Richard Smith and Tommy Emmanuel Share “The Entertainer”
Richard Smith and Tommy Emmanuel perform Scott Joplin’s ‘The Entertainer’ on acoustic guitars. Melody, lower figures and rhythmic accompaniment move across their shared arrangement, giving the ragtime composition a two-player setting preserved in the identified Nashville recording.
Stonebridge Guitars published the main video in November 2009, identifying its footage as July 2009 in Nashville. That context grounds the clip in its own appearance, keeping the recorded event distinct from both its upload date and a later 2018 duet.
The source photograph shows Smith seated with his guitar. It introduces one participant and the instrument used in the arrangement, while the continuous video supplies the musical exchange with Emmanuel that extends beyond the photographed individual scene.
Joplin’s ragtime piece brings melody and accompaniment into a close rhythmic relationship. Adapting it for guitars distributes those roles across strings and players, allowing the familiar tune to remain recognisable within a different instrumental texture from a piano rendition.
The Stonebridge Guitars recording below is the main video. Its named participants and location provide the reference for this account, preserving the duet’s own identity rather than substituting a later performance because it uses the same song and guitarists.
Watch the performance
An acoustic guitar can carry melody while also supplying lower notes and harmony. With two instruments, the arrangement has additional ways to divide or combine those roles, making the players’ connection central to the musical movement heard through the piece.
The ragtime rhythm gives the melody a particular character. Accents and accompanying figures work together across the arrangement, allowing the familiar tune to move forward while retaining the rhythmic identity associated with the composition.
The players’ shared timing connects those different instrumental parts. A melodic passage and its support must remain within the same sequence, making their relationship more useful to describe than an unsupported ranking of one guitarist against every other performer.
The seated presentation keeps the instruments close to the visible players. Hands and guitars belong to the same filmed musical scene, allowing the video to provide a practical view of the arrangement while the source image preserves one selected point within it.
The duet’s acoustic setting also gives each instrumental line a distinct place. Differences in register and musical role can create contrast without requiring a large band, with the arrangement drawing its texture from the relationship between the two guitars.
The main upload’s date should remain separate from the composition’s history. The video preserves a modern guitar performance of an older piece, with the named recording context explaining the appearance rather than assigning the footage to Joplin’s original era.
Smith’s 2018 recording with Emmanuel provides a companion rendition of ‘The Entertainer’. Its later year identifies another performance occasion, giving the comparison a shared composition while keeping the two filmed appearances separately documented.
The Richard Smith concert companion offers a broader view of the guitarist’s repertoire. That longer performance has another purpose from the focused duet, extending the comparison through his playing without describing every included piece as part of the Nashville recording.
Those companions connect through musicians and repertoire in different ways. Another duet shares the composition and players, while a longer concert follows one guitarist through other material; each keeps its own occasion and recorded form clear.
Smith and Emmanuel’s main rendition centres on the movement between melodic and accompanying guitar roles. The source photograph introduces Smith’s seated playing, while the full duet supplies the shared musical sequence that gives the composition its recorded acoustic treatment.
The main video preserves ‘The Entertainer’ with Smith and Emmanuel in the identified Nashville appearance. The companions add a later duet and a broader concert recording, keeping their separate dates and musical purposes clear around the shared guitar repertoire.
More videos to explore
For a companion recording, richardsmithmusic presents “Richard Smith plays “The Entertainer” live in Nashville 2018.” This separate video offers another setting for comparison, with its own performers, arrangement and occasion.
For a companion recording, Fiulavent presents “Richard Smith Full Concert.” This separate video offers another setting for comparison, with its own performers, arrangement and occasion.
Further reading: Performance background and source.



