Chris Smither says he's a stranger in his own home.

 Speaking from his house in Arlington, Mass., the singer/songwriter says he's on the road so much, he rarely gets more than a month at a stretch to sit back and relax. But he's not really bothered by that fact.

 "One should never complain about having work," he says. "You hate to spend too much time not working, you lose your chops ... and you wonder if people still want to hear you perform."

 Smither shouldn't worry about that. Having released a bevy of rich, blues-based folk albums, the New Orleans-born performer is considered one of the best singer/guitarists working the folk circuit. He's on the road almost 200 days a year and though you may not have heard of him, he's the kind of performer other players talk about in reverent tones.

 "I make a living at it and I enjoy it, so it's a pretty good story," he says of his troubadour ways.

 Smither has been plying his trade since 1966, when he left home to pursue his musical muse and ended up working the coffee-house circuit in and around Boston. He says he grew up in a musical household but wasn't attracted to playing guitar until he heard Texas bluesman Lightnin' Hopkins.

 "He was playing one-man rock 'n' roll, and I remember thinking 'this is what I'm looking for.' To me, the connection was immediate and apparent and official, and I just kept going with it."

 Revered as a careful and insightful singer/songwriter, Smither says he's not necessarily a prolific writer.

 "I keep lines and phrases and things like that in a book, and it's something of an organic process in that I just let all that stuff sit in my head. But I don't really get down to writing until I circle a date on the calendar and book some studio time. Then I know I have to get some writing done."