Avril Smith
Musician · Tarrytown, New York
Best known for
Guitar
Avril Smith is an acoustic and electric guitarist and mandolinist, a founding member of Della Mae and a longtime fixture of the Washington, D.C., roots scene. Her flatpicking folds the rock, pop, and jazz she played first into traditional bluegrass vocabulary.
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- Grew up in Tarrytown, New York, on the Hudson River, drawn to the guitar in early childhood; she leaned toward rock, pop, and jazz until a bluegrass-singing college friend won her over to the music.
- Became a mainstay of the D.C.-area scene after joining the Takoma Park Americana band the U-Liners in 2002 on guitar, mandolin, and vocals, earning repeat Wammie nominations as a folk instrumentalist from the Washington Area Music Association.
- Co-founded Della Mae in Boston in 2009 alongside Kimber Ludiker, Amanda Kowalski, and Grace Van’t Hof, holding the lead-guitar chair until she stepped away from full-time touring in 2011 after becoming a mother.
- Rejoined Della Mae in 2019, contributing acoustic guitar to Headlight (2020, Rounder) and electric guitar and harmony vocals to Family Reunion (2021), including the Gillian Welch–David Rawlings cover “Dry Town.”
- Has performed with Emmylou Harris, Steve Martin, Pete Seeger, Hazel Dickens, the Indigo Girls, and Tom Morello, on stages ranging from the Ryman Auditorium, Grand Ole Opry, and Grey Fox to the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage and the White House south lawn.
- An active teacher, she has taught at camps including Blue Ridge Guitar Camp; her playing has been featured in Flatpicking Guitar Magazine, and she has reviewed guitars for Acoustic Guitar Magazine.
