Discover Top Posts Tagged with #les paul

les paul with p90

#guitar #gibson #les paul #1954 #goldtop #p90

les paul

Zakk Wylde

#zakk wylde #heavy metal #guitar #les paul #black label society #sdmf

Richard Smith at Natalie’s Grandview, Columbus, Ohio, Aug. 6, 2026

As he neared the end of his stellar gig at Natalie’s Grandview, fingerpicking guitarist extraordinaire performed “Would You Like to Play the Guitar?” And though it stood out as one of only two vocal songs - the other being Jerry Reed’s “The Phantom of the Opry” - “Guitar” also summed up Smith’s MO perfectly as he sang:

Would you like to play the guitar/carry money home in a jar/from a coffeehouse or a bar/or would you rather get a job?

The Aug. 6 gig was night one of a lengthy U.S. tour. It found Smith plumbing his influences and culling numbers from a well-worn, laminated songlist to create a unique set for the small-but-attentive audience that gathered to hear what happens when a guitarist learns from Chet Atkins and hones his craft collaborating with the likes of Les Paul, Tommy Emmanuel and Sam Bush.

In the case of Smith, what happens is a fun-loving musician dressed in a playful shirt decorated with rockets takes a seat and, after opening with a jazzy version of “Bye Bye Blackbird” that skirts the edges of the melody, roosting only to allow the audience to softly sing the refrain, gives an aural tour of the world with stops in Japan on the jaunty “Sukiyaki; Poland with Chopin melodies that found Smith doing leg kicks as he transferred compositions for 88 keys to six strings; South America on “Danza Paraguaya;” and England with a run of Beatles tunes.

“You look like a ’60s crowd to me,” said Smith, who like all virtuoso axemen wears a wristwatch and has a guitar face for every bend, harmonic and neck run in his repertoire. “You had all the fun. I’m a ’71 kid. I missed it.”

With that, he lit into “Eleanor Rigby,” double-handedly recreating the Fabs’ string quartet, before slowing things down with “Here There and Everywhere” and making the case that “When I’m 64” had room for twice as many notes as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band put into the tune.

As Smith performed, it became obvious the guitar was just an extension of his body.

He produced a staggering number of notes - not one of them unnecessary - on “Walking the Strings.” He created a jazzy version of Gershwin’s “Embraceable You” that was both identifiable and barely recognizable. Smith tapped like Eddie Van Halen on “Georgia on My Mind.” “Mr. Bojangles” followed the aforementioned formula of “Bye Bye Blackbird” in giving voice to the audience. And such numbers as “The Chet Shuffle,” “Down Home” and “The Watkins Man” reinforced the notion there is no such thing as overplaying when a single instrumentalist is capable of playing lead, rhythm, melody and harmony simultaneously.

“I had a blast - I always do,” Smith said before closing the no-encore performance with “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” a technically mind-blowing display that nevertheless rang a little hollow coming as it did just hours after the White House occupant signed executive orders again trying to do away with the 14th Amendment.

“Thanks for being the guinea pigs,” the Brit said he prepared to head off for the rest of his U.S. tour.

Grade card: Richard Smith at Natalie’s Grandview - 8/6/26 - A

8/7/26