Consumer Guide Album

Chris Smither: All About the Bones [Signature Sounds, 2024]
I'd lost track of this of this gravel-voiced singer-songwriter who I'd always admired and often enjoyed as he faded from my view. He got his last A from me in 1999 and his last review in 2009. But 15 years later, as he prepares to turn 80 in November I note that I'm two and a half years ahead of him and more than happy to aver that he has every right to write a bunch of songs about the nearness of death—especially, in my view, when he's vocal about the about the blessings of love that sustains. Take for just one example these conclusions from "In the Bardo" even if you're getting a little tired of how often the bardo turns up as veteran musicians approach the big 8-0 not to mention the bigger-than-that nothing. "Any day now, any day now/At the ending of the long haul/Just before the long fall down/I will listen for the warning/The evening will be morning before long." Because as he sees it: "This is how it happens, no one's doing this to you/The something goes to nothing, the nothing goes to something new." Could be. Really, could be. A-