Chris Smither

William Christopher Smither (born November 11, 1944) is an American folk/blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter. His music draws deeply from the blues, American folk music, and modern poets and philosophers.

Early life, influences and education He was born in Miami, Florida, United States The Smither 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 Mary Catherine attended French public school. In Paris Smither got his first guitar, which his father brought him from Spain. Shortly after, the family returned to New Orleans where his father taught at Tulane University.

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 Latin-American anthropology like his father. Smither followed this advice, and arrived at Club 47 in Harvard Square several weeks later and found 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 The Broadside of Boston magazine. 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 musicians 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. In 1973, Raitt covered Smither's song "I Feel the Same" on her Takin' My Time album. 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, 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 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, "Origin of Species," from the CD was named No. 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). And he narrated a two-CD audio book recording of Will Rogers' Greatest Hits (Logofon Recordings).

Smither released a 78-minute live concert DVD, One More Night, (Signature Sounds) in February 2008. In May 2009, Smither's short story "Leroy Purcell" was published in Amplified (Melville House Publishing), a collection of fiction by fifteen prominent performing songwriters. Smither's thirteenth CD Time Stands Still was released on September 29, 2009, on Signature Sounds. On this, his most stripped down recording in some time, Smither worked with just two accompanists after the same trio had played a rare band performance – a non-solo setup required to play a Netherlands festival. About the recording Smither says, "We're the only three guys on this record, and most of the songs only have three parts going on. We had a freewheeling feeling at that festival gig, and we managed to make a lot of that same feeling happen in this record."

On February 8, 2011, Smither was profiled in The New York Times "Frequent Flier" column, entitled, "The Drawbacks of a Modest Celebrity," in which he recounts anecdotes from his four decades as a traveling musician.

Always wanting to treat his fans well, in 2011 Smither put out two fan projects: a collection of live tracks from newly discovered concert recordings from the 1980s–1990s titled Lost and Found and the rollicking EP, What I Learned in School, on which Smither covered six classic rock and roll songs. Smither followed these fan-projects with Hundred Dollar Valentine (2012), a studio record rated with five stars by the magazine MOJO. With longtime producer David "Goody" Goodrich at the helm, this collection sported the unmistakable sound Smither has made his trademark: fingerpicked acoustic guitar and evocative sonic textures meshed with spare, brilliant songs, delivered in a bone-wise, hard-won voice. American Songwriter magazine published Smither's blog about making his first record of all original material in his four-decade career.

In 2014, Chris Smither marked fifty years of songwriting with the release of Still on the Levee – a double-CD retrospective. Recorded in New Orleans at the Music Shed, this career-spanning project features fresh new takes on 24 iconic songs from his vast career – including "Devil Got Your Man," the first song he penned, on up to several of his most recent originals. The band included Billy Conway on drums. Coming out at the same time as Still on the Levee, the book Chris Smither Lyrics 1966–2012 features his complete set of lyrics complemented by select images and performance memorabilia from his decades-long career. To commemorate his career to-date, on September 30, 2014, Signature Sounds released an all-star tribute record (Link of Chain: A Songwriters' Tribute to Chris Smither) including a list of artists offering their takes on some Smither favorites including Josh Ritter, Bonnie Raitt, Loudon Wainwright III, Dave Alvin, Peter Case, Tim O'Brien and Patty Larkin.

The 2018 release Call Me Lucky also included Conway on drums.

In pop culture Several of author Linda Barnes’ books make reference to Chris Smither.

Discography Albums 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 2009 – Time Stands Still 2011 – Lost and Found 2012 – Hundred Dollar Valentine 2014 – Still on the Levee 2018 – Call Me Lucky 2020 – More From The Levee 2024 - All About The Bones

Live recordings Stuck in Amber, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (1985) Chris Smither Live at McCabe's Guitar Shop 3/14/03 (2003)

Compilation albums Blues Live From Mountain Stage (The Devil's Real) (1995) Avalon Blues: A Tribute to the Music of Mississippi John Hurt (Frankie and Albert) (2001) Raise the Roof – A Retrospective (Winsome Smile) (2004) Various – 89.3 The Current by Minnesota Public Radio (Train Home) (2005) A Case for Case: A Tribute to the Songs of Peter Case (Cold Trail Blues) (2006) Tales from the Tavern, Vol.1 (Train Home) (2006) True Folk (Step It Up and Go with Jorma Kaukonen) (2006)