Richard Smith in concert

With fretboard fireworks and lyrical endeavors, Richard Smith will melt your heart­strings and make your toes tap. Richard's ever growing repertoire comprises a wide variety of music from classical Bach to Beatles pop. It includes Scott Joplin Rags as well as Sousa marches, Chopin, Mozart and fiddle tunes. It ranges from jazz standards to Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed and to Django Rein­hardt gypsy swing, not to mention his intriguing originals. He delivers both light­ning fast barn-burners and beautiful ballads, occasionally spiced with vocals.

His incredible stylistic wealth is founded in a lifelong love for music. Born in Be­ckenham, Kent, England in 1971, Richard started playing guitar at age 5 under the instruction of his father.  Richard first met his hero, the “Godfather” of fingerstyle guitar, Chet Atkins, when he was only eleven. Richard was invited by Chet to share the stage with him at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London in front of an audience of 1,000. By the time Richard reached his early twenties, both Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed began to refer to him as their “Hero”. 

Now residing in Nashville, Richard has toured the world as a solo artist, as well as teaming up with his wife Julie Adams for a unique guitar and cello duo. In 2001, Richard became the National Finger­style Guitar Champion in Winfield, Kansas. He was elected Thumbpicker of the Year in 2008 and inducted into the National Thumbpickers Hall of Fame in Kentucky in 2009. He is also a recipient of the Golden Thumbpick Award by the Association of Fingerstyle Guitarists in California.  “The unlimited lightness of guitar playing … Smith masters everything with an ef­fortlessness, that makes all music go straight to the heart.”

A wine and cheese reception is included during intermission.  Tickets available at the door: $15 for adults, $10 seniors/students.  For more details, visit www.saint-patricks.org  or (704) 663-5659.