Richard Smith
We caught up with the nylon-string maestro during one of his all-too-rare visits to the UK for a lively conversation about all things acoustic and a very special video masterclass…
Tommy Emmanuel once said, “If you like my playing, you should hear Richard Smith…” As far as accolades go, that one’s not easily beaten. Here at Guitarist, we first became aware of Richard’s extraordinary talent face-to-face back in the 1990s when he paid us a visit at our offices and brightened up the afternoon with a jaw-dropping private performance – and in those days, he was still in his 20s. British born but now resident in Nashville, Richard is acknowledged as one of the best acoustic guitar players around, touring constantly and only stopping off occasionally to deliver one of his insightful clinics.
When we caught up with him at Yamaha’s Milton Keynes HQ, we were treated to another virtuoso nylon-string performance while he was warming up for the video that accompanies this interview. What made it all the more remarkable was that he wasn’t playing his own instrument, instead opting for one of Yamaha’s TransAcoustic nylonstring guitars, the CG-TA. Even playing an unfamiliar instrument didn’t faze Richard in the slightest as immaculate solo arrangements of jazz standards and country tunes rolled out of the guitar’s soundhole.
Going back to his roots, then, Richard started to play at a very young age. “I was five,” he nods. “My dad had the Play In A Day book, Bert Weedon, so that’s how he was learning and he showed me the chords to Down South Blues, which was on The Atkins-Travis Traveling Show record. He’d figured that out and that’s what got me started. I asked my dad, ‘Can you show me that?’ And that was all there is to it. You only have to do it once and you’re addicted,” he laughs.
What followed on from your early adventuring with classic blues? Did you have any formal training on the guitar? “I did. I was about seven or eight. I had a few lessons with a guy by the name of Chaz Hart. I think he was in Sutton, Surrey, or somewhere not far from me. Really, it was to teach me to read music and I never really picked up on that because I was playing everything by ear, that’s how I’d learned. So instead of reading the music, he’d play it and then I’d play what he played, instead of looking at the music. I kind of regret not learning to read well. I know what the stave means and I know the rhythm, and I know it well enough to be able to write cello parts for my wife to play. Now, with Finale and Guitar Pro and stuff like that, if you’ve made a mistake it will play it back for you and you’ll know soon enough.”
Was classical guitar included in your early studies, too? “Yes, a little bit. But I didn’t really study formal classical guitar for any length of time. I studied some of the repertoire, though, so I’ve got some of it under my fingers. I think it’s always good to take a few classical guitar lessons. It doesn’t matter what style you play. It pays you to take some formal training, because it just teaches you all the basics of music and it teaches you what you’re doing.
“It doesn’t matter whether you’re a jazz guy or a heavy metal guy or whatever you’re playing, I think it really pays to study. If you study Bach – even just a few numbers – I think it’s going to help anything that you’re doing.”
At which point did you begin to think about playing professionally? “I must have been young. I think I was maybe seven or eight, I loved it that much. Of course, you’re not really thinking seriously about anything at that age, but I guess by the time I got to seven or eight or whatever I’m thinking, ‘Yes, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.’”
How did you begin moving in the direction of professional music? “The first thing I had was a repertoire of pieces. I think that’s a really good thing to have, depending on what you want to do, how you want to make a living, I guess. I think it helped me to have a repertoire, just because it meant I could go out and do solo gigs and know I’ve got a couple of hours worth of material, at least that, to go out and play. So that’s what helped. In a way it was detrimental to my school studies, because I didn’t take much notice of lessons. Because I was thinking, ‘This has got nothing to do with what I want to do for a living, therefore I don’t have to take it seriously.’ And now some of those subjects, geography and history, I find fascinating. I wish I’d have listened back then. It’s funny how that happens.”
You’re well known for being able to cover a wide breadth of styles. Did you actively explore different types of music when you were still young? “I think that was it, really. Chet [Atkins] was obviously a very good influence to have in that way, because he got me into some of the classical guitar pieces. I got to meet Jorge Morel, who came and stayed with us, with my family, several times back in the 80s, and he introduced me to Barrios, so I learnt a couple of those pieces, Barrios and Bach. Like I say, I’m basically a fingerpicker that’s gone outside of that. But I had Django Reinhardt records, so I started studying some of those note for note, and after I studied some Django the bebop started to make more sense. It was like, ‘Oh, I know what that is. That’s this. But it’s an added that.’
