1 - One Day at a Time 2 - The Fray 3 - To The Shore 4 - Star-Crossed Lovers 5 - Sanctuary 6 - Dartmouth Ferry
He was dubbed the future of folk music by Pentangle’s John Renbourn, but singer-songwriter John Smith’s unique synthesis of styles puts him halfway across the Atlantic. The Living Kind is his masterpiece in American atmospherics: a true musician’s record, produced by Joe Henry, the man responsible for some of the subtlest Americana of recent times.
At the start of 2022 they cooked up the idea for an intimate record – “an acoustic album that sounded like Spirit of Eden”, Smith explains, referencing Talk Talk’s 1988 classic. Along with John Martyn’s Solid Air and Joni Mitchell’s electro-acoustic odyssey Hejira, it was one of the three creative inspirations for The Living Kind.
Like Hejira, the new album is a cohesive song-cycle that seems to be cast in one rich tone-colour. In 2020, Smith’s family suffered a cluster of personal crises in the space of three months. After that and the resultant rebuild, as he sings in The World Turns, Smith had to “find a new way to feel”.
“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 what was happening; in the space of three years, I had essentially become a different person.”
The album was cut over just four days in February 2023, in Joe Henry’s remote home in Harpswell, Maine. With temperatures dropping to -25 outside, the band – consisting of Henry’s son Levon and bassist Ross Gallagher – didn’t leave the house at all. You can hear the darkness and warmth in the new songs. Smith adored the spontaneity of recording live, “moving air around, making eye contact, dancing and weaving” with his core musicians. Gallagher, a jazz player, could intuit his next moves effortlessly. Drums were shared between Jay Bellerose (Robert Plant) and Joshua Van Tessel (Bahamas); Henry’s regular keyboardist Patrick Warren, who composed the music to True Detective, can be heard adding keyboards, strings and unmistakeable gothic vibrations to many songs.
1 - One Day at a Time 2 - The Fray 3 - To The Shore 4 - Star-Crossed Lovers 5 - Sanctuary 6 - Dartmouth Ferry
1 - Friends 2 - Hold On 3 - Sanctuary 4 - Deserving 5 - The Best Of Me 6 - Star-Crossed Lovers 7 - To The Shore 8 - Eye To Eye 9 - Just as You Are 10 - The Fray 11 - She’s Doing Fine 12 - One Day at a Time
1 - Friends 2 - Hold On 3 - Sanctuary 4 - Deserving 5 - The Best Of Me 6 - Star-Crossed Lovers 7 - To The Shore 8 - Eye To Eye 9 - Just as You Are 10 - The Fray 11 - She’s Doing Fine 12 - One Day at a Time
1 - Hummingbird 2 - Hares on the Mountain 3 - Burden of the Road 4 - She is My Escape 5 - Master Kilby 6 - There is a Stone 7 - Joanna / Tupelo Honey 8 - Coming Home 9 - Willy Moore 10 - Save My Life 11 - To Have So Many 12 - Far Too Good 13 - Salty and Sweet 14 - Winter
1 - Hummingbird 2 - Lowlands of Holland 3 - Boudica 4 - Hares on the Mountain 5 - Lord Franklin 6 - Master Kilby 7 - The Time Has Come 8 - Willy Moore 9 - Axe Mountain (Revisited) 10 - Unquiet Grave
1 - Hummingbird 2 - Lowlands of Holland 3 - Boudica 4 - Hares on the Mountain 5 - Lord Franklin 6 - Master Kilby 7 - The Time Has Come 8 - Willy Moore 9 - Axe Mountain (Revisited) 10 - Unquiet Grave
1 - Living in Disgrace 2 - Headlong 3 - Far Too Good 4 - Coming Home 5 - Joanna 6 - Possession 7 - Undone 8 - Threshold 9 - Into the World 10 - Desire 11 - Save My Life
1 - There is a Stone 2 - Great Lakes 3 - England Rolls Away 4 - Freezing Winds of Change 5 - Town to Town 6 - Salty and Sweet 7 - She is My Escape 8 - Away We Go 9 - Perfect Storm 10 - Forever to the End 11 - Lungs
Agent Zac Peters, Runway Agency
Management Neil Pearson, Sounds Just Fine
Publisher Sentric Music
Label / Distributor Thirty Tigers
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