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Adam Rafferty

Jesse Paliotto

• 2 min read

Adam Rafferty (born New York City, January 26, 1969) is a guitarist and composer. He is known for his arrangements of pop songs by Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, and the Beatles and for the use of beatboxing while playing guitar. In 2007, a friend showed him a video of fingerstyle guitarist Tommy Emmanuel. Inspired by what he saw, he began to experiment with arranging pop songs, taking an approach that enabled him to play bass lines, melody, and middle voicings simultaneously. He brought to fingerstyle guitar the music he enjoyed kid: disco, hip hop, funk, jazz, and R&B. He also used beatboxing, which he learned from Run–D.M.C. records in the 1980s and from his time as a rapper.

His first album as a solo acoustic guitarist, Gratitude, was recorded on his own at his home in Jackson Heights, New York. He began distributing his home performances on YouTube. His cover versions of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" and Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" received more than one million views.

At the suggestion of a YouTube fan, Rafferty went to the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society in 2008 to meet like-minded fingerstyle guitarists. He was asked to be appear as a guest at a Tommy Emmanuel concert at B.B. King's club in New York. He performed with Emmanuel at the Bangkok Guitar Festival, in Helsinki, Finland in 2009, and again B.B. King's club in 2010. The association with Emmanuel allowed him to meet and play with other established acoustic musicians, such as Michael Fix and Joe Robinson.

One of my personal favorites is his “Affirmation“.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2TljYGvOqQ

If you’re a fan of Spotify, here’s a couple tunes to get you started:

Website:http://www.adamrafferty.com

Album: View List

Gears:

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