BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Paradise City Music//paradisecitymusic//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Chris Smither DTSTART:20261206T000000Z DTEND:20261206T030000Z DTSTAMP:20260818T212753Z UID:event-78@paradisecitymusic DESCRIPTION:Born in Miami\, during World War II\, Chris Smither grew up in New Orleans where he first started playing music as a child. The son of a Tulane University professor\, he was taught the rudiments of instrumentat ion by his uncle on his mother’s ukulele. “Uncle Howard\,” Smither s ays\, “showed me that if you knew three chords\, you could play a lot of the songs you heard on the radio. And if you knew four chords\, you could pretty much rule the world.” With that bit of knowledge under his belt\ , he was hooked. “I’d loved acoustic music – specifically the blues – ever since I first heard Lightnin’ Hopkins’ Blues In My Bottle alb um. I couldn’t believe the sound Hopkins got. At first I thought it was two guys playing guitar. My style\, to a degree\, came out of trying to im itate that sound I heard.”In his early twenties\, Smither turned his bac k on his anthropology studies and headed to Boston at the urging of legend ary folk singer Eric von Schmidt. It was the mid-’60s and acoustic music thrived in the streets and coffeehouses there. Smither forged lifelong fr iendships with many musicians\, including Bonnie Raitt who went on to reco rd his songs\, “Love You Like A Man” and “I Feel the Same. (Their fr iendship has endured as their career paths intertwined over the years.) Wh at quickly evolved from his New Orleans and Cambridge musical experiences is his enduring\, singular guitar sound – a beat-driven finger-picking\, strongly influenced by the playing of Mississippi John Hurt and Lightnin ’ Hopkins\, layered over the ever-present backbeat of his rhythmic\, tap ping feet (always mic’d in performance).Smither’s first albums\, I’m A Stranger\, Too! (1971) and Don’t It Drag On (1972) were released on P oppy Records\, home of kindred spirit Townes Van Zandt. By the time Smithe r recorded his third album\, Honeysuckle Dog with Lowell George and Dr. Jo hn helping out\, United Artists had absorbed Poppy and ultimately dropped much of their roster\, including Smither. Smither made his next record in 1985\, when the spare It Ain’t Easy on Adelphi Records marked his return to the studio.By the early ’90s\, Smither’s steady nationwide touring and regular release of consistently acclaimed albums cemented his reputat ion as one of the finest acoustic musicians in the country. His 1991 album \, Another Way to Find You\, was recorded live in front of an in-studio au dience with no overdubs or second takes. This would be the first of two al bums with Flying Fish Records. His next recording\, Happier Blue\, was emb raced by Triple A radio and received the NAIRD (now AFIM) award as Best Fo lk Recording of 1993. Up On The Lowdown (1995) marked the first of a trio of albums to be recorded with producer Stephen Bruton at The Hit Shack in Austin and his first of five albums with roots label HighTone Records. Up On the Lowdown rode the crest of the newly formed Americana radio format w ave and sparked considerable interest abroad. A tour of Australia with Dav e Alvin and extensive solo touring in Europe led to an expanding global in terest in Smither. His song\, “I Am the Ride\,” from this album inspir ed the independent film\, The Ride\, for which Smither also composed the o riginal score.In early 1997 Smither released Small Revelations. It climbed the Americana and Triple A radio charts and led to concert dates with B.B . King\, Bonnie Raitt\, Nanci Griffith\, and the hugely successful\, origi nal Monsters of Folk’ tour with Ramblin’ Jack Elliott\, Dave Alvin and Tom Russell. Small Revelations also generated several film projects for S mither. Emmylou Harris recorded his song\, “Slow Surprise\,” for the T he Horse Whisperer soundtrack on MCA. And his recording of “Hold On” w as used in the indie feature film Love From Ground Zero. Smither also shar ed insight into his guitar style and technique on two instructional DVDs\, available from Homespun Video.His CD\, Drive You Home Again (1999)\, garn ered four-stars from Rolling Stone. And with it\, Smither continued to tou r world-wide. Shortly after\, in 2000\, Smither released his one-man-tour- de-force\, Live As I’ll Ever Be. Recorded in-concert at various clubs an d concert halls in California\, Dublin\, Galway\, Boston\, and Washington DC\, it has proven to be a fan favorite\, capturing Smither at what he lov es to do: performing in front of an audience.Train Home (2003) was Smither ’s last record for HighTone and his first with producer David Goodrich. Over a six-week period\, basic tracks for Train Home were recorded in the relaxed environment of Smither’s home near Boston. Working with new sess ion musicians\, the record is simultaneously sparse and assured. Bonnie Ra itt graciously provided backing vocals and slide guitar on Smither’s cov er of Bob Dylan’s “Desolation Row.” And Smither’s “Seems So Real ” from the CD earned a Folk Alliance Award as “Song of the Year.”In 2005\, jazz great Diana Krall covered “Love Me Like A Man\,” introduci ng what is now a blues standard to a whole world of jazz fans. Shortly aft er\, Smither’s song “Slow Surprise” was included in the independent film\, Brother’s Shadow. In addition\, Smither narrated a two-CD audio b ook recording of “Will Rogers’ Greatest Hits.” Continuing to expand his creative horizon\, Smither was invited to contribute an essay to Sixty Things to Do When You Turn Sixty\, a 2006 collection of essays by America n luminaries on reaching that milestone. In 2009\, Melville House publishe d Amplified\, a book featuring 16 short stories by notable American perfor ming songwriters. Smither’s story Leroy Purcell about a touring musician ’s encounter with a Texas State Patrolman leads off the collection.With the release of his 12th recording Leave The Light On (2006) on his own imp rint\, Mighty Albert\, Smither began a new label relationship with the ren owned acoustic and modern folk label\, Signature Sounds. For the recording \, Smither reunited with producer David Goodrich and session musicians Mik e Piehl\, Lou Ulrich and Anita Suhanin. As an added treat\, Smither invite d good friend and Grammy Award-winning multi- instrumentalist\, Tim O’Br ien\, along with rising American roots stars\, Ollabelle\, to add their di stinctive talents on several tracks. Smither followed this with Time Stand s Still (2009)\, his most stripped down recording in some time\, working w ith just two accompanists after the same trio had played a rare band perfo rmance – a non-solo setup required in order to play a Netherlands festiv al.About the recording Smither says\, “We’re the only three guys on th is 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.” In 2011 Smither put out two fan projects: a collection of live tracks from newly discovered concert r ecordings from the 1980s-1990s titled Lost and Found and the rollicking EP \, What I Learned in School\, on which Smither covered six classic rock an d roll songs.Smither followed these fan-projects with Hundred Dollar Valen tine (2012)\, a ★★★★★ (MOJO) studio record of all Smither-penned songs. With longtime producer David “Goody” Goodrich at the helm\, th is collection sported Smither’s trademark acoustic guitar sound and evoc ative sonic textures meshed with spare\, brilliant songs\, delivered in a bone-wise\, hard-won voice.In 2014 Smither released Still on the Levee (20 14) – a double-CD retrospective. Recorded in New Orleans at the Music Sh ed\, this career-spanning project features fresh new takes on 24 iconic so ngs from his vast career and some very special guests including the legend ary Allen Toussaint and Loudon Wainwright III.The coffee table style book Chris Smither Lyrics 1966-2012 and Signature Sounds’ Link of Chain – a n all-star tribute record including a stellar list of artists offering the ir takes on some Smither favorites including Josh Ritter\, Bonnie Raitt\, Loudon Wainwright III\, Dave Alvin\, Peter Case\, Tim O’Brien\, Patty La rkin\, and many others were fan-favorite accompaniments to the retrospecti ve CD .In March 2018\, Smither released his eighteenth record\, Call Me Lu cky (Signature Sounds/Mighty Albert) once again teaming up with producer a nd multi-instrumentalist David Goodrich. Also joined by Billy Conway (Morp hine) and Matt Lorenz (The Suitcase Junket)\, Smither recorded eight new o riginals along with some very special and surprising covers at the Blue Ro ck studios in the Texas hills in June 2017.In October 2020\, More From The Levee\, the followup to the 50-year career retrospective Still on the Lev ee\, was released. Said Acoustic Guitar: Smither sings about “the big th ings – life\, love\, loss – in a penetrating and poetic yet unpretenti ous way.”The 20th release\, All About the Bones (release date: May 3\, 2 024 on Signature Sounds/Mighty Albert\, distributed by Redeye) is as eleme ntal as the inky black shadows cast by a shockingly bright moon. Featuring eight brand new Chris Smither songs and Smither renditions of Eliza Gilky son’s “Calm Before the Storm” and also Tom Petty’s “Time to Move On”\, the listener is welcomed into some gothic mansion on an imaginary New Orleans street\, and there in the lamplit parlor confronts the band\, a minimalist skeleton crew: Smither’s inimitable propulsive guitar and rumbling baritone are joined seamlessly to producer David Goodrich’s car petbag of instruments\, Zak Trojano’s rock-steady\, primal drumming\, Be ttySoo’s diaphanous harmony vocals\, and the flat\, mournful flood of Ja zz legend Chris Cheek’s saxophone. Recorded at Sonelab Studios in Eastha mpton MA by Justin Pizzoferrato All About the Bones has a feel that is som ehow baroque and austere at once. \nTickets: https://ironhorse.org/shows\n Full listing: https://www.paradisecitymusic.org/show/78 LOCATION:Iron Horse Music Hall\, 18 Center St.\, Northampton\, MA URL:https://www.paradisecitymusic.org/show/78 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR