Chris Smither Live at Chickie Wah Wah

Chris Smither brings a half-century of folk and blues to the table-seated room at Chickie Wah Wah on Canal Street. Raised in New Orleans, Smither developed a signature sound of intricate fingerpicking and deep storytelling, shaped by Lightnin’ Hopkins and Mississippi John Hurt. His songs have been recorded by Bonnie Raitt and Emmylou Harris, and his enduring catalog has kept him a lasting figure in American folk music.

Smither’s own story reaches back to the city’s stages: he grew up in New Orleans, won a folk Battle of the Bands at the Saenger Theatre as a young man, and later moved through the folk scenes of Cambridge and New York. At Chickie Wah Wah, that long history comes into focus in an intimate room with table seating — a fitting setting for an evening of signature fingerpicking and deep storytelling.