Chris Smither: Not necessarily the blues
But even if his trademark guitar is blue, even if his voice seems to channel the muddy grit of the Delta, even if he still tosses in a Lightnin' Hopkins riff or a Mississippi John Hurt lick now and then, even if his overall sensibility is strongly colored indigo - even if he still gets promoted as a blues act, as he has been for tomorrow night's show at the Clark Art Institute at 8 -- it is well-nigh time that the world came around to understanding that Chris Smither is most definitely not a blues singer, at least in the way that the epithet "blues singer" is most commonly understood. In fact, on his latest recording, "Drive You Home Again" (Hightone), once you get past the opening track, you're hard pressed to find a song you could call a "blues." Instead, you find a collection of original folk- and blues-based compositions laced with touches of Tex-Mex, country and the sound of Smither's native New Orleans. If you have to call it something, call it contemporary American roots-music. Or as Smither himself answers when asked what he calls his music, "good music, I hope." "Basically, I just think of myself as a songwriter," said Smither in a recent phone interview from his home in eastern Massachusetts, the day after returning from a monthlong concert tour of the British Isles. "I don't write pop songs. I don't know what to call them. The Brits - they don't know what to call it, so they call it the blues, because it's the only music they know that moves like that." Smither isn't dissing the blues when he disassociates himself with the genre. It's just that after immersing himself in and playing the blues for years - decades even -- he knows as well as anyone the difference between "the blues" and the music that now comprises the bulk of his repertoire. In fact, Smither credits the blues with investing his own compositions with an essential element lacking in the vast majority of contemporary singer-songwriter material. "I listen to what I do, and then I listen to ninety percent of singer-songwriter stuff, and none of it cooks," he said. "There's an element to most of my stuff, it has a groove, it moves. That comes directly from what I learned from the blues." Smither is referring to the swinging beat, the pulse, the tension and release that fuels upbeat songs like "Tell Me Why You Love Me" and "Hey, Hey, Hey" and even ballads like "No Love Today," all found on "Drive You Home Again." There's no denying that Smither's music, guitar-playing, and certainly his voice, all have a "bluesy" quality. As for his voice -- that craggy, froggy character etched with the miles of roads he's travelled since first picking up his guitar and performing in the wake of the Cambridge folk-blues revival in the mid-'60s -- it has never sounded better, more fluid, more versatile, and more convincing, than it does on "Drive You Home Again." "I work at it," said Smither about his voice. This wasn't always the case. There was a time when Smither only thought about working on his guitar playing, and what came out of his mouth was just what was there, what nature provided. Now he considers his voice his primary instrument, and he regularly works it in order to keep it in shape and stretch it so that he can use it to express more than he can say with just words. Part and parcel of the newfound pride Smither takes in his vocals is his confidence in his songwriting. For years he was known primarily as a blues singer who occasionally wrote and performed his own songs. But over the past decade, he has enjoyed a creative comeback of sorts, in large part fueled by his newfound ability to craft deeply reflective and thoughtful meditations in the form of contemporary folk songs. "As little as six years ago there was still an uncertainty - I'd feel that I've fooled them again, and I thought one day I was going to be found out," said Smither about his songwriting. "And I don't feel that anymore. I'm getting more consistent about writing. That sort of thing comes with experience and age. It's hard to pinpoint." That degree of confidence is matched by a kind of gravitas in his performance, a seriousness of purpose that allows for joy, beauty and humor to play a role but also that makes room for addressing big questions. Some of the songs on "Drive You Home Again" address questions of faith and spirituality. The language of "Hold on II," with words like "revelation" and "grace," suggest a religious thinker lurking behind the blue guitar. "It's not religion as much as philosophy," said the son of a college professor who once had designs in anthropology, "although it has its spiritual aspect to it, which isn't necessarily religious. At least there is a lack of spiritual indifference. To an extent it's always been there, but probably for a long time I tried to hide it. Now I don't bother." Smither's reference is to a dark period of his life in the late-'70s and early-'80s when alcohol stole his muse and carpentry replaced music as his chosen profession. With his career and creative life back on track and with stability in his personal life, does he have enough angst to continue to fuel his art? "Oh yeah, there's too much of an edge to the world," he said. "I'm more aware of it now than ever. I probably have a better perspective on it than I did before, too. Obviously, it gets filtered through my perception, and my perception is, if not more accurate, at least more interesting than it used to be." Up-and-coming singer-songwriter Mark Erelli, the 1999 New Folk winner at the Kerrville Folk Festival, will warm up the crowd for Chris Smither tomorrow night at 8. Tickets are $15 for the general public, $10 for members, $8 for students and children, and are available at the Clark museum shop or by calling 458-2303, ext. 324.
[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Nov. 19, 1999. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1999. All rights reserved.]
Seth Rogovoy rogovoy@berkshire.net music news, interviews, reviews, et al.
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