit together someday,’ but now there’s a reason to make the best life I can.”

Just after Smart’s baby was born, he and his partner returned to the Buckeye State so they could be close to family. But music still runs rampant through his veins. No change on that front.

“I’ll do whatever I need to do to make ends meet, but I’ll always work on my music as much as I can,” Smart says.

On Sept. 14, Smart’s long-awaited full-length studio debut Heart of it All hit the streets, revealing the same singer-songwriter Monterey embraced as a lost vagabond. The record has the rhythm of a restless wanderer – a kinetic, banjo-heavy personal confession. Smart doesn’t venture into new territory, which is good news. He sticks with what he knows and what he does best: no-frills, roots-driven Americana.

The opening title track sets the tone. An affinity for travel is still there, but this time, the traveling has a purpose: When Smart wrote most of the tunes two years back, he was in the thick of a long-distance relationship with the now-mother-of-his-child.

“There were a lot of eight hour treks back and forth,” Smart recalls.

“Footsteps,” featuring the ethereal guitar of The Haunted Windchimes’ Inaiah Lujan, reverberates with quiet acoustic melancholy. Smart sings with tearful longing: “Down the road I go alone, hoping to find my way back home/ Back to you where I belong, where I never have to sing these sad songs.”

JORDAN SMART 8pm Saturday, Sept. 30.
Pierce Ranch Vineyards 499 Wave St. Monterey. $8
372-8900
piercevineyards.com