What is immediately recognizable to anyone
encountering Chris Smither on record or in live performance over 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 artists whose songs Smither has selected to mix with his own.
On his brand new album, Time Stands Still, Smither tackles Lightnin’
Hopkins’ “Blues in the Bottle” (from the album that inspired the New
Orleans-born, Boston-based artist to begin performing in the 1960s) and Bob
Dylan’s “Visions of Johanna,” done in 6/8 time. Equally telling is the list
of artists who have covered this country blues legend’s original songs:
Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Raitt and Diana Krall.
The Boston Globe said Smither “is among the finest acoustic
guitarists anywhere in American music (Bonnie Raitt calls him “my Eric
Clapton”), and his songs, while banked in the blues, are as modern as
tomorrow’s newspaper.”
“If you’ve ever caught one of Chris Smither’s live performances, you know
it’s hard not to come away knocked out by the amount of music that comes out
of one man,” No Depression raved. “His songs are gleaming bits of
gold...”
Smither got his start playing the coffeehouses of Cambridge, Mass., during
the folk revival of the 1960s. After coming on the radar in 1970 with the
well-received debut I’m a Stranger Too! and the similarly lauded 1972
follow-up, Don’t It Drag On, Smither didn’t release another record
for more than a decade. Alcohol was the culprit. “I just got lucky,” Smither
says of his escape from that life. “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.”
Smither recognizes the young artist on the front end of his long struggle
from his present perspective. “He got sidetracked, and he learned a lot, but
it’s definitely the same guy,” he says. “I had to go through all the
horrible stuff to get where I am now. I couldn’t write the kind of stuff
that I write now if I hadn’t gone through it. I wouldn’t realize what it is
to be a human.”
Recorded in only three days, Time Stands Still marks Smither’s 11th
studio album of a career that now spans over four decades. The release
features eight new original compositions and a song apiece from Bob Dylan,
Mark Knopfler and 1920s country-blues songster Frank Hutchison. Fresh voices
on Time Stands Still include the young neo-gospel quartet Ollabelle,
who bring a complementary loveliness to Smither’s “Seems So Real” and
additional resonance to the traditional “John Hardy.” Renowned roots
musician Tim O’Brien 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 the edgily political
“Diplomacy,” harkening back to his roots in the ’60s folk scene.
Tue Oct 27
| 7 pm CSPS | 1103 Third St SE | Cedar Rapids
$18 + fee in advance | $22 at the door
