UUCB Concerts for a Cause
presents
Chris Smither

Chris Smither is an American folk/blues singer, guitarist and songwriter who has been performing for almost 60 years. Reviewers and fans from around the world, including Rolling Stone and The New York Times, agree that 80-year old Smither continues to be a profound songwriter, a blistering guitarist, and intense performer as he draws deeply from the blues, American folk music, modern poets and humanist philosophers

Smither showed his first musical skills in high school when he and friends won a folk only battle of the bands. In his early twenties, Smither headed to Boston to make a name for himself  in the thriving acoustic music scene. Smither forged lifelong friendships with many musicians, including Bonnie Raitt who went on to record his songs, “Love You Like A Man” and “I Feel the Same. (Their friendship has endured as their career paths intertwined over the years.  She has praised Smither’s songwriting and guitar work calling him “my Eric Clapton.”) What 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, tapping feet (always mic’d in performance).

By 1967 he was playing clubs in New York and soon was recording his own records.  By the early ’90s, Smither’s steady nationwide touring and regular release of consistently acclaimed albums (22 of them) cemented his reputation as one of the finest acoustic musicians in the country. He has received many music awards over the years.

Chris Smither acknowledged his fifty years in music with a 2014 release called Still on the Levee in 2014. The recording featured fresh takes on songs from his long career, and to show just how prolific that career has been, he released another collection of reworked material last year with More from the Levee.

Over the years many other artists have covered Smither’s song with his Love Me Like a Man recorded by sixteen female artists which Smither notes that he is the only male musician to ever record it. His compositions have shown up in several movies including The Horse Whisperer.

“Smither is an American original – a product of the musical melting pot and one of the absolute best singer-songwriters in the world.” --- Associated Press

Listen to his music here:
Leave the Light On
What I Do