ThewaytheworldDies, the third release from Sunshone Still, will be independently-released on Potato Eater Records and chronologically recounts pivotal events and people before and after a family tragedy. From new love (“Someone to Call Home”) to the final desperate act revealed in the title track. The album then turns to the after effects of loss in songs like “Old Snakes” and “Boy Superman”. In a hopeful conclusion, Smith lets go in “Can’t Hold On to a Ghost” and makes a promise to his newborn son in “Was & Will Be” (a duet with Danielle Howle).

SunshoneStill is equal parts band and musical nom de plume for Chris Smith, a Nashville native now living in Columbia, SC. Since the 2005 debut release of Dead Letters, Smith was featured on the NPR program, All Songs Considered: Open Mic, and placed songs on the PBS series, Roadtrip Nation. Performing Songwriter listed Dead Letters as an Editor’s DIY Pick, and No Depression called it, “impressive” and “a musical landscape painted in the hushed tones of twilight”.

Smith’s 2007 sophomore album, Ten Cent American Novels, was inspired by Hampton Sides’ non-fiction book, Blood and Thunder. Smith researched, wrote and produced 17 songs and folded them into an ambitious sound to tell the interwoven story of Kit Carson, the Navajo Indians, and Manifest Destiny. No Depression called Novels “a fascinating, cinematic musical exercise…”

Since 2009, the band has solidified around the talents of Smith (guitar/vocal), Rodney Lanier and Jason Hausman (multi-instrumentalists), Stowe Barber (drums), and Flavio Mangione (bass).

When not playing music, Chris owns and operates several restaurants, watches the Daily Show, and drives his kids to tee ball games. His siblings were all given meaningful, odd names. He was not so lucky. Hence, Sunshone Still.