OFF the back of his biggest headline show to date at London’s O2 Shepherds Bush Empire, guitarist and songwriter John Smith has announced a Kendal show in February as part of a nationwide tour.

The tour is the latest high point in a standout 12 months, and follows sell-out shows last year at London’s Union Chapel and Purcell Room, alongside support slots with Iron & Wine, Richard Hawley and Ben Howard.

John Smith’s musical destiny was cast early in life, informed in no small part by the records his father chose to play during family gatherings at their West Country fishing village home.

Amongst other albums, it was the inclusion of Ry Cooder’s late 70s masterpiece Bop Till You Drop which had a mesmeric effect on his young son’s imagination.

“That really hit me hard,” says John, “just hearing that really intricate guitar and soulful singing. I just remember not knowing what this thing was, or what it meant, but I knew I wanted more.”

It was not long after this that his father entrusted the young Smith with his own guitar, equipping also him with the skills to navigate his way through Led Zeppelin’s ‘Kashmir’.

“I was only 11,” Smith smiles, “I remember saying to him ‘How have they made another world with music?’

“Then he played me Tom Wait’s Invitation To The Blues and the Bert Jansch & John Renbourn album and I was gone.

“I basically stayed in my room practicing for 8 hours a day until I left home.”

The arrival of new album Great Lakes followed a two year period of writer’s block so crippling that Smith had considered abandoning songwriting altogether.

But when the cloud lifted, the results were plentiful - at the back end of 2011 Smith began working with two songwriters, Dennis Ellsworth and the legendary American producer Joe Henry, and by spring 2012, had over 15 fully formed new songs.

John Smith plays at Kendal’s Brewery Arts Centre on February 12.