Excerpt from the 2019 Rocky Mountain Guitar Camp concert. 6 very different guitarists, 6 different guitars, all using a Henriksen Bud amplifier! henriksenamplifiers.com
People listening to Richard Smith smile and relax as he plays these wonderful old Scott Joplin rags may think that they are easy, since Smith is making them look easy - but they're not. They're absolute knuckle-busters. Smith is just a musical genius, is what it is. Performers of his caliber come along so seldom. Enjoy him while you can.... I know I intend to do so!
I wouldn't want to be the next musician in line after that tune, as they will be put in their place musically .Syncopation is a very difficult thing to master on guitar or piano.A rare style brought to it's peak by Mr .S. Joplin.
@ Don Ismyname: It isn't just the syncopation that is tough, but realizing Joplin on guitar in the first place in a way which is so authentic and includes so much of what he wrote for piano. Smith is making it look easy, but there are really so very few guitarists in the world capable of this, you could probably count them on one hand. As far as Joplin on nylon string guitar is concerned, Richard Smith is without peer. About the only competitor would be someone like the great Guy Van Duser in his prime, another nylon-string finger-stylist who realized very difficult piano numbers on guitar. In Van Duser's case, his LP "Stride Guitar" brought the music of James P. Johnson, Fats Waller and other stride pianists to the world of guitar. Chet Atkins could play a Joplin number or two on his axe, but with all due respects and as great as he was - with nothing like the authority and panache that Smith has.
