Guitar Masters: Adam Rafferty

Tickets available at the Bakersfield Music Hall of Fame and BakersfieldMusicHallofFame.com

Born and raised in New York City, Adam is currently spending most of his time on the road playing concerts and doing workshops. As a 6 year old kid, he started with Woody Mann as his teacher and learned fingerpicking blues tabs from Reverend Gary Davis, Blind Blake and others. Like many guitar players, he went through the phases of rock, classical and then got deep into jazz.

B.F. – Before fingerstyle…

Adam played jazz guitar for many years in NYC, and got to play with some jazz greats along the way like Mike Longo (pianist for Dizzy Gillespie and my mentor), Alvin Queen (Drums for Oscar Peterson & Horace Silver), Dr. Lonnie Smith (B3 organ with George Benson), Buster Williams, Bob Cranshaw, Tal Farlow….the list goes on!

A.F. – After fingerstyle…

In 2006, he got way deep into fingerstyle guitar after hearing the one and only Tommy Emmanuel. Life had changed. Adam has toured worldwide (Bangkok, USA, Germany, Italy, Austria, Scotland, Bermuda, Singapore, Malaysia, Czech Republic), released several fingerstyle instruction DVDS (teaching Stevie Wonder, Jackson Five and Jazz Guitar), and amassed over 10 million YouTube views.