Stefan carried out the ideals and promise of the folk blues revival with greater success than anyone else... What Stefan achieved with the blues is a musical ideal that other folk musicians, working in different fields, might have followed if they'd had the skill or the imagination... He moves from the traditional to the experimental, and back again, in a way that British traditionalists, with only one or two exceptions, find quite unthinkable. – Robin Denselow (Guardian critic, author of The Electric Muse)

If you play acoustic blues guitar, chances are you learned something from Stefan Grossman, either directly or indirectly… simply an amazing guitarist with a seemingly infinite knowledge of many esoteric, archaic, or nearly forgotten styles, techniques, and tunings… One simply cannot talk about people of importance to this genre without tipping the hat to the most masterful musician, teacher, musicologist, producer, folklorist, and preservationist of the traditional blues. Stefan Grossman is a venerated, iconoclastic, and respected acoustic blues figure of mega-proportions. – Country Blues.com

This collection presents 34 original instrumentals composed by Stefan Grossman. Most have been recorded as solo guitar pieces. Some are the foundations for duets recorded with John Renbourn. The compositions use a variety of styles, techniques, and tunings. You will find some tunes easy to play while others will be challenging. The instrumentals reflect a fingerstyle guitar journey of the last 65 years that has taken Stefan around the world from Australia, New Zealand, to Japan, Argentina, Europe, Great Britain, and coast to coast in America.

A Stefan Grossman Retrospective

Explanation of the Tab System

STANDARD TUNING

Shining Shadows

Dollartown

Loopers Corner

Why A Duck

Blues For The Mann

Struttin’ Rag

Bermuda Triangle Exit

Peak’s Puzzle

Idaho Potato

Rites of Passage

Cry Havoc

The Way She Walks

Matesa

Roberta

Lena Anne

Farewell to Mr. Mingus

DROPPED D TUNING

Yazoo Basin Boogie

Ms. Josephine

Requiem for Patrick Kilroy

Assassination of John Fahey

Tightrope

Danish Drone

Resurrection of John Fahey

Four for the Roses

Montagu’s Pact

OPEN G TUNING

Lullaby for Anna

Keeper of the Vine

OPEN GM TUNING

Jo and Her Daughters

Capricorn Five

Lament for a Goodman

Sparkling on the Wind

The Three Kingdoms

OPEN D TUNING

Innocence Abroad

DADGAD TUNING

Woman From Donori