Chris Smither – Leave The Light On

Chris Smither has said he accumulates phrases, musical and lyrical, over time, and slowly pieces them together into the immaculately shaped conceptions for which he is known. Perhaps this accounts for the fact that this is just his twelfth album in a career that dates to 1970.

Leave The Light On is another collection of powerful Smither originals liberally laced with intriguing, cleverly rearranged cover material. Producer David Goodrich helps push the focus away from Smither’s exceptional acoustic guitar playing and toward the songs themselves. With Tim O’Brien on mandolin and members of Ollabelle contributing harmonies, the songs are carefully calibrated soundscapes.

The album seems to break into two sections, with the first eight songs (seven by Smither, one by Peter Case) hanging tightly together before the last three covers form a beautiful coda. The initial songs fall into three categories: hopeful and determined pieces about aging, misery-wallowing numbers, and whiz-bang ironic political songs. The best is “Origin Of Species”, a hilarious comment on proponents of intelligent design.

The finale weds a waltz-time take on Dylan’s “Visions Of Johanna” to a brash take on Lightnin’ Hopkins “Blues In The Bottle” and an elegiac version of the traditional “John Hardy”. The first eight songs sound personal; these sound simply pretty.