Chris Smither talks about new album, parenthood and more
Chris is a guitarist, singer and songwriter with deep roots in folk and blues, and he’s touring to support his terrific new studio album “Time Stands Still,” which features a slew of original songs plus a trio of nicely chosen cover tunes.
The soon-to-be 65-year old Smither doesn’t get too fancy with the instrumentation he employs on the album. Front and center you’ve got his nimble fretwork on the acoustic guitar, honey-over-gravel vocals and ever-present foot-tapping. The only sweetening on the tracks comes from electric guitarst David Goodrich, who also produced “Time Stands Still,” and percussionist Zak Trojano. Who needs overly clever, heavyhanded production when you’ve got someone who writes timeless, deeply felt songs and can play and sing the living heck out of them?
Smither was born in Florida but has been an essential part of the Boston area music scene for a good four decades, with his songs covered by Bonnie Raitt, Diana Krall and Emmylou Harris. A mainstay at The Ark, a venue he calls one of his very favorite places to play, Chris Smither recently spoke by phone to discuss the joys and terrors and writing new material, what kind of influence fatherhood has had on his songwriting, and how he came to record songs written by Bob Dylan, Mark Knopfler and the lesser-known Frank Hutchinson for his latest album.
Q: How did you go about writing the songs for “Time Stands Still,” and would you say that songwriting has become an easier process for you over the years? A: These songs came together pretty easily. I never consciously work on songs until it’s time for something new and people start looking at me and ask, ‘Chris, are we gonna get a new record?’ It’s a nine-month gestation, just like a person. It takes that long to write enough songs and learn a couple of covers. There’s a part of me that dreads it every time I start, because I’m always convinced I’ll never be able to do it again. But that’s actually fading, you know?
This one took just as long as it always does, but somehow I managed to acquire some faith that it would happen. I’ve learned a few tricks about how to sit down and let my mind go and be patient and not get anxious about it. Over a couple of years between records I collect guitar licks and things that are interesting. I usually have about half a dozen of those on tap.
Q: What are some of the other tricks you employed when you were wood-shedding these new songs? A: One is to pull out every verbal trick I know and try to write something, anything, just to get it unblocked. Sometimes it surprises me how good something that’s done almost entirely on technique, as opposed to inspiration, can come out. But as other people have said before me, songwriting is like a muscle; as soon as you start working on it a little bit it becomes easier and easier. At the end of a long period of trying to produce an album the songs are coming much faster than they did in the beginning. But this was one of the easiest projects; I quickly got a sense of where it was going. Normally I find myself working on five or six songs at the same time, and if one of ‘em dries up I just move on to another one. Another important thing I’ve discovered is using a certain amount of discipline. I have to sit and down and make a schedule and work for three hours in the morning and then maybe another hour in the afternoon. And whether there’s anything getting done or not I have to spend those three hours working.
Q: Somehow I don’t associate musicians with people who would be productive in the morning. What makes that time of day special? A: It works for me. The thing I work hardest on is lyrics. Somehow when I’m working in the morning I’m not as susceptible to ruts, to grooved thinking. I come up with better ideas. Once I start working in the afternoon I come up with things that I’ve done a million times. I look at it and say ‘no, I can’t do that again!’
Q: My favorite song on “Time Stands Still” is “Surprise, Surprise” which just blows my mind every time I listen to it. The lyrics are like a combination of Walt Whitman and Jean-Paul Sartre. It’s life as existentialist dilemma; just when you think you’ve got things figured out, there comes the rug being pulled out from under you. How did you go about writing that song? It’s brilliant! A: Thanks! That was actually the first one I wrote for the album; it was the one that got everything unblocked. It’s something of an irritant, that kind of song, because I think of it partly as a topical song. I was just reading the paper one morning when things were really bad and before I knew it I had half a verse written. I do get tenacious about things like that and I had to finish it. Fortunately it turned into something more than a topical song. It’s one of those songs that will always apply, whether we’re in the middle of a crisis or not. It’s something everybody can relate to. It has an involved rhyme-scheme, it calls for a lot of thinking, how to fit things in and all that stuff. So it was real good workout to get things going.
Q: “I Don’t Know” is inspired by your daughter, Robin. What has the experience of becoming a parent been like for you, and has it brought forth a lot of other tunes about parenthood? A: My wife and I adopted Robin from China four and a half years ago. Whoa...it’s been quite a trip! She just started kindergarten this year. She was less than a year old when we got her. Now, as she will hasten to tell you, she is a big girl... all grown up. It’s wonderful! Becoming a father at age 60 is not the easiest thing in the world, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I can’t believe I almost missed out on this. People kept saying, ‘your songwriting is going to be changed forever, all you’re going to do is write songs about kids and for kids when you become a parent.’ But so far, that is the only one that is directly related to her. And in a sense she wrote half of it, because some of those lyrics are direct quotes of hers. If you see her at a performance of mine she’ll say about almost every song, ‘oh, that’s about me!’
Q: You chose three exquisite songs to cover on your new album, two by artists everybody knows, Bob Dylan (“It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry”) and ex-Dire Straits leader Mark Knopfler (“Madame Geneva’s”). The third song, “Miner’s Blues,” is by Frank Hutchinson, who fewer people know about. What can tell us about Frank Hutchinson’s music? A: He’s a West Virginia sort of...I don’t know what you would call him..a white blues guy. Sort of a Piedmont style (of blues player), even though he wasn’t in the Piedmont region, really. I came to this song from a woman in Minnesota who was doing a doctoral dissertation on folk music and Frank Hutchinson in particular, and as part of her project she was putting together a recording of his songs by contemporary blues guys. She called me up and asked me if I would contribute to it. In a way it was one of those things that I sort of did and didn’t want to get into. Then I said, ‘oh, I can do this,’ so I fell in love with this guy’s music listening to it. Just about every record I’ve ever done there’s an old blues thing that hearkens back to my origins, to what got me into this music. So I thought I’m gonna redo this song for the record too, because it’s perfect; it fills that little slot.
Q: Why did you go with these particular Dylan and Knopfler songs? A: The Dylan song has been with me forever. I did play it in public once at a Dylan workshop, but it’s just one that stuck with me from the early days. It just seemed right, you know. And a lot of people are surprised by it and say that’s a different take on it. I didn’t go back to the original; I just did it the way I remembered it, and of course it is different! I didn’t realize how much it had shifted in my mind. It’s kind of sadder the way I do it, but it’s just a testimony to how strong his songs are that you can change ‘em that much. And they still hold together. Of course he does that all the time — changes them.
I adore Mark Knopfler. For one thing he’s one of my favorite guitar players in the world, with a totally unmistakable tone and approach. His last four or five records have been unbelievable! People think of him as Mister Rock and Roll, and yet he’s a closet folkie, he’s a singer songwriter, and he’s got this beautiful knack for writing these little vignettes, both of historical and contemporary stuff. I’ve wanted to do one of his songs for a long time and when I heard “Madame Geneva’s” I thought it was such a perfect evocation of that 16th century, 17th century period in England where everybody was drunk all the time and going to public hangings. I had to do it and it fit and it was perfect. There’s no production on it; I just sat there and sang it.
Chris Smither plays The Ark, 316 S. Main St., at 8 p.m. Thursday. Caroline Herring opens. Tickets, at $22.50, are available online or in person at The Ark, the Michigan Union ticket office or Herb David Guitar Studio.
Martin Bandyke is the 6-10am morning drive host on Ann Arbor’s 107one. Follow him on Twitter @martinbandyke and at his web site.