Chris Smither

Saturday Nov 03 04:00PM Add to Calendar
Friday Morning Musicale [map]

Chris Smither keeps getting better with age. With his last album, Rolling Stone called his song "Origin of Species" the #42 Song of the Year. At the 2006 Folk Alliance Awards, Smither won "Song of the Year" and Contemparary Folk Artist of the Year awards, and a nomination for Contemporary Folk Album of the Year. He's mesmerizing live performer, best appreciated in an intimate setting like the Friday Morning Musicale. No opening act, two sets by Chris Smither.

Here a video of Smither doing "Origin of Species", picked by Rolling Stone as one of the best songs of the year. ACOUSTIC GUITAR: Chris Smither's songs seem so casual – everyday language drawled over fine blues fingerpicking and the happy tip-tap of his shoes – that it's easy to overlook how artful and deep they are. Smither is now at the peak of his creative powers.

ROLLINGSTONE.COM: Chris Smither delivers one of the most riveting live shows you're ever likely to see. His growling vocals, badass finger picking and uniformly brilliant songs are here in spades.

MAVERICK/UK: Cast your mind back to the first time you heard Hank Williams, Big Bill Broonzy or JJ Cale and remember how good it felt. Think of the opening encounter with Leon Redbone or Leo Kottke. They say newcomers to Chris Smither's brand of country blues-tinged southern folk experience those some emotions. It's true.

FOLK ROOTS/UK: His own writing continues to produce unmistakably Smitheresque gems ripe for the picking, while his choice of other people's work to occasionally slip in is as always impeccable.

REVOLUTIONS/UK: His voice has astonishing power even when barely louder than a growled whisper and a guitar so full of the blues. The quality of the songwriting - tight, smart, wry - ensures that these talents are fully utilized.

SYDNEY MORNING HERALD/Australia: His ability to take the emotion at the heart of a song, make it transparent and pass it on to the listener is unmatched. Smither's rich, deep, emotion-charged voice and his exquisite guitar playing imbues these simple thoughts with a profundity forged out of genuine passion.

NEW YORK TIMES: Through the decades, Mr. Smither has taken the blues in a direction entirely his own: stoic existential ruminations sung in a pained, weathered moan and set to quietly virtuosic guitar. There was always unpretentious philosophy in the deep blues, and Mr. Smither has followed it toward his own quiet epiphanies.

MONTREAL GAZETTE/Canada: With his Southern-drawl singing voice, tapping foot in constant motion and fingers pulling fluid blues patterns from his acoustic guitar, Chris Smither is an engaging, sometimes intense singer-songwriter who can convert almost any audience he sits down in front of.

VILLAGE VOICE: Chris Smither, whose grand voice, stomping foot, blues-drenched guitar, and abiding interest in the problem of evil packed more power than the bands of (Tracy) Chapman and (John) Martyn combined.

WASHINGTON POST: (Smither)'s one of the finest interpreters of classic blues and contemporary roots music on the scene today.

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: Smither continues to give ample proof that he's matured into one of roots music's most passionate, soulful songsmiths and interpreters. He has the perfect husky, country-music voice, and he keeps the tunes clipping with crisp acoustic picking.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE: Sitting all evening in a wooden chair, blue acoustic guitar cradled in his lap, feet miked to amplify him stamping out the beat, Smither coupled a firm grasp of nuance with understated, focused energy. Smither's quiet intensity made itself felt most of all in his dazzling guitar picking.

BOSTON GLOBE: (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.

NASHVILLE TENNESSEAN: You'll hear emotional, sand-blasted vocals, a sweet-toned acoustic/electric guitar played in an ornate finger style, and potent songs drawn from years of loving the folk poetry of Mississippi John Hurt, tinged by a certain worldliness.

OTTAWA XPRESS/Canada: On stage, his songs are bolstered by stunning, intricate guitar work, expressive, gut-wrenching singing and the hypnotic ‘tapping feet' that is the heartbeat of his performances.

AMAZON.COM: New Orleans-bred folk-bluesman Smither has few peers. As a musician he's expanded the six-strings-and-foot-stomps delivery of John Lee Hooker into an elegant, original style that draws as much on the sweet jazz melodies of gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt as the spidery swing of country bluesman John Hurt.