Smither

We saw Chris Smither last night at McCabe's. For those who might not know, Chris was part of the Cambridge folk blues scene, something of a peer-mentor to Bonnie Raitt back in the 60's and early 70's. He was funny, he had a fast and smooth Mississippi John Hurt thing on guitar, to which he added a Lightning Hopkins foot-stomp percussion, and he was genuine New Orleans. He wrote Raitt's signature "Love Me Like a Man." Then he disappeared. Stopped playing, and it lasted at least, heck, more than ten years. I had heard he was doing cabinet work and kitchen remodels in the Cambidge area, and he hung out, a lot, at the original Casablanca on Brattle Street, which was a great bar. Then, in his early 40's he stopped hanging out in bars, started writing and playing again. He's about 64 now. To his later work (if you have to start somewhere, I suggest "Small Revelations") he has added, as the title of that album so nicely suggests, a philospher's reflectiveness and a poet's eye to all those older roots, which, we can report to you, he still makes bloom on stage.