National Flatpick Guitar Championship 2023 | Walnut Valley Festival Winfield, KS 

Props to Hayden for playing on after a string broke!

This is the kind of competition where the real winner is us for getting to hear such sublime music. I have nfc why this was in my feed, but I'm sure glad it was!

Chapman Welsh's playing is absolutely fantastic

Chapman Welch had something different in his playing. Superb stuff!

Now I'm not quite sure how you can judge somebody making art, let alone hold championships about it, but those musicians all sound wonderful! ♥

Chapman Welch has been a friend of mine for more than 30 years. He is one of the most amazing humans, musicians, composers, and guitarists I personally know. He deeply influenced my guitar playing and musicianship early on and continues to today. I am incredibly happy to see him make it to this competition and to the finals. I hope he returns next year. All the guitarists performing in this segment were amazing and he belongs up there with the best of them. Much love, my friend!

Wow my guitars just jumped off the wall and left the room. I think I heard the backdoor slam as they left ! Thank you for the beautiful music . In days like these it is nice to see something that is actually GOOD FOR A CHANGE ! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU !!!

Mike Cramer had a very easy-going, smooth style that I liked. All the performers were wonderful. Wish I could have been there.

Congratulations to all of the performers and winners on some spectacular pickin! We're proud to be such long-standing sponsors of Walnut Valley and look forward to many future festivals and competitions. And, of course, a special shout out to Ian Ly for his first place performance! Ian, we hope that CW inspires even more music from you and you enjoy it for many years to come. - The Collings Crew

Chapman Welch....he has been a musical genius since childhood. People need to know him. virtuosos all around. He is music embodied. Love hearing everything he plays

Really enjoyed Chapman's playing - nice tune and nice tone. Great playing everyone.

So much talent on one stage. Hayden killed it I tells ya

Never get tired of the sheer musicianship.

Wow, I think I love everything about this festival. It's great to see that even in 2023 there are still these down-to-earth festivals, where the focus is just on music and the passion that comes along with it. Warms my heart.

Thanks from Scotland for making this wonderful video available to flatpickers of all levels around the world. Well done everyone involved, competitors and volunteer organisers. Keeping it live.

That Ian kid has it, he really deserved 1st place. It's so inspiring to see these fine people keeping their traditions alive, proud of their legacy and passing the torch to the new blood.

Incredible they managed to get Wes Anderson to direct this

Mike Cramer was my favorite. Very stylish and soulful playing

A big thank you to the Acoustic Shoppe for posting this great video. It has been hard to find good videos on the flatpick competition at Winfield in years past.

I thought Chapman's first tune was the most thoughtful, musical piece of all of them. The melody remained throughout the whole performance.

Thanks Chapman’s for providing the videos of the contests, really appreciate it.

Thank you guys! I still don’t understand why Walnut Valley will not release complete DVDs in their entirety of all the contestants in each category I would buy every single year. They are sitting on a gold mine and have no clue.

Ian is such a G. Fantastic improviser and so much fun to pick with!

Thanks for filming and posting this. Much appreciated.

Ian Ly...outstanding! Great from all...

After a turbulent weekend … this puts the soul at ease. The goodness is oozing

Saw Ian Ly’s performance last year and really dug his playing…killer stuff he definitely earned that first place spot!

Everyone was phenomenal. Great pickin!

Clean as country water! Great stuff from start to finish. Loved all of the players. Guitar is the winner here.

Something special about the way Hayden plays

I knew that kid was gonna win as soon as he started picking 👏🏻 Well done sir!

man i loved watching all these guys, but holy cow do i love watching and listening to ian play. magnificent.

That was fun to watch. All of them are great! A lot of tasty playing

I sure do look forward to this every year. Thank you for filming and sharing, and certainly thank you to all the hardworking and talented musicians.

That was awesome! Broken string, my heart sank. What guitar was Mike Cramer playing there, something incredible! They all were awesome!

It's so hard to be perfect on demand. Most recordings we hear are the best from multiple takes, and that spoils many listener's expectations. Bravo to all these guys for their years of hard work and willingness to put themselves out there to be publicly judged.

Man I liked them all . Everyone is really good I don’t know how you pick. All puns intended 👏

They are all winners….great pickers here….not an easy gig. Edited: Big thanks Acoustic Shoppe❤

awesome peformance. Love the song tribute to Martin by the 1st place Ian. And the brake rotor ballast for the mic. character.

Congratulations Ian. Very well done. I ain't got enough years left to practice enough to play on that stage.

Oh my what a treat... now back to the video...

No idea how I got to this video, but I'm glad I did. Outstanding!

Thanks to RU-vid for having the function to slow down playback! I’ve just stumbled across my flat picking chop builder for this year! 😅 Awesome playing!

Thank you for the song. Mr. Martin cheers me up as well...

Such unpretentious beauty and skill. The tone and progressions are so subtle and deft. As a trying to be flat picker, I am inspired by their approach and courage.

Congrats to a well deserved champion. 👏 🎉

I love watching the competition live. Then at night they come and jam with us mortals. Always love my week at Winfield.

NICE TO HEAR THE CONTESTENTS' GUITAR WITHOUT 5 BACKUP GUITARS SURROUNDING HIM . ALL ARE GREAT

Great show.... Great flat pickers... Congratulatukns everyone 👏👏👏👏👏👏

Thank you for posting this video! It's hard to find time for the picking championship with all the shennagins and concerts going on at WVFest. I'm enjoying this!

That was great fun to watch. Everyone was incredible!

Great to hear these fantastic musicians. Thanks team TAS. Looking forward to seeing and hearing the test of the contests.

