Richard Smith and Julie Adams

Can you imagine a full orchestra playing in your living room? Or two lovers flirting in a symphony hall? It's a little bit of both that you get from world renowned finger­style guitarist Richard Smith and his wife, versatile cellist Julie Adams – and they serve so much more.

Being it Richard as a solo performer or their duo act: The combination of fretboard fireworks and ly­rical endeavours will melt your heartstrings, have your toes tapping and your jaws hanging open. Their ever growing repertoire comprises a wide variety of music from classical Bach to Beatles pop. It includes Scott Joplin Rags just like Sousa marches and fiddle tunes. It ranges from jazz standards to Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed and to Django Reinhardt gypsy swing, not to mention their intriguing originals. Ri­chard and Julie deliver both, lightning fast barn-burners and beautiful ballads, occa­sionally spiced with vocals

Their 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. Often, a single hearing was all it took to get a piece under his fingers – he now uses all ten to play bass, rhythm and melody simultaneous­ly and creating a universe of sounds, while easily switching between thumb- and flat­picking like hardly any­body else. Richard first met his hero, the "Godfather" of fingerstyle guitar, Chet Atkins, when he was only eleven. He was invited by Chet to share the stage with him 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".

It's no surprise, that the hymns of praise subsequently never faded. Today, Richard is widely regarded as one of the premier fingerstyle guitarists of our time. He has tou­red the world as a solo artist, with the Richard Smith Guitar Trio and with his swing band, The Hot Club of Nashville, featuring Stu­art Duncan on fiddle, Pat Bergeson on guitar and Charlie Chadwick on bass. Fellow gui­tar wizard Tommy Emmanuel prefers Richard as one of his favourite duet partners.

In 2001, he became the National Fingerstyle Guitar Champion in Winfield, Kansas. Richard 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.

Richard has been a mainstay at the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society Con­vention in Nashville since 1991, where he has played with people like Nato Lima of Los Indios Tabajaras, sax legend Boots Randolph and John Jorgenson of Desert Rose Band and Elton John Band fame. He has also performed with other greats such as Joe Pass, Biréli Lagrène, Les Paul, Mark O'Con­nor, Martin Taylor, Jorge Morel, Suzy Bogguss, Béla Fleck and Tony McManus and sha­red the bill with a host of others, most notably Steve Morse, Albert Lee, Paco Peña, Barney Kessel and David Russell.

1999 turned out to be a further milestone for Richard, when he married American cel­list Julie Adams and settled in Nashville. Julie is one of the most di­verse cellists today. Raised in Dayton, Ohio, and classically trai­ned at Interlochen Center for the Arts and the Cincinnati Conservatory, she has won many competitions and worked with orchestras in Chicago, Columbus, Day­ton and Cincinnati, Ohio, and Vero Beach, Florida.

Julie has also branched into folk music, playing a significant role on Glenn and Holly Yarbrough’s album "Family Portrait". She later teamed up with well-known gui­tarist Muriel Anderson to tour extensively throughout the US. At home, Julie is a sought-after session player and has been featured on top ten albums as well as major film scores such as the soundtrack of the box office hit "Bridget Jo­nes's Diary" in 2001 and the Grammy winning CD "Beautiful Dreamer: the songs of Stephen Foster" in 2003.

Their rich backgrounds led Richard and Julie to an exciting musical rendez­vous, driven by the passionate dedication to measure the boundaries of their instruments. Audiences delight in the eclectic mix of Julie’s emotional depth and Richard’s flaw­less technique, when they embark on a journey through clever arrangements, swa­ping melodies, countermelodies, rhythm and basslines, and earning them rave reviews around the world.

They are truly soul mates – in life and in music!

"The most amazing guy I know on the guitar. He can play anything I know, only better."
Chet Atkins, CGP (14 Grammys, Country & R'n'R Hall of Fame)

"If you like my playing, you should hear Richard Smith! The world champion!"
Tommy Emmanuel AM, CGP (two-time Grammy nominee)

"He is one of the world’s greatest guitarists."
Muriel Anderson (All-Star Guitar Night)

"Julie Adams is the best cellist in town."
Pat Bergeson (Chet Atkins, Lyle Lovett, Madeleine Peyroux)

"Julie Adams' eloquent cello solos deserve special mention."
Andrew Porter, The New Yorker

"Smith masters everything with an ef­fortlessness, that makes all music go straight to the heart."
Lippische Landes-Zeitung, Detmold/Germany

"Richard Smith and Julie Adams rang the satisfaction chime at 20, on a scale of one to ten."
Jean Bartlett, The Pacifica Tribune, Pacifica/CA

"A dazzling display of musicianship … Richard and Julie play classics, jazz, pop and country with a feel that places them up there with the musical greats."
Champion Newspapers, Southport/United Kingdom