Customer Reviews

Another Way to Find You

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an amazing album, especially for guitar players. Chris Smither's first album after years off the scene, includes fresh versions of "Love You Like a Man" and "I Feel the Same" covered much earlier by Bonnie Raitt. Chris must've been about 10 when he wrote the first, which is pretty funny if you think about it.

I've always admired artists who get a full orchestration from a single instrument, and Smither has this in spades. The fastest thumb in the business, and a total absence of distortion result in an honest, clean recording of extreme power.

This is my favorite of his recent albums, mostly because there's no backup band. Check this guy out.

I was recently introduced to Chris Smithers through a local radio program ("out of the blue radio review" by Page Wilson, on WCVE in Richmond). Mr. simithers' ability is aparent on every Trak.I have been absolutely enthalled by his mastery of the guitar. The music presented on this CD is as rich and complex as it is hard to categorize. Anyone looking for an example of acoustic folk/blues/rock with a hint of the mississippi delta, you need look no further.

Chris Smither turns in a brilliant live performance here that mixes folk and blues standards with his own less classifiable originals, which seem more informed by tradition, rather than defined by it.

His acoustic guitar playing is technically impressive, and this is the first thing that some young, guitar-playing friends of mine seized upon, when I lent them the CD. He can burn with up-tempo picking.

Yet, it is the reflective ballads that command my attention and affection the most. Smither's baritone communicates a dignified sense of melancholy that hints at genuine spiritual depth. These ballads are sequenced against upbeat versions of tunes that range from his own "Love You Like A Man" to a Chuck Berry cover.

In the end, this is a vital and nuanced performance that is more rewarding for me than his studio recordings with a full band. Highly recommended.

I became a Smither fan after hearing him play live, which is where he really shines, and have since made a point of catching his performances all over the U.S. I have all his CDs and this one is my perennial favorite. It's hard to articulate exactly why, since Chris is so uniformly masterful with his guitar technique and his famously smooth/gravelly voice. I guess it's largely the song choices, which are a teriffic blend of traditional blues covers and his own soulful compositions. Also the live format infuses the entire CD with an energy and consistency missing from many studio productions. This is a singular virtuoso performance; being in that audience must have been a sublime experience!

"Another Way to Find You" was listed by Kenneth Bays of BLUES REVUE magazine as a favorite album. Since I liked or loved *every* other album Bays listed but had never heard Chris Smither, you bet I sent for this quick-like-a-bunny.

Oh my wow. Read the other reviews here, they are absolutely right about his guitarwork. He writes an excellent song, walking back and forth between what those who want to classify would call blues and folk. Interesting individual voice that goes well with his lyrics and phrasing-- his voice, playing and writing are extremely well integrated.

If you like this kind of music (and I approached it from a blues background) you will find tremendous subtle variety among the cuts; if you're not used to it, this is a CD WORTH listening to til you do find them. His "Love You Like A Man" is hilariously joyful guy-stuff and beats Bonnie Raitt's all hollow (!). "Shake Sugaree" is a wonderful choice to cover. It figures if he writes songs as he does that he'd find this and deftly bring out EVERYthing the song has in it. I can only agree with what has been said about other cuts.

One of those rare CDs with such high consistent quality and depth throughout, where the concept aids and abets what is great about the artist... it's just something to put on again and again to hear as a whole.

If some mad genetic engineer had decided to clone an ultimate late-60's coffee-house hero in a test-tube, Chris Smither would have been the result. He writes like Fred Neil and Tim Hardin; he plays Taj-Fahey double-thumb as fast as Jorma; he's got the whiskey-and-cigarette tone of Dave van Ronk, and the laid-back charisma of Tom Rush; his sense of humor is nearly as surrealistic as Leo Kottke's and as chummily acerbic as Pat Sky's; to top it all off he looks like Ian Tyson in a Johnny Cash shirt and a John Hammond haircut. And as the title cut shows, when he feels the need he can channel the ghost of Robert Johnson as wall as Hammond does.

Now -- can you think of a reason NOT to buy this?

"Another Way To Find You" features master blues guitarist Chris Smither. That's all - just Chris and his guitar. No backup group singing harmony, no other musicians "filling" for Chris and no multi-track recording manipulation. Chris is well qualified to stand alone. He is a wizard on the acoustic guitar - his technique is so elaborate that you'd swear you were listening to the work of two or three players.

Traditional songs (such as "Statesboro Blues") are rendered with dignity and respect. Chris is equally comfortable with folk ("Down In The Flood") and rockabilly ("Tulane").

I'm certain that the relationship between Chris and the small audience present during the recording session was intimate; however, much of that intimacy is lost when the listener is not a member of the live audience. Eighteen cuts of "Chris Unplugged" is a bit lengthy for my tastes. Despite this minor complaint, "Another Way To Find You" shows an exemplary talent in fine form.

The above-entitled headline needs some explanation. This is not a takeoff on Prince's various transformations. Over the past year or so I have been reviewing CDs, old and new, of various male folk artists like the artist under review, Chris Smither, who participated in and drove the folk revival of the early 1960's and are still active in that milieu. I have posed a question in these reviews about why these very talented performers never attained the fame of Bob Dylan, the acknowledged "king of the hill" male folk singer from that era. As a "response" to that inquiry I recently received an e-mail from Chris's publicity agent.

Did this "flak" write to convey her thanks for the genuinely positive and heartfelt reviews that I have given Chris's work? No. Did she argue that I had it all wrong and that Chris should really be declared the chief god of the folk pantheon as a good PR agent would? No. Alternatively, did she declare that I could not tell Chris's blue guitar from a blue moon. No. What she inquired about was my use of the`s' word in my reviews. The`s' word being my mistake of putting an`s' at the end of Chris's last name. Well, ho hum. However in this reviewer's household we have virtually every one of Chris's CDs so the rest of the reviews of his work in this space will be burdened by being introduced under the sign of the missing`s'.

But enough of that. To paraphrase a line from one of Chris's lyrics "Let It Go" this `should not concern a man of my stature'. And that is the heart of the matter. With or without the`s' Chris has the goods that make a great folk performer. That is the point behind my including him along with the likes of Dave Van Ronk, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton and Tom Rush in the first place. This and future CD reviews will also go under the sign of the main points made in earlier reviews as below:

"I do not know if Chris Smither, like his contemporary Bob Dylan, started out wanting to be the "king of the hill" among male folk singers but he certainly had some things going for him. He plays that signature blue guitar for all it is worth on such covers as the Blind Willie McTell classic "Statesboro Blues" or his own "Love You Like A Man" yet can turn it down several notches for a song like "Another Way To Find You" and then goes softer on reflective songs like "I Feel The Same". Moreover he is as capable as a songwriter as any of writing of longing, lost love, thoughts of mortality and...being stupid in the world. Witness "Cave Man" on that last point. Then turn it up a notch with a bittersweet song like "A Song For Susan, Parts One And Two". Yes, Chris had the tools to go out and slay the dragons of the folk world. This is one of Chris Smithers', oops, Smither's five star works. That work may not be well known outside the precincts of the graying folk world, but it should be.