JOHN SMITH RELEASES ALBUM THE LIVING KIND ALONGSIDE
NEW SINGLE AND LIVE PERFORMANCE OF
“TRICK OF THE LIGHT” TODAY
Acclaimed Guitarist/Singer-Songwriter Featured by People.com,
Carter Vintage Guitars, Holler and Marty Music
Named In Folk Alley’s Best New Folk Music
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (March 15, 2024) - Critically-acclaimed Guitarist/Singer-Songwriter John Smith’s new album The Living Kind (Thirty Tigers/Commoner Records) is out today alongside new single “Trick Of The Light.” Named to Folk Alley’s ‘Best New Folk Music’ and featured by People.com, Carter Vintage Guitars, Holler, Marty Music and more, The Living Kind is a glorious and contemporary body of work about putting life’s challenges into perspective, and highlights John’s generational guitar talent and unique synthesis of style. The Living Kind is available at digital retailers everywhere, here: https://orcd.co/thelivingkind.
Today, John is also sharing an intimate live performance of his new single “Trick Of The Light,” which explores stages of grief and self-doubt, and was written by John about cautiously emerging from dark times, looking for the truth and regaining gratitude for life. View the intimate live performance of the new single filmed at Cooper Hall in the UK here: https://youtu.be/2QtlfihFMpo.
As John explains, the album is about “responsibility and being keenly aware of your place within a family dynamic. 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.”
The Living Kind is the first body of new music since his sixth studio album The Fray, which helped him amass over 100 million streams on Spotify and led him to a UK Americana Award nomination for Artist of The Year (2022) and UK Song of the Year (2022) for his single “Eye to Eye” (John Smith ft. Sarah Jarosz). Produced by Joe Henry (Lisa Hannigan, Rhiannon Giddens, Guy Pearce, Bonnie Raitt, Joan Baez), The Living Kind is a gloriously subtle and moving 10 track collection that is a truly contemporary body of work.
The Living Kind was recorded entirely live at Joe Henry’s home in Maine. The idea for the album was first cooked up at the start of 2022, when Joe and John decided to make an intimate record together – “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. John’s new single “Trick Of The Light” follows his previously-released songs “Candle” hailed as “breathtaking” by People.com, his title track “The Living Kind” with the official music video (HERE) and “The World Turns.” John is currently on his headlining tour in the UK. For tour dates and more information, visit www.johnsmithjohnsmith.com.
The Living Kind Track Listing
1.“Candle” (John Smith)
2. “Milestones” (John Smith)
3. “The Living Kind” (John Smith)
4. “Trick of the Light” (John Smith)
5. “Silver Mine” (John Smith, Joe Henry)
6. “Dividing Line” (John Smith)
7. “Too Good To be True” (John Smith)
8. “Horizons” (John Smith, Matt Ingram)
9. “The World Turns” (John Smith, Iain Archer)
10. “Lily” (John Smith, Joe Henry)
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