John Smith in Brixham

John Smith is known for his delicate and intricate guitar work, honey-and-gravel voice and songs of lost love. He was born in Essex, but brought up in the seaside town of Brixham in Devon. Struck down by illness as a child, he took up the guitar and practiced obsessively in his attic bedroom overlooking the sea. In this episode, he takes Matthew to the harbour wall to sing “Salty and Sweet” and up onto the cliffs where he found peace and solitude as a teenager to sing his own compositions “Save My Life” and “Hummingbird” and the traditional Somerset song “Hares on the Mountain”.