Norderstedt, Music Star 30-8-2011 smither.com/ cameras: Hans Jürgen Hiller, Wolfgang Sedlatschek light: Ulf Woitakowski live mix, post production: Wolfgang Sedlatschek
I'm 73. This song has so many levels of depth & meaning & connotation that it's hard to keep from weeping. I'm not alone in this; everyone I know who has heard it has said pretty much the same thing. I first saw Smither in 1967 in a small auditorium in the Boston University Student Union. I damn near levitated out of my seat with excitement with how good he was. Over the years he's just gotten better and better. Unlike many who claim the title, he is a true artist - poet and musician!
I'm 47 and I hate new music. I like all genres if the song actually says something with depth. I'm beginning to understand this one more as I get older. He is among the real poets and artists, like you said. I have a very good friend that introduced me to this guy. What a gift!
I first heard Chris about five years ago,I feel deprived of so many years of knowing of his music. We did get to see him live in Sheffield England earlier this year. I asked him will be come to Ireland , he said it's on the cards for 2024. Hope it happens.
I really appreciate your take on this beauty. I feel the same way. You got a few years me (I'm 55), I caught Smither on a rare college radio station in 1993 on a night shift. I feel blessed in way that I was so lucky to find these old records and songs on rare radio stations. The trick is to keep you ear close to the rail so you hear the train coming miles away. LOL
Here’s his under-appreciated Live at the World Cafe version of No Love Today: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Vj8GI4b7jOE.htmlsi=Pw51e1l92Pm2nKXF The best!
This is, undeubtedly, a songwriting/poetry masterpiece. Never before anything moved me so strong, never before anyone said words so strong and with deep connection to my thoughts that I burst into tears right away. I just can't describe the impact this song had on me. No words can match what Smither did with his own. Hope I could someday hug this guy and just say thanks.
Had the same response my friend, tears while witnessing the "profound". A masterpiece for sure by any scale. Saw him perform 20+years ago and many more times subsequently. He is authentic and approachable, a class act to the core
Was deeply moved myself by the whole package, musically and lyrically, and by the obviously hard won real world knowledge of philosophical stoicism behind it. I can’t figure out why I somehow had never heard of Smither before a couple of weeks ago when I stumbled across this masterpiece. I mess around a bit with stringed instruments of various kinds, and decided I wanted to try to work up a cover version. Knowing my sketchy Travis picking skills could never do justice to his unique guitar style, I decided to pick up a fairly newly acquired toy, an Irish Bouzouki, and have a go with that. I was 5 or 10 minutes into noodling around and finding little flourishes which could work with the Bouzouki chord structures and would sound sort of like what Smither is doing before I realized that the main chord progression is basically identical to another folk music masterpiece of stoic philosophy (at least I see it that way). In the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke, Paul Newman’s character, the luckless but absolutely indomitable Luke, having just learned that his mother had died while he was in prison, takes a moment to pick up a somewhat badly tuned Banjo and do a deeply moving version of a song called Plastic Jesus. The song was originally written as sort of a novelty comedy bit by an early 60s folk duo called the Gold Coast singers, but adaptations and covers of it based mainly on the movie version, and informed by the context there, have gone on to be a genuine part of folk music traditions in some circles in the years since. Not sure if Smither ever even heard any of those versions (although I would bet pretty good money he’s seen the movie at one time or another), but if there was some cross-pollination happening there, for me it only adds to the appeal of the whole package, rather than taking anything away from it. There are only so many workable chord progressions out there, and music of all sorts, but especially genuine folk music, has always been about borrowing and adapting elements from other places.
Here’s his under-appreciated Live at the World Cafe version of No Love Today: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Vj8GI4b7jOE.htmlsi=Pw51e1l92Pm2nKXF The best!
Here’s his under-appreciated Live at the World Cafe version of No Love Today: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Vj8GI4b7jOE.htmlsi=Pw51e1l92Pm2nKXF The best!
