Chris Smither - Hundred Dollar Valentine (2012) CD-Rip

26 Oct, 11:08
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Artist: Chris Smither
Title: Hundred Dollar Valentine
Year Of Release: 2012
Label: Signature Sounds #SIG 2047
Genre: Folk, Folk Rock, Acoustic Blues
Quality: EAC Rip -> FLAC (Tracks+Cue+m3u8,Log) / MP3 CBR320
Total Time: 00:39:36
Total Size: 234 / 96 Mb (Full Scans ~ 115 Mb)
WebSite: Album Preview

There are such things as the cosmic blues. Janis Joplin once recorded a song by that name — she spelled it kosmik. But Chris Smither lives them. Smither’s cosmic blues are on full display in Hundred Dollar Valentine, a brilliant amalgam made of equal parts past, present and future. It is music that traces its roots back deep into tradition, anchors its rhythms and textures in today, and reaches forward into the future, asking the Big Questions — why am I here? Is there purpose to all of this or is it just a spinning cascade of random moments?

And he does it all with six strings, an insistent, understated groove and a sly wink — letting you know that we may all enter and leave this world alone, but that don’t mean we can’t have a good time while we’re here. Hundred Dollar Valentine, Smither’s 12th studio disc, sports the unmistakable sound he’s made his trademark: fingerpicked acoustic guitar and evocative sonic textures meshed with spare, brilliant songs, delivered in a bone-wise, hard-won voice.

Singer/songwriter Smither has always found his sound’s beating heart in folk blues and his twelfth studio album taps directly into that bloodstream. Oddly, it’s his first comprised of all originals in a four decade career. He does revisit two earlier compositions bringing the wisdom of his advancing years to the regretful “I Feel the Same” and the cautionary “Every Mother’s Son” whose biblical references of offspring gone bad are just as pertinent today.

These acoustic performances are laid back but sizzle with the soul of the blues, especially with Treat Her Right’s master harpist Jim Fitting’s lonesome wail threading its way throughout the predominantly ballad songs. Smither’s deep, mellifluous rustic voice has aged but has never sounded better and longtime associate David Goodrich’s sympathetic production makes it seem these tunes were recorded live on his front porch, even when cello and violin underscore the music’s deep feeling.

~ Hal Horowitz

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Chris Smither - Hundred Dollar Valentine (2012) CD-Rip

Track List:

01. Hundred Dollar Valentine [3:05]
02. On the Edge [4:28]
03. What It Might Have Been [3:19]
04. What They Say [2:46]
05. All We Need to Know [4:18]
06. Make Room for Me [2:22]
07. I Feel the Same [4:24]
08. Place in Line [3:52]
09. Feeling by Degrees [4:18]
10. Every Mother's Son [3:21]
11. Rosalie [3:21]

Personnel:
Chris Smither - vocals, guitar, and feet
Billy Conway - drums and percussion
Kris Delmhorst - cello
Jimmy Fitting - harmonica
David Goodrich - slide guitar, giddley bo, and xylophone
Ian Kennedy - violin
Anita Suhanin - vocals
& Introducing Robin Smither - violin on “What They Say”

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