Biography
BILL DUTCHER is a Phoenix-based guitarist that specializes in solo-acoustic guitar performance. His talents include 6-string, 12-string, harp guitar and Weissenborn slide guitar.
Bill has called Arizona home for the past 20 years and in that time, he has established himself as a nationally-recognized solo-acoustic performer.
Bill has released CD’s of original instrumental finger style music and has been featured on various compilation harp guitar CD’s, along with being an in-demand studio musician.
He is the founding member of The Local Spirits, a four-piece, original, instrumental ensemble that is fronted with mandolin, acoustic guitar, fretless bass and percussion.
Bill has a Father & Son duo with his oldest son, Austin Dutcher, as well as fronting a classic-rock trio, Audio Farm. Bill is also one of the founding member of the Athens, Ohio band The Crunch.
When it comes to choosing instruments for performing, Bill's choice for 6-string acoustic guitars is Lakewood Guitars from Germany. Bill met Martin Seeliger back in the early 90's and was immediately drawn to his way of building acoustic instruments by listening to the performer and providing custom features that other manufactures were not providing at that time. Bill also performs with a Synergy harp guitar from Emerald Guitars, that are made in Ireland, and a custom-built harp guitar from J. Thomas Davis, Guitar Maker, from Columbus, Ohio.
He continues to compose and perform both solo and with his bands, and works as an in-demand side man and music educator.
Audiences constantly remark about how no two shows are the same. “I love to push the envelope every night, trying to draw in all that is around me and channel that energy through my heart and hands to the audiences’ ears,” Dutcher comments. He has a sixth sense for the art of reading audiences and playing to the dynamic of a venue. Every show sends listeners away saying, “How can one guy and one guitar do this?”