Guitar virtuoso Richard Smith is a member of celebrated troupe the Transatlantic Guitar Trio,, and he’s back at Boulevard Music this week. Smith spoke to the News about what we can expect…
What have you been up to since your last visit to Culver City?
As a solo performer, I am always on the road throughout the year. In fact, just after Culver City, the trio went to Europe, and we did some dates in Germany and Spain. Joscho mostly plays with his trio in Germany and in Europe, but has been over several times with his trio to the US in the last year. Rory plays with so many different musicians and bands on so many instruments. It is hard to keep track, but generally, we tour in the US in September, and in Europe in October as the transatlantic trio. Actually, I got real sick just after our European trip when I was still in England visiting family, but I pretty much recovered towards the end of January been pretty much on the road ever since.
Describe your sound/style?
As a trio, it is kind of hard to describe. Me being mainly a finger picker, I tried to stay out of everyone’s way and play my part as an ensemble player. Rory is such a versatile musician as is Joscho, who is mostly known as a gypsy jazz guitar player, but with this trio, we really mix it up. You might only hear three or four swing tunes, but it will be mixed in with anything from the Beatles, to Elvis to Stevie Wonder, as well as a lot of of originals..
They can be swinging tunes, to ballads, to bossas to reggae influenced, even even bordering on classical invention and some interesting odd meter tunes that are still audience friendly. We have been having a lot of fun with those.
Is there any new recorded music available?
Yes. We have three CDs that will be available at the show.
How was your last Boulevard show? Any memories?
My last show there was actually a solo performance back in June. I had a blast. Always a great crowd there. The last trio performance was last September. Again, the Boulevard music crowd is a very knowledgeable, listening crowd who are either real music fans or musicians themselves, so they have an a good understanding of harmony, and rhythm. Most of the crowds that go to Music Shop Concerts are going to be people that either play a musical instrument, or have done at some point in their life, but decided just to appreciate music. Being mostly instrumental, as for my solo shows, and the trio shows, it is always great to have an audience to understand what you’re doing. Vocalists always have words which appeal to a much broader audience, but with instrumentals it’s more of a niche.
What can we expect from the set this time?
We have three CDs and we have played mostly music from the latest CDs for the last few years so we are going to be doing a mix of all of the CD is going back to some older tunes that we haven’t played in a few years.
What else do you have coming up?
The trio has a whole tour booked out west that goes all the way from Bakersfield and all over California heading east to Arizona, into West Texas, New Mexico, and finishing in Colorado at the arch top Festival that held in Arvada by our good friend Peter Henriksen, who makes superb amplifiers that are specifically geared for arch top Guitars but he is working on all kinds of new concepts these days. We did that a couple of years ago and we had a blast.
The Transatlantic Trio performs at 8 p.m. on Friday, September 11 at Boulevard Music. Go to boulevardmusic.com for more information about the show.
Elsewhere this week
The Culver Hotel will be hosting the likes of Sylvia & the Rhythm Boys, and Scotty Bramer. Go to culverhotel.com for more info.
There’s a full program of music at the Cinema Bar this week, as usual. The Hot Club of Los Angeles plays every Monday, and Wednesdays are singer/songwriter and open mic night.