Some artists continually reinvent themselves; others identify their muse early on and spend their careers single-mindedly pursuing it, remaining recognizably themselves through a career-long process of refinement, growth and discovery. Chris Smither belongs to the latter group. Leave the Light On, Smither’s masterful twelfth album—the first he’s released on his own Mighty Albert label—stands as the quintessence of his life’s work while throwing in some new wrinkles that reflect where he’s been and what he’s encountered since the last time around. But Smither’s central theme as he enters his 60s is clearer than ever.
     “The last three or four records I’ve done are mostly talking about the big questions—life, death, love and… not love—and where the whole thing’s going,” he says. This new “fistful of tunes,” as he calls it, finds Smither once again in a contemplative mood, examining his thought processes on “Open Up,” struggling to distinguish between self-deception and truth on “Seems So Real” and seeking the most fundamental kind of closure on “Father’s Day.” No, Leave the Light On is not a party record.
     “Since I started recording again around 20 years ago [22, actually], I’ve been writing about the same sorts of things; it’s just about my own growing perception of it, and how clear can I make it?” Smither explains. “I guess I’m making it clearer, because people don’t often ask me what the songs are about anymore. It’s a process of engagement. When you write a song, you’ve got three or four minutes to get a-hold of somebody, and if they can remember one phrase or line when they walk away from it, you’ve won. And I think I’ve accomplished that.”
      What is immediately recognizable to anyone who has encountered Smither on record or in live performance during the course of the last four decades are his been-there, done-that voice and the crystalline, wordlessly eloquent sounds of his fingerpicked acoustic guitar. Familiar, too, are the writer/artists whose songs Smither has selected to intermingle with his own. These include Lightnin’ Hopkins, whose “Blues in the Bottle”—a striking showcase for Smither’s approach to the acoustic guitar—is drawn from Blues in My Bottle, the album that inspired the New Orleans-born, Boston-based artist to begin performing in the 1960s; and his contemporary Bob Dylan, from whose vast oeuvre the artist this time has chosen the Blonde on Blonde linchpin “Visions of Johanna.”
      The new elements introduced on Leave the Light On—the second album produced by Smither’s cohort, David “Goody” Goodrich, after 2003’s Train Home—provides the new recording with its particular flavor. On hand is young neo-gospel group Ollabelle, who bring a complementary loveliness to Smither’s “Seems So Real” and additional resonance to the traditional “John Hardy.” The renowned roots musician Tim O’Brien plays mandolin and fiddle all over the record, as well as harmonizing with Smither, Sean Staples and Anita Suhanin on the lilting title track for a billowing blend that evokes Southern California circa 1972. Atypically, he tackles topical themes on “Origin of Species,” which he says is “making fun of dummies,” and the edgily political “Diplomacy,” harkening back to his roots in the ‘60s folk scene. Also different is Smither’s bold and surprising decision to arrange “Visions of Johanna” in 6/8 time (he credits his friend Steve Tilston, an English artist, for the suggestion) that results in a track of otherworldly beauty.
     Smither considers himself a performer first and foremost, and the fashioning of new material for each album brings added interest to both his fans and himself. “New tunes not only have a freshness of their own, but they also freshen up all the old material as well—they cast a new light on it,” he points out. In this sense, each album results in an act of recontextualization of his entire body of work. “It’s an interesting process,” he confirms. “Not for a minute do I believe the songs come from anyplace but inside of me, but at the same time there’s an otherness to them that continually surprises me. Why does it take so long for them to become part of my conscious self? It’s an interesting problem, but I’ve talked to enough writers to realize I’m far from unique in that respect.”
     After coming on the radar in 1970 with the well-received debut album I’m a Stranger Too! and the similarly lauded 1972 follow-up, Don’t It Drag On, Smither didn’t release another record for more than a decade. “Everybody has good patches and bad patches,” he says. “I was basically drunk for 12 years, and somehow I managed to climb out of it; I don’t know why. Why did I get well when so many other people don’t? It had nothing to do with any virtue on my part; if I were Christian, I’d call it grace. I just got lucky. Mostly you just get tired of it. So when you get sufficiently tired of it, you either descend into utter obliteration or you get out, and so I got out.”
Smither says he recognizes the young artist on the front end of his long struggle from his present perspective. “He got sidetracked, and he learned a lot, but it’s definitely the same guy,” he says. “The other interesting thing is that I had to go through all the horrible stuff to get where I am now. It’s part and parcel of the animal that’s walking around today. It’s unfortunate that I stayed so unproductive for so long, but at the same time, I couldn’t write the kind of stuff that I write now if I hadn’t gone through it. I wouldn’t realize what it is to be a human—not really. I might think I did, but it wouldn’t be the same.”
    When asked about his career-long predilection for mixing in outside songs with his own material, Smither says, “This may sound a little self-important, maybe, but I like to hold these things up and say, ‘These are the people I consider my peers, and my stuff stands up to this. This is what I do, and this is where I come from.’”
The four non-originals on Leave the Light On—also including Peter Case’s “Cold Trail Blues”—indicate where Chris Smither comes from; the eight new songs he’s fashioned show where this deeply soulful artist is now, and what lies ahead. The particular opening into the universal, delivered by a knowing voice and filigreed by tasty licks—you can’t ask for more than that from an album.

