Steve Kaufman, national champ on guitar, comes to Carson City’s Brewery Arts Center

Steve Kaufman, winner of the National Flatpicking Championship on guitar three times, will perform at the Brewery Arts Center (BAC) the evening of Saturday, March 14.

Kaufman, a flatpicking wizard in the “Doc” Watson tradition, said he will work solo and with a group of area musicians in the 7 p.m. concert in the BAC ballroom venue to offer a range of musical genres for the audience that second Saturday in March. Tickets cost $15 in advance and $20 at the door through either the BAC or Cindy Gray of Reno, the promoter. She may be reached at (775) 348-4692 or cgray@sbcglobal.net.

Information also can be found soon at www.mountainmusicparlor.com, which will be the contact for the Reno venue in which Kaufman also will hold workshops Friday/Saturday and on Sunday. The Mountain Music Parlor in Reno is at 735 Center St. Kaufman said the concert in Carson City is going to be a first for him in the Nevada capital, though he has been entertaining and holding workshops in the region for years at Reno locations.

“This is a change of venue for us,” he said, explaining he will have an advance group kick off the evening, then perform solo himself and bring the group of friends back up for a final set that can take on a life of its own.

“It’s very spontaneous,” he said. “That just keeps it fun.”

Kaufman, in a telephone interview from his home in Tennessee, said he does his solo work both instrumentally and with vocals and may cover the musical gamut from Beatles’ favorites to traditional, Celtic and other styles, along with featuring the flatpicking skills he has honed for years.

“I’ll do the whole range of it,” he said of his repertoire. He noted the final set with the group can head anywhere the participants favor, recalling once he performed with a Django Reinhardt-oriented gypsy jazz group.

Kaufman, whose father was a jazz pianist and mother was classically trained on piano, has played several instruments and won his first national championship flatpicking on guitar at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kan., in 1978.

He won two more in the years later and might have won more given as champion he was barred from re-entry until 1984, when he won his second. With no such bar in 1986, he scooped up his third championship.

Kaufman, in addition to performing in concert, teaches music not only via workshops, but by offering instructional books, tapes and holding music camps in Maryville, Tenn. He also operates The Palace Theater, an acoustic music venue, in that Tennessee community.