![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/chris-smither-June-2012.jpg\" "\\"chris-smither-June-2012\\"")
CHRIS SMITHER<\/h1>\nCHRIS SMITHER<\/h1>\nA veteran bluesman learns to make it happen all by himself\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cPeople say to me, \u2018What I really like is the fact that there\u2019s a rueful cynicism in what you sing,\u2019\u201d says Chris Smither. \u201cI can see that. But I have to say, in my own defense, that most of my stuff has an element of hopefulness. Usually I\u2019m trying to point out there\u2019s a way out of this stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n A veteran bluesman who looks on the bright side? Maybe\u2014at 67, Smither has much to celebrate, including the release of Hundred Dollar Valentine<\/em>, his first album to feature all his own material. Smither\u2019s infatuation with the blues began while he was a teen, spurred on by his admiration\u00a0for the genre\u2019s giants.<\/p>\n \u201cA friend handed me a record by Lightnin\u2019 Hopkins,\u201d he says. \u201cI heard this solo guy that sounded like two guitars to me, although I was assured it was just one. I sat there and thought, \u2018You can call it blues all you want, but this is rock \u2019n\u2019 roll.\u2019 That explains a lot right there, because I never wanted to be in a band. I wanted to do it by myself and here were these guys playing all by themselves. I felt so relieved. I thought, \u2018OK, I\u2019m not crazy.\u2019 It was like a vindication.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s been many years since the\u00a0Miami-born Smither began writing and performing, achieving local notoriety on the Boston club circuit of the late \u201960s before releasing his debut album, 1970\u2019s\u00a0I\u2019m a Stranger Too! <\/em>Wider recognition came when Bonnie Raitt recorded his song \u201cLove Me Like a Man\u201d on her second album, 1972\u2019s Give It Up<\/em>. Smither has since seen his work covered by the likes of Diana Krall and Emmylou Harris. \u201cRecordings are snapshots along a career, along a life, and there\u2019s going to be the wild hairs sticking up on top of your head or the place you forgot to shave,\u201d says Smither. \u201cIn the very beginning songwriting was daunting. I\u2019d finish a song and think, \u2018That\u2019s it, I\u2019ll never be able to write another.\u2019 I didn\u2019t know enough about where they came from, and it was always a mystery as to how they got done at all. It\u2019s still a mystery to me how it happens but now I\u2019ve learned to make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n Smither has recorded for a variety of labels over the years, but today he\u2019s going his own way. \u201cFor one thing, there\u2019s no one to blame but yourself,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I was\u00a0starting, you had to have a record company, and you were at their mercy. They owned you, lock, stock and barrel. You basically gave away half your publishing\u2014and for\u00a0what? Who needs them? The digital age has made all the difference.\u201d\u00a0Smither finds satisfaction as CEO of his own career. \u201cYou can hire business people without having them own you,\u201d he says. \u201cSure, there are business decisions to make, but one would hope that over a 45-year career you can find people to make decisions for you that you can work with. Part of it is luck, and the other part is learning from experience that life\u2019s too short to be dealing with people who aren\u2019t optimistic or don\u2019t like to work. Then it\u2019s not so daunting. The choices look obvious.\u201d Indeed, Smither now realizes he\u2019s the same age as many of the masters he idolized early on. \u201cDon\u2019t think that\u2019s escaped my attention,\u201d he says with a chuckle. \u201cThere\u2019s a realization that I\u2019ve been doing this a while, and I\u2019m still doing it successfully. It\u2019s an indication that I did something right.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2013Lee Zimmerman<\/strong><\/p>\n CHRIS SMITHER A veteran bluesman learns to make it happen all by himself\u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cPeople say to me, \u2018What I really like is the fact that there\u2019s a rueful cynicism in what you sing,\u2019\u201d says Chris Smither. \u201cI can see that. But I have to say, in my own defense, that most of my stuff […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[3611,4491,4300,10160],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7060"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7060"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7062,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7060\/revisions\/7062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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