Chris Smither: Train Home

By GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating: * * *)

Chris Smither is a white bluesman from New Orleans whose Train Home is an impressive, mature collection which includes fine treatments of Dylan's Desolation Row (with Bonnie Raitt) and Mississippi John Hurt's earthy Candy Man alongside his own pensive and intimate songs which often muse on mortality.

Highpoints among many come from his dextrous guitar-playing which owes more to deft Django-jazz than beefy blues.

Label: Hightone