Nashville, TN (Feb. 7th, 2024) - Critically-acclaimed Singer-songwriter/Guitarist John Smith is sharing the music video for title track “The Living Kind” today. “The Living Kind” is from John’s forthcoming album The Living Kind (Thirty Tigers/Commoner Records) set for release on March 15th. 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. “The Living Kind” music video was filmed in the woods near his home in Somerset and is a lighthearted, surreal take on living life to the fullest. Watch the official music video.
“It’s hard to get out of bed sometimes, and most days it’s almost impossible to see things clearly. Since I turned 40, I’ve felt that I’m starting to run out of time… but I’ve still got a lot of work to do. I wrote this song as a marker on the map. It’s good to want to be The Living Kind,” said John.
Of his picking style, he added “I listen to a lot of Metallica. James Hetfield is one of my favorite guitarists. I took his ‘down down up’ picking style and put it to a three-time jig feel.”
“The Living Kind” follows his previously-released song “The World Turns.” Both tracks are included on his forthcoming album The Living Kind.
The Living Kind follows John’s previously released, critically-acclaimed album The Fray which was featured by Associated Press, American Songwriter, No Depression, Under The Radar, 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).
The Living Kind highlights his generational guitar talent and unique synthesis of styles. Produced by Joe Henry (Lisa Hannigan, Rhiannon Giddens, Guy Pearce, Bonnie Raitt, Joan Baez), it is a gloriously subtle and moving 10 track collection that is a truly contemporary body of work.
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.
