Singer-songwriter Chris Smither remains a restless soul, while looking back on a long and rich career

Now in his 80s, the veteran folk and blues artist brings his band the Motivators and a fresh collection of gritty, introspective songs to the BlueShore at CapU

By Alexander Varty

Chris Smither. Photo by Joanna Chattman

The CapU Global Roots Series presents Chris Smither and the Motivators at the BlueShore at CapU on December 3

DON’T COUNT CHRIS SMITHER out yet. At 81, the veteran singer-songwriter still has a few tricks up his sleeve—like the curveball he throws at the end of his most recent recording, All About the Bones. 

It would be easy enough to mistake Bones, Smither’s 19th studio album, as a kind of end-of-career summary, or perhaps even a last will and testament of sorts. The gritty title track, which also serves as the record’s opener, prefigures what’s to come: a record that plays a deep set of variations on the theme of what one leaves behind at the end of a long and full life. It’s a notion that Smither doesn’t care to dispel.

“That’s very true,” he agrees with a chuckle, calling in from his home in Amherst, Massachusetts. “And you really could say, ‘These songs are very appropriate to your age, Chris!’” 

The first half of the record surveys some of the topics that have preoccupied Smither since his days on the Boston folk scene in the early 1960s. Love features prominently in “Still Believe in You” and “Calm Before the Storm”. “Digging the Hole” is a wry acknowledgement of the singer’s “lost years”, and a testament to four decades of sobriety. The allure of the blues is a factor in “If Not for the Devil”, which reminds us that good and evil are two sides of the same coin. And there’s no better word than “rollicking” to describe “Down in Thibodaux”, a nod to Smither’s Louisiana upbringing. 

“When I’m writing songs...they’re half-finished before I have any idea what they’re really about.”

But things turn dark with “In the Bardo”, a song that illuminates Smither’s writing process while remaining something of a mystery even to its creator. It sounds like it might have come out of some kind of crisis, medical or existential, but apparently that’s not the case. 

“No, it’s just that when I’m writing songs—and I often explain this on the stage—they’re half-finished before I have any idea what they’re really about,” Smither says. “I try to explain it by saying it’s like trying to have a conversation with a part of your brain that you’re not really on speaking terms with. You’re a little unsure, and you try not to scare the other person off, and if you keep writing these things down, eventually you get enough on the page where you can look at it and say, ‘Oh, I see where this is going.’ Then you can have the more rational part of your brain kick over and make more conventional sense out of it. 

“This particular song,” he continues, “I started writing it and I had a page and a half of lyrics, just stuff written down, and I couldn’t make heads or tails of it. I really couldn’t. I had some little hints of ideas here or there, but nothing I could really put into a narrative of some sort, or something cohesive. But, you know, a few years ago George Saunders wrote an experimental novel called Lincoln in the Bardo, and I was thinking about that, and I looked at this page and I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll just call this “Smither in the Bardo”.’ And as soon as I had that thought, I said, ‘Oh, that’s what it is.’ So then I could start manipulating it and turn it into what it is now. 

“I tend to do a lot of things the Buddhists do anyway,” he adds with a laugh, “so it wasn’t that far a stretch.”

Chris Smither and the Motivators

“In the Bardo” is followed by “Close the Deal” and “Completion”, whose titles speak for themselves. Taken together as a trilogy, these are some of Smither’s most moving songs, and they do suggest a final leave-taking. But there’s no reason to get maudlin: the singer opts to end All About the Bones with a cover of Tom Petty’s “Time to Move On”, in which the late Florida rocker celebrates his own restless soul. Ending on such an up note was producer David “Goody” Goodrich’s idea, Smither allows, while noting that his future remains full of mysterious potential—including a rare West Coast tour with his band the Motivators, which includes multi-instrumentalist Goodrich, singer and accordion player BettySoo, and percussionist Zak Trojano. 

Working with musicians a generation or two younger is definitely uplifting, Smither notes, adding that when he and his accompanists play the BlueShore at CapU on December 3, we’ll get a chance to hear just why. 

“They do kind of a round robin,” he explains. “They each play a couple of things, and after about 25, 30 minutes, I come on to do the rest of the show. It demonstrates just how talented they are, and often it comes as a complete surprise to people that they’re performers in their own right. 

“Zak is a good singer and a very good guitar player, although he always prefaces picking up the guitar by going ‘Uh-oh: the drummer’s going to play guitar,’” Smither continues. “But he’s very good. Goody plays a variety of instruments: he’s got an electric guitar, an electric mandolin, a couple of diddley bows, and an extensive pedalboard; he makes a variety of noises. And BettySoo’s harmonies… Well, if you’ve listened to All About the Bones you’ve heard them. She’s almost whispering, at times; it’s a very intimate kind of thing. I don’t feel like I’m singing with somebody else. I feel like something’s just happened to my voice to make it better.

“So ‘I’m not done yet, It’s time to move on,’” he adds, paraphrasing Petty. “Well, maybe it is time to move on. I really don’t know where things are going from here, but I still love to perform, you know!”

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