SUTC Bob Dylan

What Was It You Wanted

Like John Hammond and a handful of other musicians whose careers began in the 60's blues revival, guitarist, singer and songwriter Chris Smither can take pride in the fact that he's been there since the beginning. Except for a few years when he was away from performing in the 70's, Smither has been a mainstay of the festival, coffee house & club circuits around the U.S., Canada and Europe since his performing career began in earnest in the coffeehouses in Boston in the spring of 1966

Jailhouse Blues

Smither's 13th CD Time Stands Still will be in stores on September 29, 2009

'Deed I Do

In case ya didn't know, Wiki stuff:

Smither's family lived in Ecuador and the Rio Grande Valley in Texas before settling in New Orleans when Chris was three years old. He grew up in New Orleans, and lived briefly in Paris where he and his twin sister attended French public school. It was in Paris that Smither got his first guitar - one his father brought him from Spain. Shortly after, the family returned to New Orleans where his father taught at Tulane University.

In 1960, Smither and two friends entered and won a folk "Battle of the Bands" at the New Orleans Saenger Theatre. Two years later, Smither graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School in New Orleans and went on to attend the University of the Americas in Mexico City planning to study anthropology. It was there that a friend played Smither the Lightnin' Hopkins' record "Blues in My Bottle". After one year in Mexico, Smither returned to New Orleans where he attended Tulane for one year and discovered Mississippi John Hurt's music through the Blues at Newport 1963 album on Vanguard Records. Hurt and Hopkins would become cornerstone influences on Smither's own music.

In 1964, Smither flew to New York City two days prior to boarding the SS United States for the five-day transatlantic voyage to Paris for his Junior Year Abroad program. While in New York, he stopped at The Gaslight Cafe to see his hero, Mississippi John Hurt. Once in Paris, Smither often spent time playing his guitar instead of attending classes.

Smither returned to New Orleans in 1965. With a few clothes and his guitar, he soon took off for Florida to meet another musical hero, Eric von Schmidt. Smither arrived uninvited at von Schmidt's door; Von Schmidt welcomed Smither in, and upon listening to him play, advised him to go north to seek a place in the burgeoning folk scene in New York City or Cambridge, Massachusetts. Smither followed this advice, and arrived at Club 47 in Harvard Square several weeks later only to find von Schmidt performing. Von Schmidt invited Smither on stage to play three songs.

Smither soon began writing and performing his own songs. He achieved some local notice and by 1967 was featured on the cover of Broadside Magazine, and in 1968 music photographer David Gahr's book, The Face of Folk Music featured Smither's picture.

By 1969, after living in several places around Cambridge, Smither moved to Garfield Street in Cambridge and often visited Dick Waterman's house where Fred McDowell, Son House and other blues legends were known to congregate. It was there that Smither first performed his song "Love You Like A Man" for Waterman's friend, Bonnie Raitt. That summer, he appeared at the Philadelphia Folk Festival for the first time.

In 1970, he released his first album I'm A Stranger, Too! on Poppy Records, followed by Don't It Drag On the next year. He recorded a follow up, Honeysuckle Dog, in 1973 for United Artists Records but it was never released as around the same time the record label was purchased by Transamerica, which culled over half the UA roster of artists (including Smither) shortly before putting the label out of business altogether. In 2004, the never-released Honeysuckle Dog was licensed by Tomato Records. Despite being dropped from the record label, Smither continued to tour, becoming a fixture in the New England folk clubs.