Music |
Chris Smither
By
Published: Jan 01, 2007
Category:
Rock
Chris Smither
Videos
Origin of Species
Desolation Row
Waiting for a Train
You don’t need to recognize Chris Smither’s Buddha-like presence to savor his straight-up, finger-style blues. And you could hear only his covers to feel grateful for finding him. But what resonates most with Smither’s large circle of admirers are his songs of depression, loneliness, finding and losing a lover, battling and surviving demons, and facing our common, certain ending with grace.
Smither mostly performs solo, accompanied by his trademark blue guitar and an amplified beat that he foot-taps on a wooden board. He creates silence in a crowded hall — he binds you to your seat lest your clothes rustle. And then he can bring the house down with a raucous voice, strong beat and gentle humor.
Smither’s songs have been covered by Bonnie Raitt, Dianna Krall, The Dixie Chicks and others. He grew up in New Orleans and started his musical career on the Boston folk scene in the company of Raitt, John Hammond, Jr., Bob Dylan and Eric Von Schmidt; he cites Lightnin’ Hopkins and Mississippi John Hurt as seminal inspirations. He says that he lost a good part of the 1980’s to alcohol and quit it. Now in his early 60s, Smither radiates contentment and experience while playing 200+ dates a year in small clubs and thousand-seat halls.
Smither’s latest, Leave the Light On, is familiar in its range from quiet and contemplative to driving, serious to light-hearted, and for its innovative arrangements of other masters. But it helps to touch on some of his earlier, equally moving and thoughtful music to set the stage for this newest CD. Smither is someone whose full body of work is to be savored as you would a beloved short story writer or poet. We read collections of Cheever, Chekhov, Vonnegut, Larkin, Levine, Rilke, Yeats; so too with Smither.
Smither’s lyrics come from a metaphysical place. While he can be seen as a straight-up folk and blues singer who has always mixed in covers of Dylan, J.J. Cale and traditional songs, it his own inspired lyrics, sonorous delivery, and simple, clean, blues guitar that create feeling and new meanings out of familiar puzzle pieces. Much of his material is heavy stuff, but like most joyful mystics, he winks at you and delivers “A Better One” (about moving on from failed relations with two-named women to the steady, uncomplicated and dependable love of a single-named dog) and “Winsome Smile” (“She’ll say it’s all her fault, she’ll always be your friend, plus loads of shit too dumb to mention…”).
In the title song from Drive You Home Again, Smither describes his world view as he would a car trip:
Climb into this car,
I will take you for a ride,
We won’t go very far,
But I think better here inside.
This is followed by a verse that Thich Nhat Hanh or the Dali Lama could have written:
Every step is destination,
Every moment is as long,
As it will take imagination,
To begin and end the song.
Part equals all, that’s creation,
That’s the sense that we belong
In “Happier Blue”, Smither captures that feeling of what it is to fall in love and wonder whether we were happier in our misery:
I was sad and then I loved you.
It took my breath.
Now I think you love me, and
It scares me to death.
The first track of “Leave the Light On” launches the CD with a theme central to Smither’s take on his and our inner world:
I don’t think for pleasure,
Its just hard not to do.
My thinking is a measure of how much I need a clue
I’m still flying blind, hoping I might find a way to stop my thinking
And open up my mind.
In the title cut, Smither offers a positive take on middle age without ignoring the fact that time will run out. “Origin of the Species” is a light-hearted response to fundamental religion; Eve wants to leave Eden because of the snakes, the flood is like New Orleans, only bigger, and then he’s on to the theory of evolution:
Charlie Darwin looked so far into the way things are.
He caught a glimpse of God’s unfolding plan.
God said, “I’ll make some DNA they use it any way they want
From paramecium right up to man.
They’ll have sex, and mix up sections of the code, they’ll have mutations.
The whole thing works like clockwork over time.
I’ll just sit back in the shade
While everyone gets laid.”
That’s what I call intelligent design.
There’s much more, just as good: lightly doubled voices of Spanish guitars and mandolins and the soft touch of Anita Suhanin’s vocals. But mostly there are the words and sentiments of Chris Smither, a master songwriter, finger-style blues guitarist and performer. I find that his music carries me to a new geography of the heart and the mind. Like this:
Please believe me when I tell you,
The hardest part is to begin.
I know you think I’m crazy,
But we’re halfway to the end,
And if I drive you to distraction,
I will drive you home again.
Chris Smither does.
— Guest Butler Michael P. Krupa is a psychologist and health care consultant from Concord, Massachusetts, whose interests include music, photography and poetry.
To buy “Leave the Light On” from Amazon.com, click here.
To buy “Drive You Home Again” from Amazon.com, click here.
For Chris Smither’s web site,
click here.
