July 9, 2022
Sebastopol Cultural Community Center Youth Annex
425 Morris Street, Sebastopol
$30 gen adm/$25 SoCoFoSo members
Cash/checks only
Doors 7:00/Show 7:30
Vax record checked at the door/masks highly recommended indoors
When Richard Smith picks up a guitar, it’s a treat for the ears and the eyes. Audiences watch in amazement, while his fingers dance over fretboard and strings, and listen in delight, as melody and groove fill the room. It’s a natural gift. Born in Beckenham, Kent in England in 1971, he started playing on a six-string at the age of 5 after hearing his father picking “Down South Blues” by Chet Atkins and Merle Travis. When Richard asked “Dad, how do you do that?”, his father obliged, and Richard never looked back. Often, a single hearing was all it took to get a piece under his fingers, and eventually his hero, the “Godfather” of fingerstyle, Chet Atkins, invited Richard to share the stage with him at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London, when he was only eleven years old. After studying the music of Atkins, Travis, and Jerry Reed, Richard soon graduated to classical guitar pieces, Gypsy jazz, poppin’ tele playing, bluegrass and bebop licks by listening to an array of recordings by the likes of Django Reinhardt, Joe Pass, Doc Watson, Newgrass Revival, Albert Lee, Jorge Morel and countless other virtuoso musicians. With his brothers Rob and Sam he formed the Richard Smith Guitar Trio for about 8 years. Having married American cellist Julie Adams, he moved to Nashville in 2000. Since then, he has toured constantly around the US and Europe either solo, with his cellist wife, and with his swing band The Hot Club of Nashville.With 10 CD releases and a DVD to his name, and concentrating mainly on a solo career, Richard is well-known for mixing it up and playing a wide range of musical styles using various techniques. Blues, Joplin Rags, Bach, Chopin, flatpicking fiddle tunes, Sousa Marches, fingerstyle jazz to straight Travis picking tunes make up his evolving repertoire. Nowadays, Richard balances his time between concertizing on the road and lending his ears and licks to other artists’ music, producing their records in his very own Tunesmith Studio.
What fellow musicians say
“The most amazing guy I know on the guitar. He can play anything I know, only better.”
Chet Atkins, CGP (music legend)
“If you like my playing, you should hear Richard Smith! The world champion!”
Tommy Emmanuel, CGP (two-time Grammy nominee)
“Guitar playing at its finest. Don’t miss this one.”
Doyle Dykes (thumbpicking wizard)
“He is one of the world’s greatest guitarists.”
Muriel Anderson (All-Star Guitar Night)
Career Achievements
1999 AFG Golden Thumbpick Award
2001 National Fingerstyle Guitar Champion
2008 Thumbpicker of the Year
2009 National Thumbpickers Hall of Fame Induction
Played with Chet Atkins, Nato Lima, Boots Randolph, Tommy Emmanuel, John Jorgenson, Marcel Dadi, Tommy Tedesco, Thom Bresh, Joe Pass, Biréli Lagrène, Bryan Sutton, Les Paul, Mark O’Connor, Sam Bush, Martin Taylor, Jorge Morel, Suzy Bogguss, Muriel Anderson, Guy Van Duser, Béla Fleck, Victor Wooten, Tony McManus, Joscho Stephan, Buster B. Jones. Shared the bill with Steve Morse, Albert Lee, Paco Peña, Barney Kessel, David Russell, Johnny Hiland and others.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL2odhZ2tXY
Website: http://www.richardsmithmusic.com/