+gerard haubert I came across him a few months ago, & like you I wish I had heard him 50 yrs. ago. What a treasure & joy to listen to. Bought 4 of his albums.
I couldn't have really understood this as a young man. After decades of scars and heartbreak and love and discovery I can finally get what he's talking about.
I have seen Chris 3 times now in the U.K., I feel very lucky to have found this master some 17years ago he is one hell of a musician and songster that you Chris.
Here’s his under-appreciated Live at the World Cafe version of No Love Today: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Vj8GI4b7jOE.htmlsi=Pw51e1l92Pm2nKXF The best!
Chris Smither is a very underrated artist. Here in England anyway... dunno if he's famous in the US but here hardly anyone's heard of him. Amazing player, songwriter, performer and a true original.
Here’s his under-appreciated Live at the World Cafe version of No Love Today: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Vj8GI4b7jOE.htmlsi=Pw51e1l92Pm2nKXF The best!
Another gem from Chris. Great to see him in Canberra, Australia a couple of years ago. A highlight of the year. He tells life stories as they are - very close to home. A pleasure to hear.
Chris is a songwriting genius and his stage presence is authentic, funny and warm. He's from the Boston area - guitar's in open D - thanks NorderstedMusik for posting this!
Just got home from hearing him sing this tonight in concert and I still have tears in my eyes. I have to say, as good as he is in all these clips, he is even better in person. What a privlilege and joy to have been able to hear him live again. God bless you, Chris, and your nearly 8-year-old little girl. Your songs have so much meaning to so many people and what a consummate guitarist! Go hear him live!
Here’s his under-appreciated Live at the World Cafe version of No Love Today: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Vj8GI4b7jOE.htmlsi=Pw51e1l92Pm2nKXF The best!
Great song...........found it through Joe Browns cover ..........saw Joe live.........discovered Chris through him..........thanks for this. Best regards JJ
Here’s his under-appreciated Live at the World Cafe version of No Love Today: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Vj8GI4b7jOE.htmlsi=Pw51e1l92Pm2nKXF The best!
Here’s his under-appreciated Live at the World Cafe version of No Love Today: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Vj8GI4b7jOE.htmlsi=Pw51e1l92Pm2nKXF The best!
My old friend and guitarist soulmate Fred, back in '67, now living a few thousand miles away in Ft.McMurray, sent me this clip recently and now I can't shake the vision of he and I playing it together, and I cry.........Any cheap flights London,Ontario to Fty.Mc.,Alberta ? No artist in a long time has moved me like this clip has !! Chris Smithers.....wish I coulda heard you and Townes Van Z. pick a few together !
Here’s his under-appreciated Live at the World Cafe version of No Love Today: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Vj8GI4b7jOE.htmlsi=Pw51e1l92Pm2nKXF The best!
Here’s his under-appreciated Live at the World Cafe version of No Love Today: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Vj8GI4b7jOE.htmlsi=Pw51e1l92Pm2nKXF The best!
Saw him in Seattle 8 years ago at their Labor Day Seattle Center festival: 4 day event,'Bumbershoot".You could walk by a number of evening acts.... SMITHER stopped us in our tracks! Wow! Sat down, fast, we did, for encores and encores!!! Aug 2018..
Smither is always a great show, interacts with the audience and sticks around after the show. Had the pleasure of meeting him last year and he autographed all my albums.
Here’s his under-appreciated Live at the World Cafe version of No Love Today: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Vj8GI4b7jOE.htmlsi=Pw51e1l92Pm2nKXF The best!
Thanks for that, I doubt I have any chance of getting even close to that. I'm not being bashful but Chris Smither is amazing, so under rated it's a fury, but the world out there's a poor jury. He is a living legend, maybe IMO but he is
Here’s his under-appreciated Live at the World Cafe version of No Love Today: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Vj8GI4b7jOE.htmlsi=Pw51e1l92Pm2nKXF The best!
