Blues and folk singer Chris Smither has traveled far from his Louisiana roots. He left New Orleans in his early twenties to join the 60s folk scene in Cambridge, Massachusetts — where the gravelly-voiced guitarist wrote several hits for other performers.

Four decades later, as he and his wife raise a daughter in Amherst, Smither still plays more than 100 concerts a year around the country. For his new CD, “Still on the Levee,” Smither re-recorded songs spanning his 50 years in music. He made the album in New Orleans – and tells NEPR’s Karen Brown there were sentimental and artistic reasons for that.