If you’ve ever caught one of Chris Smither’s live performances (he’s played more than 150 dates a year for the past few years), you know it’s hard not come away knocked out by the amount of music that comes out of one man. His guitar playing is remarkably fluid. His songs are gleaming bits of gold and performed in a wide variety of styles. When he chooses to cover tunes from other songwriters, he makes them his own, usually in a surprising way.
Small Revelations, his second effort for HighTone, displays all of these qualities with a special understated grace. Although Smither performs live as a solo act, here he is joined by a few of Austin’s top session players, including Riley Osborne on keyboards and Mickey Raphael on harmonica; they expand his sound but don’t overwhelm it.
The title track is the album’s centerpiece. Brooding and pensive, it stands out for its mystical feel; while guitars echo and swirl about him, Smither’s deep dark blues come to light. Small Revelations is far from a gloomy record though; “Caveman” and “Hold On” show off both his lighthearted side and his dexterous way with a guitar. As he has in the past, he demonstrates his mastery of country blues with a jaunty, swamp-inflected take of Jesse Winchester’s “Thanks To You”, and even if you’ve heard Robert Johnson’s “Dust My Broom” a hundred times, you may not recognize the howling version Smither presents here.
The set ends with on a distinctive note with the rollicking “Hook, Line And Sinker”. While Osborne lays down some tasty barrelhouse piano, Smither drolly compares love to fishing, and we realize he’s not far from the truth. Ah, another small revelation.
