Two players, but large repertoire

Guitarist Richard Smith and cellist Julie Adams are, pure and simple, a duo. They don’t describe themselves as a chamber ensemble because they don’t play very much classical music.

“We might do (Bach’s) ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring’ or a ‘Two-Part Invention,’ ” Smith said in a phone interview from Southern California, where they are on tour.

Their concerts are filled with quite a variety of music, ranging from Beatles tunes and Scott Joplin rags to Chet Atkins finger-picking numbers and even old-time fiddle tunes.

“It’s a challenge to make Joplin rags work on guitar,” Smith said.

“You have to pick the right key so the melody doesn’t go too high and we’re not losing the low end. And also that the key is not too low so the melody doesn’t get too low so you’re going down into the bass strings and interfering with the rhythm section.”

The Joplin tunes Smith has worked up as guitar solos are “The Cascades,” “Ragtime Dance” and “Pineapple Rag.” He and Adams also play “Solace” as a duo.

Adams’ cello parts can be whatever the couple decides it wants. It can be solo, play the bass line, be a plucked bass or be the countermelody, Smith said.

So it’s interesting to work those possibilities out in arrangements, he said, though he plays most of the bass parts with his thumb on guitar.

As a bowed instrument, the cello can create long, sustained notes, which milks the melody on a song like “Stardust,” he said.

Smith and Adams sometimes include vocals, such as on Cole Porter’s “You Do Something to Me.”

Based near Nashville, Tenn., the duo spends more time on the road than they do at home.

“We’re never really not on tour,” Smith said.