Chris Smither
(born November 11, 1944 in Miami, Florida) is an American folk/blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter. His music draws deeply from the blues, American folk music, modern poets and philosophers.
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Early life, influences and education
Smither’s family lived in
Ecuador and the
Rio Grande Valley in
Texas before settling in
New Orleans when Chris was three years old. He grew up in
New Orleans, and lived briefly in
Paris where he and his twin sister attended French public school. It was in Paris that Smither got his first guitar - one his father brought him from
Spain. Shortly after, the family returned to New Orleans where his father taught at
Tulane University.
[1] [2]
In 1960, Smither and two friends entered and won a folk “
Battle of the Bands” at the
New Orleans Saenger Theatre. Two years later, Smither graduated from
Benjamin Franklin High School in New Orleans and went on to attend the
University of the Americas in
Mexico City planning to study
anthropology. It was there that a friend played Smither the
Lightnin' Hopkins' record “Blues in My Bottle”. After one year in Mexico, Smither returned to New Orleans where he attended Tulane for one year and discovered
Mississippi John Hurt’s music through the
Blues at Newport 1963
album on
Vanguard Records. Hurt and Hopkins would become cornerstone influences on Smither’s own music.
In 1964, Smither flew to
New York City two days prior to boarding the
SS United States for the five-day transatlantic voyage to Paris for his Junior Year Abroad program. While in New York, he stopped at
The Gaslight Cafe to see his hero, Mississippi John Hurt. Once in Paris, Smither often spent time playing his guitar instead of attending classes.
Smither returned to New Orleans in 1965. With a few clothes and his guitar, he soon took off for
Florida to meet another musical hero,
Eric von Schmidt. Smither arrived uninvited at von Schmidt’s door; Von Schmidt welcomed Smither in, and upon listening to him play, advised him to go north to seek a place in the burgeoning folk scene in
New York City or
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
[3] Smither followed this advice, and arrived at
Club 47 in
Harvard Square several weeks later only to find von Schmidt performing. Von Schmidt invited Smither on stage to play three songs.
Professional career
Smither soon began writing and performing his own songs. He achieved some local notice and by 1967 was featured on the cover of
Broadside Magazine
,
[4] and in 1968 music photographer David Gahr’s book,
The Face of Folk Music
featured Smither’s picture.
By 1969, after living in several places around Cambridge, Smither moved to Garfield Street in Cambridge and often visited
Dick Waterman's house where
Fred McDowell,
Son House and other blues legends were known to congregate. It was there that Smither first performed his song "Love You Like A Man" for Waterman's friend,
Bonnie Raitt. That summer, he appeared at the
Philadelphia Folk Festival for the first time.
In 1970, he released his first album
I'm A Stranger, Too!
on Poppy Records, followed by
Don’t It Drag On
the next year. He recorded a follow up,
Honeysuckle Dog
, in 1973 for
United Artists Records but it was never released as around the same time the record label was purchased by Transamerica, which culled over half the UA roster of artists (including Smither) shortly before putting the label out of business altogether. In 2004, the never-released
Honeysuckle Dog
was licensed by
Tomato Records.
Despite being dropped from the record label, Smither continued to tour, becoming a fixture in the New England folk clubs.
In 1972, a longstanding working relationship with Bonnie Raitt
took shape as Raitt's
cover of "Love Me Like a Man" appeared on her second album
Give It Up
. Raitt has since made it a signature song of her live performances, and the song has been included on several of her live albums and collections. She has openly expressed admiration for Smither's songwriting and guitar playing, once calling Smither "my
Eric Clapton."
[5] In 1973, Raitt covered Smither's song "I Feel The Same" on her
Takin' My Time
album.
Following this mixed early success, Smither's recording and songwriting career had a long fallow period while he struggled with personal issues.
[6] In his official biography, Smither is quoted: "I was basically drunk for 12 years, and somehow I managed to climb out of it; I don't know why."
Smither began to re-emerge as a performer in the late 1970s, and gained a few press notices. In
1979, he was featured in Eric von Schmidt and Jim Rooney's book,
Baby Let Me Follow You Down
[7], and the next year in the UK's
Melody Maker
magazine.
In
1984, Smither's belated third album,
It Ain’t Easy
was released on
Adelphi Records. In
1987, author
Linda Barnes’ book “A Trouble of Fools” was published. This is the first in a series of 11 (to-date) novels featuring the
private investigator Carlotta Carlysle who is a big Chris Smither fan, and all of which include some reference to Chris Smither.
Smither recorded his next album,
Another Way To Find You
, in front of a live audience at Soundtrack Studio in Boston and in 1991 released it on
Flying Fish Records. Later that year he received a
Boston Music Award. Two years later, he was invited to compose music for a documentary on Southern folk artists and met Southern folk artist
Mose T.
In 1993, Smither recorded and released his fifth album,
Happier Blue
(Flying Fish), which earned Smither a National American Independent Record Distributors NAIRD award. Another two years later, he released
Up On The Lowdown
(
Hightone Records), which was recorded at the Hit Shack in
Austin, Texas. This was the first of three records produced by Stephen Bruton. Also that year, the
Chris Smither Songbook I
was published.
In 1996 he began recording live concerts in the US and Ireland for what would later become a live CD. The next year, he released his seventh album,
Small Revelations
(Hightone), and filmed an instructional guitar video for
Happy Traum’s Homespun Tapes in
Woodstock, NY.