Love the guy who keeps going after his string breaks.

Thanks very much for posting this. So much unreal talent out there in the flatpicking world. Love seeing this.

So glad y'all videoed this again! I really enjoyed it. Congrats everyone! All the finalists were outstanding... Hayden did great when that string broke... and Ian sounded just like his teacher Jake - great tone and creativity!

Gee whiz how do you pick? All were just great. I did want to comment on Mike Cramer's version of Soldier's Joy. I love the way he gets down low on the song and hits the big strings!

This is so live. Beautiful, the first tune. Thank you, guys, great job!

Noice Ian! Shoutout from Santa Cruz.

All of them are amazing players.

Watched the whole thing ,Loved it, I picked Ian the winner .

Beautiful guitar playing, a pleasure to listen to - thank you

Wow, these are some seriously fine musicians.

Sounds beautiful all of it

I really enjoyed seeing this! Thanks for posting these amazingly talented guitarists. It’s especially awesome to see some younger flat pickers playing music that really is part of Americana. I’m a NYC Slicker lol, but my family went on road trips to nearly every US state and most of eastern Canada for anywhere between 10 days to 3 weeks every summer depending on how much time my mom could get off from work. My widowed mom would save all year so we could pack up the van and make some amazing, unique memories after going through the traumatic experience of my dad being diagnosed with terminal colorectal cancer at age 37 and passing away just after he turned 41. Anyway, I was always really happy as a child, teen, and into my adulthood when we would pass through states that had live bluegrass and other forms of country music. I was never a huge fan of recorded mainstream country music - I really preferred rock, metal, pop punk, etc.; fortunately, my parents and grandparents always exposed us to a wide variety of music from our country and all over the world, so I always enjoyed and appreciated all types of genres. We would see all types of live music along the way on these trips, but bluegrass was always the most impactful and memorable. Seeing average people playing extraordinary music in intimate live settings like little gigs, museums, outdoor flea markets, etc. definitely impacted my younger self positively and helped me develop an appreciation for flat picking into my adulthood. I only started playing guitar in March 2020. I’m now 42. Not sure if I will ever learn to flat pick at a world class level, but I always learn some interesting techniques and ideas from bluegrass players. That being said, it’s really nice to see some of the best guitarists from around the country compete every year. Thanks so much for posting this footage! For the organizers of this competition, have you considered making an online contest possible? Or even a beginner/intermediate level online contest? Many people can’t travel due to poor health, lack of money to fund the trip, etc. It could be a great way to get many more people involved over the course of a month where the public and a panel of judges get to vote on the players who make it to the next round. I’d definitely love to partake in something like that. I’ve been disabled since 2003, but I became very ill in 2018 and have been homebound since 2019. It would be amazing to have the opportunity to take part in an online contest geared to players at the same level . It would be neat to get some prizes together, but it would still be plenty of fun without winning anything - or maybe it can raise money for a good cause like helping g people like me who are sick and can’t afford guitars/gear/accessories get some help (there is help out there for school children and veterans, but nothing else I’ve found that helps adults who are sick and have monetary hardships). If you’d be interested in organizing this type of event, please send me a private msg on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter (links in bio) so I can share my idea in more detail. Thanks! 🙏🏻😇🎸❤️

All of them were amazing!

Those strings just couldn’t keep up with Hayden's pure talent! Well done!

Fantastic. Thanks and sending greetings from Sweden.❤️❤️❤️

Greetings from Germany. I love the famous flatpicking.

Hayden Felding is quite possibly the BEST guitar picker I have ever heard, and I’ve been around 60 years…..

This brings a smile to my face and a party in my ears. 🤙🤠

Really good players! Inspiring!

all amazing - thanks for laying it down

Thanks for posting!

Lovely stuff. All these great players seem really humble and deserving, so I can't choose a favourite. I will say that Ian Ly deserved his prize, but they're all great. Technical as hell, but always melodic and accessible for the layman, should any be listening! What I take away as an inferior picker is the importance of a relaxed right hand action. Not just for tone and articulation, but for SWING! All the best players can swing, not just jazz guys. The great EVH certainly did (though not noted for his flat picking 😂)

These guitars all sound great!

At 13:28 that quick bend Danny did, thats what guitar was made for. Music to my ears

Mike Cramer! He has no idea how closely I follow what he's been doing on RU-vid. I've learned several tunes the way that he plays them, though not yet very clean. Those are great prizes!

Hayden is a great talent 😮 👍

Congrats to all!

Dang that Collings is sweet!!!!

So beautiful. Pat ? won this in 2010 or so and he was my instructor for a few sessions. These guys are incredible

Dang, how can they be this good? Time to practice more, I guess. Thanks for posting.

Great Job IAN LY!

That was just lovely.

never heard of flat picking before, i have always wanted to learn fingerstyle but never been able to master it. i will be trying this out very soon thanks to these amazing players

Some really cool ideas prensented in mike cranmers leather britches. Brave and inspired runs from everyone this year.

Nice rendition of st annes reel even with a broken string ,deserves a prize 😊😊

Nothin beats live music , and talent

This was fantastic.

all of them great in their own right loved it

Very inspiring!

Chapman fella was playing some serene classical soundin music there for a good bit

I was clapping at home lol!

Hooray for everybody

Baroque isn’t dead. Beautiful.

Go Ian! That’s my boooyyy!

It's one thing to play fast, it's another thing to tie changes in together and it all sound like one song... and most importantly the tune/song have a soul.

Very nice. I would have really liked to have seen/heard Molly Tuttle and Billy Strings participate as well. Good times for sure!

That D18 song was so fuckin sick

Ian Ly was so smooth 15:40