“As a musician you’re always building on what you already know. The first time you hear something it’s completely alien to you, you think, ‘What’s he doing? What is that sound?’ Then you get something close to it and you build on it. Now I listen to a Charlie Parker solo or bebop of the 50s and 60s and I’m thinking, ‘Oh, I can hear that lick now. I know what he’s doing. I know the idea behind it.’ Whereas before it was just all blue notes, and I’m thinking, ‘Wow. Where’s that coming from?’ It was like a completely foreign language.”
“YouTube is exactly what every musician wants… It’s a free market. People are watching what they want to watch”
When did the bluegrass influence begin? “I got into bluegrass players a little later on. When I was about 17 or 18 I started listening to New Grass Revival and Tony Rice, and getting into all those Nashville players.
“It doesn’t matter whether you’re a jazz guy or a heavy metal guy or whatever you’re playing, I think it really pays to study”
Got into Albert Lee… That’s one of the reasons that I wanted to move to Nashville, is to be around those kinds of players, great fiddle players, mandolin players. I love hanging with the bluegrass guys, that’s always fun – just fiddle tune after fiddle tune. Some of my favourite musicians have come out of that. Albert Lee, of course, did Country Boy. Then I heard Ricky Skaggs’ version. It was Ricky really that got me into bluegrass, and that’s a whole rabbit hole unto itself.”
And as well as bluegrass, you’ve had your Gypsy jazz moments, too… “When I was growing up in the 80s there was Diz Disley, Biréli Lagrène, Fapy Lafertin. A few guys but really not many. But now, because of the internet, because of the Ian Cruickshank movie, The Django Legacy, that exposed a lot of people to that music – you’ve got guitar manufacturers building Maccaferri-style guitars. There’s factories building them, so someone’s got to be playing them. If they’re playing those, they’re playing Gypsy jazz. So it’s good. It’s a music that kind of died and came back to life again, which was fantastic.”
How do you think the internet has influenced musical taste? “Well, it’s a free market and people are watching what they want to watch now. It’s really great for musicians. YouTube is exactly what every musician wants. Before [the internet], we were waiting for maybe three years to watch one of our favourite guitar players come on the BBC. We’d be waiting for that day when somebody was coming on The Val Doonican Show, or when Barney Kessel was going to be on Pebble Mill. It just didn’t happen a lot, but it happened on major television more than it does today. But now we’ve got YouTube instead, so that’s our market.”
What’s your main guitar these days? “The main guitar I’m playing these days is a Kirk Sand model. I got my first one back in 1991, so that’s 28 years that I’ve been using Kirk’s guitars. He’s based in Laguna Beach in California. He makes 20 or 30 guitars a year, and he’s made guitars for Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed, Kevin Eubanks, Richie Sambora, José Feliciano… He just spends his time up in his workshop building guitars and loves it. And he’s got the guitar shop [Sand Guitars] downstairs and they’ll sell all the major brand names – Martin and Gibson and Gretsch and everything.”
What about your stage setup? “I’m still going through various setups depending on what I’ve got. But I go through the Boss TU-3, that’s my main tuner, certainly for fly dates. If I’m driving, I’ve got a Pedaltrain board. I’m using an AER Dual Mix. That gets me a good sound, I can add a little low‑end, a little high-end, some reverb. It’s got a nice preamp in it and it’s good to go straight out to the PA. It’s also got a line out to my amp as a monitor. So I’ve got various gain stages, or I can just go straight out of the preamp straight to the PA and also take a line out and go to my amp.”
What amp are you using? “An Acoustic 30. If I’m playing a room that’s bigger than it can handle, the room will have a PA anyway, and I’ll bring my own PA a lot of the time. But that basically acts as an onstage monitor. I might do little private gigs every now and then where I’m just using one amp and that’s me, but most of the time I want more than one speaker anyway. I want an amp and a PA, and it just kind of fills the room with sound. If you’ve got one amp it’s mono, whereas if you’ve got a big PA you’ve got all those lows and all those highs. Everything’s clean and crisp, and it’s punchy. There’s nothing like having the PA on, my amp behind me, a monitor in front of me, and side fills. You’re surrounded with sound, and it just sounds huge.” www.richardsmithmusic.com
“One of the reasons I wanted to move to Nashville was to be around the players”