In 1997 Smither's music was used exclusively on the entire score of the short film,
The Ride
, directed by John Flanders and produced by Flanders's company, RoughPine Productions. Flanders plays a folk-singer in the film who is largely influenced by Smither.
The Ride
won the Audience Best Film Award at the 2002 Moscow Film Festival.
1998 was a year of small breakthroughs and the start of a fertile songwriting and recording period for Smither.
HighTone Records reissued
Another Way To Find You
and
Happier Blue
and
Jorma Kaukonen invited Smither to teach at his Fur Peace Ranch in
Ohio. In addition, Smither toured with
Dave Alvin,
Ramblin' Jack Elliott and
Tom Russell as Hightone’s "Monsters of Folk" tour, and
Emmylou Harris recorded his song "Slow Surprise", for the
Horse Whisperer
soundtrack CD.
In
1999, Smither released
Drive You Home Again
(
HighTone Records), and
Keys to Tetuan
by Israeli novelist Moshe Benarroch was published with a line from Smither's song
I Am The Ride
on the opening page.
2000 brought the release of another CD,
Live As I’ll Ever Be
(
HighTone Records ), comprised of the live recordings made two years earlier. His song "No Love Today" was featured in the
Bravo network program
Tale Lights
. The following year, songwriter
Peter Case invited Smither to be part of a
Mississippi John Hurt tribute record for which he contributed the opening track, “Frankie and Albert”.
[8]
In
2003,
Train Home
was released on Hightone. In 2004, jazz singer
Diana Krall covered “Love Me Like A Man” on her CD,
The Girl in the Other Room
.
In September 2006, Smither released
Leave the Light On
(
Signature Sounds Recordings) produced by David 'Goody' Goodrich. His song, "Diplomacy," from the CD was named #42 on
Rolling Stone Magazine's list of 100 Best Songs of the Year 2006. Smither was also named as 2007's Outstanding Folk Act by the
Boston Music Awards. That year he also contributed an essay entitled "Become a Parent" to the book
Sixty Things To Do When You Turn Sixty
(Ronnie Sellers Productions).
[9] And he narrated a two-CD audio book recording of
Will Rogers' Greatest Hits
(Logofon Recordings).
In 2007, Smither’s song “Open Up” is expected to appear on the soundtrack of the film
You Kill Me
, starring
Ben Kingsley and
Luke Wilson.
Smither released a 78-minute live concert DVD,
One More Night,
(
Signature Sounds Recordings) in February,
2008. Much of which was filmed last year live at a beautiful 75-seat music barn in Lyme, CT.
In May
2009, Smither's short story "Leroy Purcell" was released in
Amplified
(
Melville House Publishing), a collection of fiction by 15 prominent performing songwriters.
Smither continues to tour worldwide, performing at clubs, concert halls, and festivals in the US,
Canada, UK,
Ireland,
Europe,
Australia.
Smither's 13th CD
Time Stands Still
will be in stores on September 29,
2009 on (
Signature Sounds Recordings).
Pop culture references
In 1987, author
Linda Barnes’ book
A Trouble of Fools
was published. This is the first in a series of 11 (to-date) novels featuring the
private investigator Carlotta Carlysle who is a big Chris Smither fan, and all of which include some reference to Chris Smither.
Keys to Tetuan
by Israeli novelist
Moshe Benarroch uses a line from Smither's song “I Am The Ride” on the opening page.
Discography
- 1970 - I'm a Stranger Too!
- 1971 - Don't It Drag On
- 1984 - It Ain't Easy
- 1991 - Another Way to Find You
- 1993 - Happier Blue
- 1995 - Up on the Lowdown
- 1997 - Small Revelations
- 1999 - Drive You Home Again
- 2000 - Live As I'll Ever Be
- 2003 - Train Home
- 2005 - Honeysuckle Dog
(recorded in 1973)
- 2006 - Leave the Light On
Live Recordings and Compilations
- Blues Live From Mountain Stage (Plays "The Devil's Real")
(1995)
- Avalon Blues: A Tribute to the Music of Mississippi John Hurt (Plays "Frankie and Albert")
(2001)
- Live At McCabe's Guitar Shop
(2004)
- Raise the Roof - A Retrospective (Plays "Winsome Smile")
(2004)
- A Case for Case: A Tribute to the Songs of Peter Case (Plays "Cold Trail Blues")
(2006)
- Tales from the Tavern, Vol.1 (Plays "Train Home")
(2006)
- True Folk (Plays "Step It Up and Go" with Jorma Kaukonen)
(2006)
References
- Pure Music interview. Accessed on April 5, 2008.
- Americana UK interview. Accessed on April 8, 2008.
- CMT Biography. Accessed on April 7, 2008.
- Richard & Mimi Farina website, scans of Broadside Magazine covers.
- Boston Globe: February 22, 1992 by Steve Morse
- SacBee interview. Accessed on April 5, 2008.
- Von Schmidt, Eric and Jim Rooney: Baby Let Me Follow You Down:
The Illustrated History Of The Cambridge Folk Years.
Garden City, New York: Anchor Press / Doubleday & Co. 1979 (2nd edition 1994: Univ. of Massachusetts Press; ISBN 0-87023-925-2. (pp 276-277)
- Minor 7th interview. Accessed on April 5, 2008.
- ClevNet Consortium entry for Sixty Things To Do When You Turn Sixty.