There can be very few people in the Liverpool cultural world who have not seen or at least heard of John Smith the singer / songwriter and acoustic guitar maestro. Though originally from Devon he’s been here for a while and its great that after touring large venues with the likes of John Martyn he is still happy to play the small bars and cafes in Liverpool during Liverpool Music Week etc.
You can watch a video of John performing the ever-popular ‘Winter’ at this years Summer Pops here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcvKBYz-Vac&eurl=
Its actually even a lot better live. There’s a good review of his first album ‘The Fox and the Monk’ on the PixelSurgeon site:
It’s not often that one of an album’s defining moments occurs within the first couple of minutes, but this is exactly the case on opening track ‘Matchbox Man’. It’s at this point in what has been a fairly melancholy affair to date that he slams the strings on his guitar (bam bam bam bam) draws husky breath for a couple of seconds before exhaling ‘you give up, oh so easily’. In a post James Blunt age, the singer/songwriter genre has become ever more mainstream and perhaps diluted, it’s a refreshing call to arms, and a bit of an ‘are you listening, and I mean, really listening’ moment
