Chris Smither: The Devil's Real
[purchase]
You may not recognize the swallowed tenor wail and growl of swamp-folk singer-songwriter Chris Smither, but you know his songs: I Feel The Same and Love Me Like A Man, two of Bonnie Raitt's earliest, biggest hits, were penned by him, back when he a young muse in the sixties folk scene. After losing a chunk of the seventies and eighties to drink, Smither managed to get his act together, but this song, written for his 1993 studio-recorded comeback album Happier Blue, makes it clear: this is a guy who knows his subject -- and knows how to mine it for lyrical gold.
I don't usually post full lyrics, but you gotta see this written out, and not just 'cause Smither mumbles a bit when he sings. Folks, THIS is confessional folksong at its best:
The Devil ain’t a legend, the Devil’s real,
In the empty way he touched me where I hardly feel,
The empty hole inside me,
The nothin’ that could ride me
Down into my grave. It does not heal.
The nothin’ is a something that can suck you dry
As the whisper you can hardly hear that tells you why.
He told me, “You ain’t got no problem, you’re self-deceived.
These seeming contradictions are all make-believe.”
It was then that I decided that my life was being guided
By a second-rate dependence on first-class thieves
They told me I was breaking through when I was breaking down,
By the time I learned the difference they had long left town.
But they ain’t so malicious, they ain’t mean.
They just vaguely well-intentioned with no love I’ve seen
It’s the emptiness that kills you,
Cold comfort that can fill you
With a sense of dread that maybe things are worse than they seem.
They don’t tell you nothin’ that you don’t already know.
They keep holdin’ out the promise, but they don’t let go.
It was hard luck and trouble, bad times too.
I know I had it comin’, but I got through.
It was advice that you gave me
In a dream that saved me.
You said, “Get a new life-contract that spells out your dues.”
Took good will to find it, a clear conscience to sign it,
Now I dream about the good times and they all come true.
Today Chris Smither is the best acoustic blues guitarist on the folk circuit, and he just keeps getting better and better with each successive album. I saw him this winter from the very first row of a tiny New England venue, and his version of Dylan's Visions of Johanna blew me away; he'll headline at Falcon Ridge Folk Festival this month, and I can't wait to see him again.
Want to hear more? This blog entry on Chris Smither has TEN more tracks available for download: five covers by Smither, including another "Devil" song that we're sure to hear more of this week, and five bonus covertracks.
