The raw, unvarnished quality of much of Elliott Smith's songwriting and recordings earned him a devoted following, for whom today marks a sad anniversary: It was 10 years ago that Smith, 34, died in Los Angeles from stab wounds to the chest. The now notorious coroner's report was inconclusive on Smith's cause of death. But among friends, there would be no mistaking the reason.

Smith was living in Los Angeles when it happened. But it was Portland, according to author William Todd Schultz, where Smith's lo-fi, melancholic vision took root. Schultz, whose book, "Torment Saint: The Life of Elliott Smith" was recently released, called Portland "the site of his artistic flowering."

"It was all part of this really happening, vibrant, creative Portland scene," Schultz said. "Just a really smart, artistically minded, thoughtful group of people. It was quite the zeitgeist of Portland in the early nineties."

I recently drove around Portland with Schultz, visiting a few landmark Smith locations, including Dot's, a place Smith frequented, and where a lyric from the song Half Right was born. To hear the story behind the lyric, watch the video.

It's well known here and beyond that Smith liked to frequent the local dive bars in Portland, where he often sat alone and wrote, and many of those haunts are still kicking. The houses where Smith lived and recorded appear deceptively pristine now. Interest in Smith, who solidly lays claim to some strands in Portland's musical DNA, is unrelenting.

Schultz gave a reading over the weekend at Live Wire, where he chatted with host Luke Burbank about, among other things, Smith's delightfully incongruous appearance at the Academy Awards. That night, he had a dream. He tweeted: