PORT ANGELES — Fingerstyle guitar champion Richard Smith is set to perform at 7 tonight.
Smith will play at Studio Bob, 118 ½ Front St. Tickets are $15.
In fingerstyle guitar, the strings are plucked directly with fingertips, fingernails or picks attached to fingers.
“Here is a stellar player providing a concert [with] quite stunning music for any who enjoy jazz, gypsy, flat picking, finger style guitar and classical,” said Mark Cole, an event organizer.
Smith received the Association of Fingerstyle Guitarists Golden Thumbpick Award in 1999, the National Fingerstyle Guitar Champion award in 2001 and the Thumbpicker of the Year award in 2008.
In 2009, he was inducted into the National Thumbpickers Hall of Fame.
Born in Beckenham, England, Smith picked up the guitar when he was 5 after watching his father play a version of “Down South Blues.”
He later performed with the Richard Smith Guitar Trio before marrying American cellist Julie Adams and moving to Nashville, Tenn., in 1999.
There he founded the Hot Club of Nashville, a jam band with a varying lineup, including high-profile session players such as John Jorgenson, Pat Bergeson, Bryan Sutton and Stuart Duncan — combining the European and American traditions of Gypsy Jazz and Western Swing.
Smith’s repertoire includes a range of styles from country, bluegrass and folk to jazz, pop and classical music.
Tickets are available online at newupstage.com, at Harbor Art Gallery, 110 E. Railroad Ave., or by calling 360-385-2216.
