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

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

Chris Smither - Call Me Lucky 2018

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

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Check it out: we’ve added some terrific new live performances to the Videos page.

Live Review in Rhythms Magazine

Recently, Chris kicked off a UK tour with a concert at London’s King’s Place. After the show, Rhythms Magazine wrote: “Smither is little short of a national treasure, a wonderful wordsmith, as much poet and prose master as musician these…”

Read the full review.

Woody Guthrie Cover (VIDEO)

In case you missed it, the folks at Nano Fest have posted a great video of Chris, Rose Polenzani, Session Americana, and others covering the Woody Guthrie song “Deportee.” Click below to watch the video.
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