Spotlight Album Review: Chris Smither "All About The Bones"

It’s been 54 years since Chris Smither’s debut album, I’m a Stranger Here Too! (produced by the recently deceased Michael Cuscuna, who also produced Bonnie Raitt’s Give it Up, which contained Smither’s most famous song, “Love Me Like a Man”). It made him known among critics, but not a household name. From the follow up Don’t it Drag On till 1991’s Another Way to Find You he only released one album in 19 years.  Thereafter he consistently released a fine album every 2-3 years. However, after More from the Levee in 2020 (containing additional sessions from the 2014 career retrospective Still On The Levee), some might have wondered if he still had the goods as a writer. Happily, All About the Bones, Smither’s 20th album and first of original material in six years, proves that he, like his near-contemporary Tom Rush, is at the top of his game.

The cover photo of Smither, dressed in earth tones and shot in twilight, might suggest he recognizes he’s at the twilight of his career. There are certainly fatalistic flourishes in the lyrics. On the title track, “All About the Bones,” he sings: “Grim reaper comes a callin’, says it’s time to go/You say OK I’m coning’, but you movin’ mighty slow.” It sets the tone not only lyrically, but sonically. The album is produced by Dave “Goody” Goodrich, his go-to producer since 2003’s Train Home. There’s a tight group of musicians in the studio, giving the album an organic feel: Goodrich primarily on electric guitar, Zak Trojanos on drums,  Austin’s Bettysoo on vocals and accordion, Chris Cheek on saxophone, and, of course, Smither on fleet-fingered guitar and percussive feet. On “All About the Bones,” Cheek’s baritone sax matches Smither’s resonate baritone nicely, while Bettysoo’s vocals complement his.

The tone is similar on “Digging the Hole” about “a fool for self-destruction,” which is followed by the sweetest song on the album, “I Still Believe in You,” a love song (for his wife and manager Carol Young?) that says,“I will not grow old without a hand to hold.” There is the wisdom of aging on “In the Bardo” (“I will listen for the warning/That the evening will be morning before long”) and on “Close the Deal” (“More screams, more noise/How ya gonna scare me now? No deal”) “Completion,” a co-write with Goodrich, sums it up this way:

Looking back, when you can trace the track
Of every step you’ve taken
It only looks so planned because you never scan
All the steps forsaken.
But look ahead, tell me what you see,
It’s not so clear, and if you think like me
You’ll see simply take what comes,
And forego
Anticipation

There’s always been a strong blues streak in Smither’s music, ever since he heard Lightning Hopkins’ “Blues in the Bottle” in New Orleans and decided to migrate to Boston, where the folk scene afforded the chance to hear legendary blues players. “If Not for the Devil” has the clearest blues feel on the album, featuring just Chris’s acoustic guitar and Zak’s drums. It echoes the legend of Robert Johnson’s mythological meeting with the devil, along with Smither’s knack for sardonic lyrics:

Speaking of the Devil
You’ve got to give the Devil his due
He’s down in the details
Quoting scripture from his point of view

New Orleans figures in the sinuous “Down in Thibodaux,” a clever tune about a fiddle-playing character. Along with two Smither originals, there are two covers. One is Elzia Gilkyson’s “Calm Before the Storm,” which urges the listener to look for the silver lining in the dark clouds and “gather all your friends about you her tonight/In the calm before the storm.” The closing track is “Time to Move On” by the late Tom Petty. Much like “Won’t Be Back at All” on Tom Rush’s new CD,  Old Gardens, Flowers New, Chris signals that he’s not thinking of retiring:

Time to move on, time to get goin’
What lies ahead I’ve got no way of knowin
But under my feet, baby, grass is growin’
Time to move on, yeah, let’s get goin’ 

It’s a comfort to think we’ll have Chris Smithers’ natural warmth and easygoing singing, songwriting, and guitar playing to keep our spirits up for a few more years.

Photo by Jo Chattman