Fylde guitars - with John Smith tour content

Methos1979 · #1 01-22-2022, 08:45 AM

About a year and a half ago I stumbled onto the great UK singer/songwriter John Smith after seeing him perform online with The Milk Carton Kids. This led to an online deep dive into all things John Smith which led me to Fylde guitars. Fylde guitars are highly respected guitar (and other stringed instrument) builders that is well known in the UK and favored by a lot of the UK folk performing crowd. You can read more about that original post by clicking here: John Smith & Fylde Guitars: Down the YouTube rabbit hole leads to great things

I was making my way through the Facebook music scene local venue pages I keep an eye on and was shocked to see that he was performing last night at a local house-concert venue that just opened back up after shutting down for a few months. It was a great way to kick off the upcoming live music season. We bought tickets and went to the show which was, of course, great. The venue, called 'The Word Barn' in Exeter, NH is a great little place that seats maybe 40 people indoors. There were probably 30 in attendance, all vaccinated and masked, of course. In the summer months they move the shows to an outdoor stage. They get some great names for such a small place. In March we'll be checking out Martin Sexton there.

It was cool to finally see John Smith live. The Fylde guitar was gorgeous and sounded so lush. It was his Fylde Alexander model. His pedal board looked like it had a Grace Felix, strymon blueSky, El Capitan and Flynt pedals as well as a few other pedals I didn't recognise. He also used a dual pickup system with individual outputs so a dual cable system. One of them was a magnetic sound hole which looked like it might be a Fishman Blackstack. He does a great YouTube rig rundown video where he plays a couple guitars, including the one he played last night. It's the second one played in the video. He plays a lot of open tunings which have such a huge, lush tone. He played mostly fingerstyle but toward the end he also played some slide and a few songs with a pick. You can see the rig rundown/guitar demo video here:

Though the show was great I did feel bad for him as he'd literally gotten off the plane that day and headed up to NH and had pretty bad headache to the point where he asked for some pain meds. You wouldn't have known it from the performance but I'm sure singing and playing with a headache must suck. I know whenever I fly I always get a headache from the dry air on the plane. I got a nice photo of him playing the guitar and singing that I'll post shortly in the next post. He's on tour right now playing several US shows, one on NY tomorrow and then back to the UK and then back here playing several more shows out on the west coast. Check him out if you can. You won't be disappointed. Here's a direct link to his upcoming shows from his website: John Smith Upcoming Shows

Right at the end he popped his high E string and it actually snapped off the bridge pin top! He was quite bummed about that and apparently didn't have a replacement as he asked if there was any local stores which would have one to which several of us called out 'Pat Diburro', a local master guitar repair shop that was located literally about 10 minutes down the road. I felt bad because I had just changed my strings and so left my little string changing kit bag at home instead of in my car where it usually stays. I keep several sets of bridge pins in there and it would have been so cool to offer him up a bridge pin. DOH!

Methos1979 · #2 01-22-2022, 08:47 AM

Photo from last night's show:

llew · #3 01-22-2022, 08:59 AM

Here's "Eye To Eye" with Sarah Jarosz. This was my introduction to John...

MThomson · #4 01-22-2022, 09:35 AM

Listening to "The Fray" on repeat at the moment. It's a masterpiece in my opinion. Glad you could see him.

Honkycat · #5 01-22-2022, 10:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by llew

Here's "Eye To Eye" with Sarah Jarosz. This was my introduction to John...

Love this! Sarah is such a talent too.

Methos1979 · #6 01-22-2022, 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Honkycat

Love this! Sarah is such a talent too.

He played Eye To Eye and talked about how it really got him noticed over here in the states. He told the humorous story about how he collaborated with Sarah Jarosz remotely and she recorded and sent her vocal part to use in the mixing of the song. When he listened to it he was bummed to realize that he now needed to completely re-record his vocal part because hers was SO much better than his and he had to up his game to compete.

JustMunkee · #7 01-22-2022, 02:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by llew

Here's "Eye To Eye" with Sarah Jarosz. This was my introduction to John...

The funny thing is, as a Brit, I've known of John Smith for a fair while (and seen him live a few times as well, lovely guy to chat with as well)...

but this was my introduction to Sarah, which turned into a total rabbit hole last year for me! Absolutely adore her music.

personatech · #8 01-22-2022, 03:50 PM

Great, just great - another rabbit hole for me to go down. I learned about Fylde guitars through Robyn Hitchcock, who always gets great tone out of his little Olivia...

welshruss · #9 01-22-2022, 06:20 PM

I’m a big John Smith fan since his debut the Fox and The Monk. I’m originally from Wales now Down Under. I have all his albums and Hummingbird is my favourite.
I used to own a Fylde Orsino, Fylde make great guitars and many years ago I lived in Bristol in the UK and used to go to Hobgoblin Music to play all the Fylde guitars and mandolins they had in stock. Couldn’t afford one back then. Kinkade in Bristol are great guitars too.

David Eastwood · #10 01-22-2022, 06:27 PM

I first found out about Fylde through the late, great, Michael Chapman.

He played (and perhaps even endorsed) Fylde for quite a period of his career.

For that reason alone, I wanted to own one, but alas, it was not to be.

Dmeeg05 · #11 01-24-2022, 03:37 PM

John is an amazing musician and song writer! Got to see him in my home town just before covid. I hope I get to see him again!

Treenewt · #12 01-24-2022, 04:24 PM

Stumbled on John's music via Fretboard Journal a couple years ago. Absolutely love his work! Glad you got to see him live! I'd love a chance to catch him!

DavyM · #13 01-24-2022, 07:41 PM

WelshRuss

My buddy had a great guitar made by two brothers in Bristol and I couldn't for the life of me remember their name, your post has just reminded me Kinkade.
We played together for many years and I still have my Fylde Lysander here in Canada after leaving Wales 20 plus years ago.

Sadly he is no longer with us but his son has it now.

Thanks for the memory.

frankmcr · #14 01-24-2022, 09:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Methos1979

Photo from last night's show:

Is he Australian?

welshruss · #15 01-25-2022, 03:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavyM

WelshRuss

My buddy had a great guitar made by two brothers in Bristol and I couldn't for the life of me remember their name, your post has just reminded me Kinkade.
We played together for many years and I still have my Fylde Lysander here in Canada after leaving Wales 20 plus years ago.

Sadly he is no longer with us but his son has it now.

Thanks for the memory.

No worries DavyM
I left Wales 18 years ago for Australia. Where in Wales are you from?

Back to Fylde guitars Nic Jones great Penguin Eggs was recorded on a Fylde.