John Smith heads to Warwick Arts Centre

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Singer-songwriter and guitarist John Smith concludes the UK leg of his The Living Kind solo headline tour at Coventry's Warwick Arts Centre on Saturday 27 April 2024.

The genesis of Smith's new album, The Living Kind, dates back to 2022 when he and producer Joe Henry (Billy Bragg, Joan Baez, Rhiannon Giddens, Elvis Costello) cooked up the idea for an intimate record together - a record which Smith described initially as "an acoustic album that sounded like Spirit of Eden." Other reference points alongside Talk Talk's 1988 masterpiece were John Martyn's enduring Solid Air and Joni Mitchell's electro-acoustic odyssey Hejira.

The resulting collection showcases brilliantly Smith's musicianship and skill as a songwriter, with Henry placing his voice and guitar to the fore - surrounding it with only minimal accompaniment.

Shaped by a period of personal loss and grief, the songs see Smith finding his feet, accepting the past, and moving forward.

"The Living Kind is about responsibility and being very keenly aware of your place within a family dynamic," he explains.

"When I started writing these songs, I knew immediately what was happening; in the space of three years, I had essentially become a different person and had a lot more to deal with. I wrote the songs just as we were beginning to rebuild our lives. They are about changing for the better in the face of loss. Celebrating the good things and facing up to the bad. Staying positive, trying to keep an eye on the centre, holding on to those we love and working towards a better future."

Signed with Thirty Tigers in the US - also home to that other acoustic guitar hero, Richard Thompson - Smith has opened for the late Davy Graham and guested with Jackson Browne, as well as playing with David Gray. Much admired by Pentangle's John Renbourn, he's also toured with Iron And Wine and James Yorkston, and appeared as a member of The Elizabethan Session (with such folk luminaries as Martin Simpson and Nancy Kerr).

Smith's last studio album, 2021's The Fray, featured such guests as Bill Frisell, Lisa Hannigan and Sarah Jarosz as well as members of Milk Carton Kids and The Staves, and was accompanied a year later by the six-track The Fray Variations - which saw the musician revisit several cuts from the earlier album.

Released in March, The Living Kind has been praised for it's 'innovative guitar stylings' (Folk Alley) and for capturing 'all the chaos and beauty of a joy-filled life' (Holler), while KLOF (formerly Folk Radio UK) declared it 'a masterpiece'.

• John Smith visits Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, on Saturday 27 April 2024.
  For tickets and more information, see: warwickartscentre.co.uk