Album Reviews

Chris Smither

Call Me Lucky

Artist:     Chris Smither

Album:     Call Me Lucky

Label:     Southern Sounds

Release Date:     03.02.2018

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After a gap of a few years, US acoustic wizard, Chris Smither has resurfaced with a new, 16-track, double album bristling with his ever-quirky look at life, love and all points in between with ‘Call Me Lucky.

Smither remains one of those truly rare writer and singer with a remarkable eye for oddities and references that cross genres from roots to jazzy underpinnings and blues. Always matched by his trademark handmade Italian shoes shuffling steadily on his floorboard, Smither’s fretwork is ever top-quality and his grit-fuelled vocal delivery drifts along purposefully ahead of the backbeat, always driving everything forward. Easily one of the USA’s genuinely unique and astute writers, with Call Me Lucky he pulls a few unexpected punches into the musical ring: clanging electric guitars rip out at times, together with fine, understated percussion with a raised rockabilly edge, while Smither displays his usual, cleverly jaundiced view of relationships and the world as he sees it.

Add a delightfully original cover of the old Chuck Berry masterpiece, “Maybellene,” here touched by a slower-paced acoustic, minor-key nuanced style, follow it up with “Sitting On Top of the World,” and you have an idea of just what the guy might be getting up to with this release. From the opener, “Blame’s on Me,” where the album-title lyrical hook finds its voice, through a solid hour of great music, to the closer, this is absolutely spot-on, vintage Smither, a guy with over half a century at the sharp-end of the business now behind him. The result is a release that bulges at the seams with quality, experience, wonderful music. And the ability to surprise with a twist to electric guitar on the second album.

—Iain Patience

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