John Smith live @ The Continental, Preston

Shuffling into an intimate room ready to hold over 100 eager folk fans at its capacity, it was clear that an evening of inspiring music was ready to be lapped up by all. With the arrival of Jamie Brewer onto the festively-lit stage, that inclination was confirmed. Handling his Takamine guitar with great dexterity, Jamie started the night off with a blend of acoustic tracks spanning across his own material to cover versions of Marvin Gaye’s ‘I Heard It Through the Grapevine’ and an atmospheric rendition of a piece from the Final Fantasy VII soundtrack. 

Confessing, in a somewhat self-effacing manner, that his own material tended to appeal more directly to “guitar nerds”, it could certainly be said that it was on his own compositions that Jamie was able to show off the sheer technical ability which he has clearly devoted a great amount of time to perfecting. Using his instrument for both percussion and string purposes, Jamie delivered a master-class in this innovative and compelling method of guitar playing. It was a set that was as mesmerising as it was impressive. One could run out of adjectives.

Described affectionately by John Smith as a “beautiful brute”, Dennis Ellsworth next brought his slice of Americana, though Canada is his home country, to Preston’s Continental. Adding a touch of sincerity to the evening, the prolific songwriter played tracks largely from his latest release in a wealthy back-catalogue, Hazy Sunshine; a selection of songs which suited the December weather outside as they touched on love and loss as well as drunken ramblings around Central Park after a lengthy pilgrimage from the Canadian capital (we’ve all been there, right?).  

The change in mood was tactile as Ellsworth played through his set with assured confidence, allowing his distinctive voice to carry the power of his material to an attentive audience. The inclusion in his set of a track that both he and Smith wrote together whilst our headliner was visiting Ellsworth in Canada served as the perfect set up for the main event. 

So it was time, 9:30pm arrived and John Smith climbed to the stage in partnership with revered double bassist Jon Thorne, who had played a homecoming gig in Manchester with Smith only the night before. Despite this being the Great Lakes Tour (stream the album above on Spotify), Smith didn’t want to confine himself to tracks wholly from his new album – one which marks a slight change in direction from his more bluesy, and “dense” (in his own words) previous offerings. 

Instead, he embarked on a medley of songs that showcased his unprecedented talent for crafting as well as executing music of great beauty and truth. Hearing the Devonshire-cum-Liverpudlian man’s nimble guitar picking layered over Thorne’s expressive bass playing left the audience enraptured; a sentiment which was also picked up on the other side of the stage with Smith being taken aback by the intensity of an audience he had expected to be much smaller. Indeed after the first song, Smith kindly requested that the entire monitor be turned up: the size of the crowd soaking up the resonances that he had set up previously. 

Shifting momentarily from his own material, the crowd of folkies were treated to a lively cover of Queen of the Stoneage’s ‘No One Knows’ before returning back to his latest album with an exquisite rendition of his wonderful single ‘Salty and Sweet’, a track which Smith originally wrote for Lisa Hannigan before deciding rather sagaciously to keep for himself. 

Not wishing to cut all ties with the song, Hannigan lends her beautifully delicate vocals to the recorded version which appears on the album; a collaboration which Smith seeks to commemorate in his live shows with a vibrato of his voice that shows off the full extent of his impressive vocal range. 

Furthermore, it must be said what an astounding voice this songwriter has. Drawing numerous comparisons to the recognisable vocals of John Martyn, Smith’s voice is one which seems to know no bounds as an encore consisting of his seminal ‘Winter’, a track which influenced the lap-tap guitar playing of Jamie’s opening set, and a collaboration with Dennis Ellsworth on a cover of Elvis Presley’s unreleased ‘Dark Moon’ serves testament to. 

Keeping the audience engaged throughout the gaps in between his songs in which Smith plays around with a great number of tunings, the singer-songwriter wins over the room. Indeed it is in one of these moments towards the end of the set that he gets his biggest applause of the evening, proclaiming that it is on nights like this that he has trouble believing the rumours circulating that the music scene is dead. He finishes this speech with an expression of touching gratitude to the people that have come to see him play: “Thank you for keeping live music, well, alive!” No John, thank you.