MP3 Chris Smither - Leave The Light On

A master of acoustic blues, Chris Smither is also a remarkable songwriter....Bonnie Raitt calls him "my Eric Clapton".

12 MP3 Songs
BLUES: Acoustic Blues, FOLK: Folk Blues



Details:
Some artists continually reinvent themselves; others identify their muse early on and spend their careers single-mindedly pursuing it, remaining recognizably themselves through a career-long process of refinement, growth and discovery. Chris Smither belongs to the latter group. Leave the Light On, Smitherâs masterful twelfth album â the first heâs released on his own Mighty Albert label â stands as the quintessence of his lifeâs work while throwing in some new wrinkles that reflect where heâs been and what heâs encountered since the last time around. But Smitherâs central theme as he enters his 60s is clearer than ever.

âThe last three or four records Iâve done are mostly talking about the big questions â life, death, love and⦠not love â and where the whole thingâs going,â he says. This new âfistful of tunes,â as he calls it, finds Smither once again in a contemplative mood, examining his thought processes on âOpen Up,â struggling to distinguish between self-deception and truth on âSeems So Realâ and seeking the most fundamental kind of closure on âFatherâs Day.â No, Leave the Light On is not a party record.

âSince I started recording again around 20 years ago [22, actually], Iâve been writing about the same sorts of things; itâs just about my own growing perception of it, and how clear can I make it?â Smither explains. âI guess Iâm making it clearer, because people donât often ask me what the songs are about anymore. Itâs a process of engagement. When you write a song, youâve got three or four minutes to get ahold of somebody, and if they can remember one phrase or line when they walk away from it, youâve won. And I think Iâve accomplished that.â

What is immediately recognizable to anyone who has encountered Smither on record or in live performance during the course of the last four decades are his been-there, done-that voice and the crystalline, wordlessly eloquent sounds of his fingerpicked acoustic guitar. Familiar, too, are the writer/artists whose songs Smither has selected to intermingle with his own. These include Mississippi John Hurt, whose âBlues in the Bottleâ â a striking showcase for Smitherâs approach to the acoustic guitar â is drawn from Blues in My Bottle, the album that inspired the New Orleans-born, Boston-based artist to begin performing in the 1960s; and his contemporary Bob Dylan, from whose vast oeuvre the artist this time has chosen the Blonde on Blonde linchpin âVisions of Johanna.â

The new elements introduced on Leave the Light On â the second album produced by Smitherâs cohort, David âGoodyâ Goodrich, after 2003âs Train Home â provides the new recording with its particular flavor. On hand is young neo-gospel quartet Ollabelle, who bring a complementary loveliness to Smitherâs âSeems So Realâ and additional resonance to the traditional âJohn Hardy.â The renowned roots musician Tim OâBrien plays mandolin and fiddle all over the record, as well as harmonizing with Smither, Sean Staples and Anita Suhanin on the lilting title track for a billowing blend that evokes Southern California circa 1972. Atypically, he tackles topical themes on âOrigin of Species,â which he says is âmaking fun of dummies,â and the edgily political âDiplomacy,â harkening back to his roots in the â60s folk scene. Also different is Smitherâs bold and surprising decision to arrange âVisions of Johannaâ in 6/8 time (he credits his friend Steve Tilston, an English artist, for the suggestion) that results in a track of otherworldly beauty.

Smither considers himself a performer first and foremost, and the fashioning of new material for each album brings added interest to both his fans and himself. âNew tunes not only have a freshness of their own, but they also freshen up all the old material as well â they cast a new light on it,â he points out. In this sense, each album results in an act of recontextualization of his entire body of work. âItâs an interesting process,â he confirms. âNot for a minute do I believe the songs come from any place but inside of me, but at the same time thereâs an otherness to them that continually surprises me. Why does it take so long for them to become part of my conscious self? Itâs an interesting problem, but Iâve talked to enough writers to realize Iâm far from unique in that respect.â

After coming on the radar in 1970 with the well-received debut album Iâm a Stranger Too! and the similarly lauded 1972 follow-up, Donât It Drag On, Smither didnât release another record for more than a decade. âEverybody has good patches and bad patches,â he says. âI was basically drunk for 12 years, and somehow I managed to climb out of it; I donât know why. Why did I get well when so many other people donât? It had nothing to do with any virtue on my part; if I were Christian, Iâd call it grace. I just got lucky. Mostly you just get tired of it. So when you get sufficiently tired of it, you either descend into utter obliteration or you get out, and so I got out.â

Smither says he recognizes the young artist on the front end of his long struggle from his present perspective. âHe got sidetracked, and he learned a lot, but itâs definitely the same guy,â he says. âThe other interesting thing is that I had to go through all the horrible stuff to get where I am now. Itâs part and parcel of the animal thatâs walking around today. Itâs unfortunate that I stayed so unproductive for so long, but at the same time, I couldnât write the kind of stuff that I write now if I hadnât gone through it. I wouldnât realize what it is to be a human â not really. I might think I did, but it wouldnât be the same.â

When asked about his career-long predilection for mixing in outside songs with his own material, Smither says, âThis may sound a little self-important, maybe, but I like to hold these things up and say, âThese are the people I consider my peers, and my stuff stands up to this. This is what I do, and this is where I come from.ââ

The four non-originals on Leave the Light On â also including Peter Caseâs âCold Trail Bluesâ â indicate where Chris Smither comes from; the eight new songs heâs fashioned show where this deeply soulful artist is now, and what lies ahead. The particular opening into the universal, delivered by a knowing voice and filigreed by tasty licks â you canât ask for more than that from an album.