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 Chris Smither (from the album More from the Levee available on Signature Sounds Recordings)
Gathering the recordings of studio time spent at New Orleans’ Music Shed, Chris Smither released a two-disc, 24 track rendering of reimagined versions of his songs as Still on the Levee in 2014. He returns with a new release, Still on the Levee, produced by long-time compatriot David Goodrich. The original sessions collected more than the needed songs in the can and David Goodrich was given the task of wringing more cuts for release from those original recordings. David recalled ‘last summer, I received a call from Chris’ manager about unreleased tracks from the 2013 New Orleans sessions that yielded his retrospective Still on the Levee. Even with that double album clocking in at 24 songs, we still had extraordinary performances left in the vault. Returning to these tracks was like finding a roll of film (remember that?) from a legendary vacation: you know you had a great time but you’re not sure what you’re going to find captured there. Well, what we found was another irreducible collection of Chris Smither songs full of great performances, intimate and immediate. Members of Morphine, the Motivators and the late Allen Toussaint help make this a truly special recording, a snapshot of some powerful music-making. I’m so pleased to share more of our vacation’. The spirits of New Orleans seems to haunt the sonics of More from the Levee, cuts like “I Am the Ride” trudging on slowly revolving echoey rhythms and “Drive You Home Again” percolating on swatches of percussion. Foot tapping, guitar picking, and kitchen sink beats open More from the Levee with “Lonely Time” as Chris Smither recalls his time as a “Caveman”, exercises self-awareness on a runaway rhythm in “Confirmation”, and waxes philosophical on “Let It Go”. The ragged edge in the songs creates a front porch style for More from the Levee when “Hey Hey Hey” rolls and rambles as Chris Smither explains his exits in “What I Do” while relating “Old Man Down” on a world-weary beat. Listen and buy the music of Chris Smither from AMAZON For more information head on over to the Chris Smither website
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