Michael Smith: A Retrospective,
from Tales from the Tavern

Reviewed by Kathy Kelly, "The Folk Show", WNUR, Evanston, IL, Sept 2020

(Link to this video: TFT-TV presents Michael Smith: A Retrospective)

Wow. Sitting here laughing crying laughing crying laughing, watching the “Retrospective” of Michael Smith performing at Tales from the Tavern, a concert series in California. It’s on YouTube.com. If you’re a musician/songwriter/performer you need to watch it. I don’t care what *genre* of music you play; it really doesn’t matter. In the performances, the audience hangs on every word, every guitar lick and every joke or story. There’s this incredible bond with the audience members in what is clearly an almost sacred place. Some places really do become shrines when the people who gather there contribute to a holy exchange of energy and joy. The place and the people combine forces to create a circle of love and laughter.

It’s so apparent in this video that’s being called a retrospective, that there’s a journey here. There’s a journey that started a LONG time ago—very early, in Michael Smith's teenage years—and it took its obvious zigs and zags, and had its ups and downs, highs and lows. Toward the end, of course, one now knows that it’s starting to head back to the station for its final run.

Between the performances and the interviews it cuts away to, it’s just...masterful. It’s a thing of beauty in and of itself. It shows a master at his craft, in his mid-70s, telling tales on himself and what has been a miraculous journey. Then, when it cuts back and forth to the performances of Michael Smith’s brilliant songs and hilarious storytelling, you, the listener and observer just start to *get it*—what it means to give, to be generous of spirit, to make others laugh and love, to get choked up and feel their hearts.

Maybe if you’re lucky enough to get to the end of your life and understand what it means to claim what you’re really good at and then freely give it away, well...I’m thinking that you really ARE lucky enough. Because then you can say you got it—the meaning of life and why you were put here—and you got it while you still had time to *get it*. And that really is something to feel lucky about and be grateful for. You *got it* in time, and you were so very happy to be able to give it all away.