CHRIS SMITHER (Bull Run Restaurant)

9-22-2023

Deemed “one of the absolute best singer-songwriters in the world” by the Associated Press, Chris Smither continues his brilliant 50 year career as a significant songwriter and an electrifying guitarist, drawing deeply from folk and blues, modern poets and philosophers.

Great music sounds easy. And great musicians make it so. The bluesmen on the Delta and the Appalachian mountaineers made timeless art with just voice, guitar and a stomping foot. And that is the root of the art of Chris Smither. Over the years he has released one gem of an album after another. His music draws as deeply from the blues as it does from American folk music, modern poets and humanist philosophers. Guitar-heads are drawn to his Lightnin' Hopkins/John Hurt derived fretwork; spiritual seekers nod in recognition at the hard-won knowledge and deep, wise songs, casually tossed off in taut lyrics. And just plain music fans who have come to him on their own - or have learned of his music from the multitude of artists covering his songs - return again and again.

"More From the Levee" is Chris' 18th studio album, and is a brilliant continuation of his 50-year retrospective album, "Still On The Levee" (2014). With his fingers as supple as his voice, Smither effortlessly delivers the other half of his signature sound on Still on the Levee: the back-porch feel of intricate acoustic blues picking accompanied by his own boot-heel-on-wood rhythms. Members of Morphine, The Motivators and the late Allen Toussaint help make this a truly special recording, a snapshot of some powerful music-making. 

Chris Smither is truly an American original. Reviewers and fans from around the world, including Rolling Stone and The New York Times, agree that Chris 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.

"His songbook is overflowing with rollicking, clever blues-based folk tunes, and he has been a consistently engaging live performer for more than four decades." - Washington Post