Chris Smither

William Christopher Smither (born November 11, 1944) is an American folk/blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter. His music draws deeply from the blues, American folk music, and modern poets and philosophers. He was born in Miami, Florida, United States to Catherine (nee Weaver) and William J. Smither. Although Smither does not himself credit family influence for his talents, uncle Howard E. Smither was an award-winning musicologist and author, and father William was a professor of Spanish and Mexican culture. The Smither family lived in Ecuador and the Rio Grande Valley in Texas before settling in New Orleans when Chris was three years old. He grew up in New Orleans, and lived briefly in Paris where he and his twin sister Mary Catherine attended French public school. In Paris Smither got his first guitar, which his father brought him from Spain. Shortly after, the family returned to New Orleans where his father taught at Tulane University. In 1960, Smither and two friends entered and won a folk "Battle of the Bands" at the New Orleans Saenger Theatre. Two years later, Smither graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School in New Orleans and went on to attend the University of the Americas in Mexico City planning to study Latin-American anthropology like his father.