Gig - Richard Smith and Julie Adams

Local singer-songwriter Jamie Freeman was pleasantly surprised one morning when he opened an e-mail to find that the top US cellist Julie Adams had surfed his website and liked his music so much she wanted to lay down some cello backing to one of his tracks. He sent her the track by e-mail, she sent her offering back on a DVD and the deal was done.

Jamie had long planned a trip to Nashville, where Julie lives with her guitarist partner Richard Smith, and when he went there he ended up staying with the couple for a week. Richard and Julie, who had planned a European tour this autumn, decided that they would add a gig in Lewes. “Richard,” says Jamie, “is an extremely technically talented and likeable guitarist, with an eclectic repertoire. He was recently voted national finger-style guitar champion, and has been playing professionally since the age of 11. He was taken under the wing of the guitarist Chet Atkins as a youngster: Atkins once gave him a guitar with the words ‘To My Hero’ written on it.” Richard and Julie do an eclectic, mainly instrumental set, with elements of folk, blues and classical music, including, Jamie enthuses, ‘a 200-mph version of the March of the Bumblebee’. Jamie, who sings folk-influenced pop songs, will be supporting the couple, with Julie accompanying on cello, and Kate Pollak adding backing vocals. It sounds like it should be quite a gig, and is further evidence that Lewes is gaining in prestige as a venue for musicians who appeal to a more discerning audience.