What the Press Says about Smither:
NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO: [Smither] taps his foot to keep the rhythm, much like the late blues legend John Lee Hooker. His finger-picked guitar lines are sleek, unhurried and insistent. And then there’s the voice – equal parts gravel and molasses, Smither’s singing sounds like a distillation of the folk and blues heroes he grew up listening to in New Orleans.
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Smither is an American original, a product of the musical melting pot, and one of the absolute best singer-songwriters in the world.
ROLLING STONE: Bathed in the flickering glow of passing headlights and neon bar signs, Smither’s roots are as blue as they come. There is plenty of misty Louisiana and Lightnin’ Hopkins in Smither’s weathered singing and unhurried picking. So fine.
WIRED: The masterful combination of pure folk songwriting and intricate guitar blues are tangible signs of the singer-songwriter’s vigorous genius. A megawatt solo performer.
GUITAR MAGAZINE: His penchant for lyricism sometimes makes it easy to overlook his Delta-inspired guitar chops, which boast a strong rhythmic sense and a beautiful, fluid, fingerpicking style.
GUITAR MAGAZINE: His penchant for lyricism sometimes makes it easy to overlook his Delta-inspired guitar chops, which boast a strong rhythmic sense and a beautiful, fluid, fingerpicking style.
BLUES REVUE: Smither knows how to touch an audience where it counts. This peerless singer-songwriter is also one of modern blues’ finest fingerpickers.
ACOUSTIC GUITAR: Chris Smither’s songs seem so casual – everyday language drawled over fine blues fingerpicking and the happy tip-tap of his shoes – that it’s easy to overlook how artful and deep they are. Smither is now at the peak of his creative powers.
ROLLINGSTONE.COM: Chris Smither delivers one of the most riveting live shows you’re ever likely to see. His growling vocals, badass finger picking and uniformly brilliant songs are here in spades.
MAVERICK/UK: Cast your mind back to the first time you heard Hank Williams, Big Bill Broonzy or JJ Cale and remember how good it felt. Think of the opening encounter with Leon Redbone or Leo Kottke. They say newcomers to Chris Smither’s brand of country blues-tinged southern folk experience those some emotions. It’s true.
FOLK ROOTS/UK: His own writing continues to produce unmistakably Smitheresque gems ripe for the picking, while his choice of other people’s work to occasionally slip in is as always impeccable.
REVOLUTIONS/UK: His voice has astonishing power even when barely louder than a growled whisper and a guitar so full of the blues. The quality of the songwriting - tight, smart, wry - ensures that these talents are fully utilized.
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD/Australia: His ability to take the emotion at the heart of a song, make it transparent and pass it on to the listener is unmatched. Smither’s rich, deep, emotion-charged voice and his exquisite guitar playing imbues these simple thoughts with a profundity forged out of genuine passion.
NEW YORK TIMES: Through the decades, Mr. Smither has taken the blues in a direction entirely his own: stoic existential ruminations sung in a pained, weathered moan and set to quietly virtuosic guitar. There was always unpretentious philosophy in the deep blues, and Mr. Smither has followed it toward his own quiet epiphanies.
MONTREAL GAZETTE/Canada: With his Southern-drawl singing voice, tapping foot in constant motion and fingers pulling fluid blues patterns from his acoustic guitar, Chris Smither is an engaging, sometimes intense singer-songwriter who can convert almost any audience he sits down in front of.
VILLAGE VOICE: Chris Smither, whose grand voice, stomping foot, blues-drenched guitar, and abiding interest in the problem of evil packed more power than the bands of (Tracy) Chapman and (John) Martyn combined.
WASHINGTON POST: (Smither)’s one of the finest interpreters of classic blues and contemporary roots music on the scene today.
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: Smither continues to give ample proof that he’s matured into one of roots music’s most passionate, soulful songsmiths and interpreters. He has the perfect husky, country-music voice, and he keeps the tunes clipping with crisp acoustic picking.
CHICAGO TRIBUNE: Sitting all evening in a wooden chair, blue acoustic guitar cradled in his lap, feet miked to amplify him stamping out the beat, Smither coupled a firm grasp of nuance with understated, focused energy. Smither’s quiet intensity made itself felt most of all in his dazzling guitar picking.
BOSTON GLOBE: (Smither) is among the finest acoustic guitarists anywhere in American music (Bonnie Raitt calls him “my Eric Clapton”), and his songs, while banked in the blues, are as modern as tomorrow’s newspaper.
NASHVILLE TENNESSEAN: You’ll hear emotional, sand-blasted vocals, a sweet-toned acoustic/electric guitar played in an ornate finger style, and potent songs drawn from years of loving the folk poetry of Mississippi John Hurt, tinged by a certain worldliness.
OTTAWA XPRESS/Canada: On stage, his songs are bolstered by stunning, intricate guitar work, expressive, gut-wrenching singing and the hypnotic ‘tapping feet’ that is the heartbeat of his performances.
AMAZON.COM: New Orleans-bred folk-bluesman Smither has few peers. As a musician he’s expanded the six-strings-and-foot-stomps delivery of John Lee Hooker into an elegant, original style that draws as much on the sweet jazz melodies of gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt as the spidery swing of country bluesman John Hurt.