Interview with Chris Smither.

Click here to view photos from this concert.

CHRIS SMITHER Interview

Common Fence Music

Sat., 9-24, 2005

BY SCOTT HEMEON

Sometimes something, or in this case, somewhere just finds itself in my focus through coincidence. New Orleans is that somewhere. Besides being the target of Hurricane Katrina's wrath, Washington's shame, and endless media coverage, The Big Easy was already on my mind. Some friends of mine from Newport are producing a documentary about a New Orleans cultural dance phenomenon called "bounce." I was down there in June for my honeymoon. And I'm glad I went when I did.

It is hard now to envision the future of the Big Un-Easy. This city, known for its capacity to party, its rich legacy of spicy food, colorful people and interesting architecture, became fertile ground for musical creativity, most especially as a midwife to jazz. Chris Smither became a grandchild in that line of heritage, having grown up there.

Although Smither was raised on gumbo, he was born in Miami, went to college in Mexico, played the coffeehouses of Greenwich Village, and now lives in Arlington, Mass. He hasn't been to New Orleans since last year's Jazz & Heritage Festival, but nonetheless feels the city's tragedy.

Smither has friends there and the city has adopted him as a native son. He fears that the "taste" of the town - best described in a Mark Knopfler song, 'The Planet of New Orleans" - might be forever washed away.

" New Orleans has always had a catastrophic sensibility," he noted, "and that is part of its charm. It has an other worldliness that might get sanitized right out of it when they rebuild."

Smither, who will perform for Common Fence Point Music Saturday, Sept. 24, has influences running as wide and deep as some parts of the lower Mississippi River. When asked to cite some, he offered up Mississippi John Hurt and Lightnin' Hopkins. (Smither first heard Hurt on a record called "Blues at Newport 1963.")

Those are the deep ones, and in Smither's assessment, responsible for his guitar style. The wide influences include songwriters he admires lyrically like Joni Mitchell, Randy Newman and Paul Simon. The confluence of these styles can be experienced on Smither's 2003 CD "Train Home," his 11th album since 1970. The title cut has a nice easy drawl to it, as comfortable as your favorite dungarees, but then is peppered with verses that lay down a cadence much like Tom Waits (an artist Smither admires) without the intentional quirkiness and cigarette rasp Waits often employs. Another cut, "Confirmation," has a story of soft resignation mixed with some sneakily clever use of rhyme all cradled in flourishes of pretty guitar.

Smither's approach to his craft usually starts with a guitar part he likes, and then he sings some words over that part. The words aren't always of consequence but are connective tissue employed to hold the song together long enough to see where it is going. He then might jettison those initial lyrics or they might prove to be more prescient and worth keeping and ultimately what the song was about.

This intuitive style doesn't mean that Smither doesn't appreciate songcraft or the artists who favor it.

" I really enjoy Randy Newman's work," he said, "his use of irony." (Speaking of irony, Randy Newman's song about another historic flood, "Louisiana 1927," has been mentioned a lot lately.)

Smither finds "a lightweight cynicism" in Newman's work that he hopes to transmit through his own songs. He mentioned Paul Simon. whose lyrics and word stylings he appreciates for their sheer "sonic value" and clever usage - how they shimmer, regardless of meaning.

" 'The Boy in the Bubble' comes to mind. I have no idea what he is talking about but it sounds great," he said.

The disaster in New Orleans crystallized the importance of Americans recognizing and preserving our common heritage. That city had more than most and it remains to be seen how much was lost. Chris Smither represents the best of that heritage, an uncompromising, eclectic and thoughtful singer-songwriter whose talent will be on display in the rare intimacy of Common Fence Point. Don't ignore.