Although British folk guitarist John Smith bears comparison to alternative folk contemporaries like
Bonnie "Prince" Billy,
Fionn Regan,
José González, and
Cara Dillon, the Devon-born, Liverpool-based prodigy has connections to an older generation of inventive and progressive folk guitarists as well, having played alongside
John Martyn,
John Renbourn, and
Martin Simpson. An inventive guitarist who not only explores unusual tunings à la
Davy Graham, but often plays his acoustic instrument in entirely unconventional ways (detuning strings in the middle of a chord, laying it upright in his lap and hammering on the strings like a dulcimer, etc.), Smith occasionally sounds like an otherworldly cross between
Tim Buckley (whose "Song to the Siren" is a standard part of Smith's set) and the East Texas avant primitive Jandek, although his occasional full-band performances approach the chamber folk delicacy of
Nick Drake's
Five Leaves Left. Smith debuted with the self-released live set Live at the Roundhouse, available on both CD and DVD, before the release of his first studio album,
The Fox and the Monk, in 2006.
A couple of non-album singles followed -- 2007's "The Bird and the Worm" and "If I Prove False," a 2008 collaboration with
Dillon -- before Smith contributed guitar to a couple of tracks on
Dillon's acclaimed 2009 LP
Hill of Thieves. Smith's own
Map or Direction appeared later that year -- a whole album of songs recorded while traveling through the southern states of the U.S., and 2011 brought Eavesdropping, an album of cover versions including material originally performed by acts as diverse as
Elton John, Tuung, and
Terence Trent D'Arby. After a relatively quiet 2012,
Great Lakes was issued the following March, an album primarily recorded in a converted chapel in northwest Wales.
Following the death of
John Martyn in 2009, Smith appeared on a tribute album to the late singer/songwriter alongside
David Gray,
Beth Orton, and
Vashti Bunyan. He continued to play guitar for other artists like
Lianne La Havas and
Joan Baez, and also released his fifth record in 2017.
Headlong was dedicated to the memory of
John Renbourn, who died in 2015. ~ Stewart Mason & James Wilkinson