Recently, Chris performed at The Alberta Rose Theatre in Portland, Oregon Public Broadcasting filmed the show, and you can watch a few songs from the new album, Call Me Lucky, online. Thank you to the OPB team, and to Billy Conway for sharing the stage.
News
Mountain Stage this week
On radio stations around the country this week, Chris will be on Mountain Stage with host Larry Groce, along with Bettye LaVette, Joan Osborne, and Nick Moss Band feat. Dennis Gruenling. Visit the Mountain Stage website for local stations and airtimes.
Call Me Lucky: Billboard Hot Shot Debut
This week, Call Me Lucky, the brand new record, debuted at number 2 on the Billboard Blues Chart this week, getting it the title of this week’s Hot Shot Debut!
New York Times: The Playlist
Check it out: “Nobody Home” from the new album Call Me Lucky, featured in today’s New York Times playlist:
“Humor faces down desolation in “Nobody’s Home” from Call Me Lucky, an existential ramble from the latest album by the sage, scratchy-voiced, blues-rooted, 73-year-old songwriter Chris Smither: “Everybody wants to text me ‘cause they ain’t got nothing to say,” he notes. He recorded two versions, as he did with half a dozen of the album’s songs; one’s a ragtimey cackle, while the other is slower and more pensive, revealing a little more darkness.” – Jon Parales
The new album is here!
It’s that time! CALL ME LUCKY, the brand new Chris Smither record, is here!
You can order a copy here on the website or, better still, go see Chris in concert and get one there.
Video Premiere
Big thanks to World Café and NPR for premiering Chris’ newest video, “The Blame’s On Me.” Take a look at this behind-the-scenes footage from Chris’ Blue Rock Studios session, while he was making his new record, CALL ME LUCKY (due in March).
Many thanks to Billy, Sarah, Will, Jacob, Matt, Colin, Keith, Patrick, and Rusti of Blue Rock, and also Tom at Reelife Productions.
Call Me Lucky
CALL ME LUCKY is the new record from Chris Smither and is his first set of brand new originals in six years (release date: March 2018 on Signature Sounds/Mighty Albert). Recorded at the gorgeous Blue Rock Studio in the Texas foothills. Packed with Smither trademark songs that offer commentary on the human condition with a wink of an eye and pulls from deep in the soul and a couple of surprise covers that remind us of Chris’ deftness as a song interpreter as he makes the songs his own. CALL ME LUCKY features longtime producer and multi instrumentalist David Goodrich, drummer Billy Conway (Morphine), Matt Lorenz (aka The Suitcase Junket), Mike Meadows, and engineer Keith Gary. They went into the session to record ten songs. What they ended up with is a double record: Disc 1 features the eight originals and two covers they started with; Disc 2 catapults some of the very same songs into another dimension. Essentially Smither covering Smither.
Fans from around the world continue to fill concert halls, music clubs, and festivals ready for the Smither experience. Reviewers including those from the Associated Press, NPR, Mojo, and The New York Times agree that Smither remains a significant songwriter and an electrifying guitarist — an American original — as he draws deeply from folk and blues, modern poets and philosophers. And with CALL ME LUCKY he keeps doing just that.
New Videos
Check it out: we’ve added some terrific new live performances to the Videos page.