IT seems to be a great time for singer-songwriters at the moment.

But for every Jake Bugg or George Ezra there is the likes of John Smith whose innovative style has helped pioneer a new acoustic sound and whose success has come not from radio play but on a grassroots level.

Among those that John has influenced is Brit Award winner Ben Howard.

He said: "It’s great that people like Ben have had so much success doing what they do. They draw on a similar source of inspiration to the place that I come from.

"It means that when people hear that they’re more willing to hear what people like me are doing."

Ben recently returned the favour by inviting John on tour with him.

So did the pair use the opportunity to collaborate on song ideas?

"No, actually we just got drunk," added John, who has returned from a three-week tour of Australia.

"I think it was the elation of having played such enormous gigs. I think I’m largely at a grassroots level everywhere I go.

"I love the bigger shows. I did Shepherds Bush Empire last year. But then I’m going back on this tour and playing some really nice small folk clubs and a couple of churches.

"I really like the smaller gigs because you really get to draw everyone in and everyone feels like they’re connected."

John musical destiny was cast early in life, informed by the records his dad chose to play at their West Country fishing village home.

He said: "We were always listening to Paul Simon and Ry Cooder and a lot of blues and folk. That was always on in the house.

"Then when I was 17 I heard Nick Drake for the first time and that led me down the rabbit hole and suddenly I discovered Bert Jansch, Richard Thompson and John Martin and all that kind of stuff. I’ve worshipping at that church ever since."

The first song John learnt was Mannish Boy by Muddy Waters when he was 11.

He added: "There was a point where I was in the National Youth Theatre and wanted to pursue acting as a career but it always felt like music was the natural thing for me to do."

John's latest album, Great Lakes, has been critically acclaimed but it was a record that almost made him abandon songwriting altogether after suffering a two-year period of crippling writer's block.

"I just dried up," he said.

"I was on tour a lot. It was this huge tour with Lisa Hannigan. I was just concentrating on gigs and hadn’t written anything for a long time and I got home and all of a sudden it just came at once.

"I wrote the whole album in a couple of weeks and recorded it in less than a week.

"I did some co-writing with Joe Henry and Dennis Ellsworth and stuff just came pouring out. The songs all shared this common theme of water which seemed to link them all and made a lot of sense somehow.

"Touring helps. Being in different places every day you pick up things up that you hear or just get these little bits of inspiration. There is always something to draw on."

- John Smith plays at St Philips Church in Manchester tomorrow, Friday. Visit ents24.com for tickets

DAVID MORGAN