

# Event Details

- **Event Name**: Chris Smither (solo) at Avenel PAC
- **Event Start and End Date**: Wed, 18 Nov, 2026 at 07:30 pm (-05:00)
- **Event Description**: Born in Miami, during World War II, Chris Smither grew up in New Orleans where he first started playing music as a child. The son of a Tulane University professor, he was taught the rudiments of instrumentation by his uncle on his mother’s ukulele. “Uncle Howard,” Smither says, “showed me that if you knew three chords, you could play a lot of the songs you heard on the radio. And if you knew four chords, you could pretty much rule the world.” With that bit of knowledge under his belt, he was hooked. “I’d loved acoustic music – specifically the blues – ever since I first heard Lightnin’ Hopkins’ Blues In My Bottle album. I couldn’t believe the sound Hopkins got. At first I thought it was two guys playing guitar. My style, to a degree, came out of trying to imitate that sound I heard.”

In his early twenties, Smither turned his back on his anthropology studies and headed to Boston at the urging of legendary folk singer Eric von Schmidt. It was the mid-’60s and acoustic music thrived in the streets and coffeehouses there. Smither forged lifelong friendships with many musicians, including Bonnie Raitt who went on to record his songs, “Love You Like A Man” and “I Feel the Same. (Their friendship has endured as their career paths intertwined over the years.) What quickly evolved from his New Orleans and Cambridge musical experiences is his enduring, singular guitar sound – a beat-driven finger-picking, strongly influenced by the playing of Mississippi John Hurt and Lightnin’ Hopkins, layered over the ever-present backbeat of his rhythmic, tapping feet.

Smither’s first albums, I’m A Stranger, Too! (1971) and Don’t It Drag On (1972) were released on Poppy Records, home of kindred spirit Townes Van Zandt. By the time Smither recorded his third album, Honeysuckle Dog with Lowell George and Dr. John helping out, United Artists had absorbed Poppy and ultimately dropped much of their roster, including Smither. Smither made his next record in 1985, when the spare It Ain’t Easy on Adelphi Records marked his return to the studio.

The sound and imagery of the 20th release by Chris Smither, “All About the Bones”, is as elemental as the inky black shadows cast by a shockingly bright moon. The listener is welcomed into some gothic mansion on an imaginary New Orleans street, and there in the lamplit parlor confronts the band, a minimalist skeleton crew.

As noted by the New York Times, Rolling Stone, MOJO, NPR, and others, in the decades of travels to All About the Bones, Chris Smither has gone from up and comer to journeyman to veteran to icon, and yet the whole time his path has more closely resembled Joseph Campbells Hero with a Thousand Faces an unblinking, fearless trek into the depths of struggle and revelation, and a return back to the land of the living, to share the hard won treasures found along the way. His restlessness is long gone, and his eyes are fixed where the moonlight falls on some never to be seen horizon.
- **Event URL**: https://allevents.in/avenel/chris-smither-solo-at-avenel-pac/200029417334821
- **Event Categories**: music, entertainment, trips-adventures, trekking, live-music, art, dog
- **Interested Audience**: 
  - total_interested_count: 21

## Ticket Details

- **Ticket URL**: https://avenelarts.com/shows/chris-smither/?utm_source=AllEvents.in&utm_medium=event-discovery-platform&utm_campaign=avenel-events

## Event venue details

- **city**: Avenel
- **state**: NJ
- **country**: United States
- **location**: Avenel Performing Arts Center
- **lat**: 40.57714054
- **long**: -74.275971035
- **full address**: Avenel Performing Arts Center, Avenel, United States

## Event Organizer details

- **affiliate_id**: 2
- **organizer**: Music On Main Street, Woodbridge, NJ (https://allevents.in/org/music-on-main-street-woodbridge-nj/10701237)

## Event gallery

- **Alt text**: banner
  - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events4/banners/8b58679a4e5468e26f2e1fdc338e63a6d318172f133b94fd7e6a486ab6400d3d-rimg-w1200-h900-dc1f180f-gmir?v=1772133933
- **Alt text**: thumbnail
  - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events4/banners/a32d87662762bc3a87cc8cdf1ed87b91b2a9704e33a277bdb275f6162d454116-rimg-w300-h300-dc20180f-gmir?v=1772133933

## FAQs

- **Q**: When is the event happening?
  - **A:** Wed, 18 Nov, 2026 at 07:30 pm (-05:00)
- **Q**: Where is the event happening?
  - **A:** Avenel Performing Arts Center, Avenel, United States
- **Q**: Who is organizing the event?
  - **A:** Music On Main Street, Woodbridge, NJ
- **Q**: What type of event is this?
  - **A:** music, entertainment, trips-adventures, trekking, live-music, art, dog
- **Q**: Where can I find ticket details about Chris Smither (solo) at Avenel PAC ?
  - **A:** You can find ticket details about this event on AllEvents.

## Structured Data (JSON-LD)

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        "name": "Chris Smither (solo) at Avenel PAC",
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        "startDate": "2026-11-18T19:30:00-05:00",
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        "description": "Born in Miami, during World War II, Chris Smither grew up in New Orleans where he first started playing music as a child. The son of a Tulane University professor, he was taught the rudiments of instrumentation by his uncle on his mother’s ukulele. “Uncle Howard,” Smither says, “showed me that if yo",
        "organizer": [
            {
                "@type": "Organization",
                "name": "Music On Main Street Woodbridge NJ",
                "url": "https://allevents.in/org/music-on-main-street-woodbridge-nj/10701237",
                "description": "Amazing artists, up close & personal. Concerts take place on select Wednesday or Thursday evenings in the Fall & Spring."
            }
        ]
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]
```