Eclectic repertoire; Bach to Beatles, Scott Joplin, Django Reinhardt and much more

West Sussex Guitar Club are honoured to host a third recital by the finger picking maestro Richard Smith. Born with highly dexterous fingers and a photographic musical memory he was invited to join Chet Atkins at Her Majesties Theatre at the age of 11 and stunned the audience with his performance of Chet’s own arrangements.

The music of Chet Atkins, Django Reinhardt and Jerry Reed is his native tongue and his well trained finger picking style shines through when he plays other genres such as B-Bop, classical, blue grass and gypsy jazz. His ubiquitous thumb pick, used whenever he plays, won him the accolade of Thumb picker of the year 2008 by the Association of Fingerstyle Guitarists in California. He also won the National fingerstyle guitar championship in Kansas in 2001.

The July 2018 video of Richard Smith playing Scott Joplin’s ‘The Entertainer’ has over 13m You tube views.