Stefan Grossman Stefan Grossman - Stefan Grossman's Guitar ...

“Self-expression,

tranquility, joy and sore fingers”: Catching Catching Up Up with with

Stefan Stefan Grossman Grossman BY BOB P RICE

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s Stefan Grossman sits at his computer proudly sharing digitally remastered tracks of Rev. Gary Davis playing, singing and preaching from 1962, a sense of nostalgia emanates from his face. Stefan first recorded Rev. Davis almost 50 years ago with an old reel-to-reel tape deck beside the stage at Gerdes Folk City in Greenwich Village; in 2008, he put out a remastered three-CD set of those concerts. And he recently brought a second volume (At Home and Church) of the legendary black blues guitarist into the digital age. This is perhaps Stefan’s most important project: preserving the music of Rev. Davis, his early mentor, for the masses. And, yes, there are masses of would-be guitarists and southern blues fans – one need look no further than the number of hits on Grossman’s website or the number of subscribers to his YouTube channel to see that. Stefan Grossman is a musical Renaissance man. He’s not the most famous musician, in the traditional sense of that phrase, but he’s one of the finest guitar players in the world and has been for four decades: 20 years in Europe during which he became a fixture on the British music scene, then back in America for the last 22 years, where he has become one of the primary resources for the dissemination of underappreciated guitar styles. Grossman may well be the world’s foremost authority on American southern blues music and how to play it. Such a title covers a lot of territory. Today, he is a musician, a performer, a recording artist, a visual artist, a writer, a teacher, a producer and a businessman.

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tefan Grossman was born in 1945 and grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y. He didn’t take to the guitar right away, but around age 15, his obsession started. “It was a combination of puberty, shyness, an attraction to the music and the realization that if you played music and had a party it was an easier way to meet girls,” he offered with a twinkle. During our conversation, Stefan recalled some of his most memorable onstage appearances: at Hyde Park in England with Pink Floyd; at Carnegie Hall with the Even Dozen Jug Band; in Bologna, Italy, with Mike Bloomfield; and at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco with John Renbourn. But it all began in the early 1960s, on Sunday afternoons in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village, where Grossman was one of countless musicians vying for the eyes and ears of spectators, passersby and one another. Out of that experience grew the Even Dozen Jug Band, an eclectic group of iconoclasts that “ended up playing concerts and making a record. We played Carnegie Hall twice, Johnny Carson, the Hootenanny show ... and then we broke up because we were all students,” Grossman recalled. “It lasted just about a year.” The loosely knit ensemble included John Sebastian, Maria D’Amato (Muldaur), Joshua Rifkin, David Grisman and Steve Katz. After the jug band, Grossman played briefly with two electric groups – The Fugs and Chicago Loop – and signed in 1966 to play in a band with Janis Joplin and Taj Mahal. But when both backed out, Stefan headed for Europe, where there was no shortage of places to stay and jam for a virtuoso blues guitarist. One of those places was Eric Clapton’s house. “I was pretty close with all the guys in the Cream,” he said, referring to Clapton, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce. For Grossman, it was the start of a unique career that, then and now, defies categorization. Vol. 53 #4 • Sing Out!

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Stefan has lost count of the number of recordings he’s made or been involved with in some capacity. His solo studio albums number about twenty; add compilations, anthologies, rereleases, collaborations, live albums, guest appearances and producing for others and it’s safe to say the list well surpasses 100. Four duo albums with the British guitarist John Renbourn, the seminal Crosscurrents amplified blues album with Danny Kalb and studio gigs with the likes of Paul Simon, Charlie Musselwhite, Larry Coryell and John Fahey don’t begin to define Grossman, the recording artist. He finds it difficult to pick out favorite albums, though his first with John Renbourn in 1977 and a 1985 release called Shining Shadows are “good albums,” he says. Stefan’s recording collaborations with Renbourn had their origin in the clubs and pubs of London. They met in a place called Les Cousins in 1967 and began a relationship that finds them playing together to this day. Renbourn was about to become a big star with the 1969 formation of the supergroup, Pentangle. “Stefan already had a fantastic reputation even before he arrived in England,” Renbourn recalls. “A fair amount of New York-based players came over to the little clubs, so he was already well-known as a disciple of Rev. Davis.” Though Renbourn and Grossman were listening to much of the same music, their guitar styles were not all that similar. But somehow, they were complementary. “Stefan is, in his way, kind of a perfectionist,” Renbourn says. “So when we did get together, we really tried hard. We were able to work out structural things, not just jam.” The liner notes on one of Grossman’s albums say it all. To paraphrase: Anyone who knows something about the guitar better sit down before listening to Grossman. Even when he’s playing solo, you’d swear you’re hearing two guitars. Nowhere is that more true than when he plays ragtime, a form that interested him mainly “because of the challenge,” he says. But it’s a form that’s quite prevalent on many of his recordings. 54

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The Fugs (l to r): Jackson Browne, the late Tuli Kupferberg, Stefan Grossman and Steve Noonan, 1967

company for about five years. It was then that Stefan Grossman’s Guitar Workshop and Vestapol Videos were born, with a library that has grown to include many other artists, ranging from Chet Atkins to Leo Kottke to David Bromberg to Doc Watson. Grossman distributes and markets the material through other companies, such as Mel Bay Publications and Rounder Records. Today’s SGGW remains very similar in spirit to the Kicking Mule philosophy ... except that now the lessons and performances come in the form of a PDF file on a CD or DVD that can simply be watched, listened to and copied. “Twenty years ago I used to do a book and put a record into it. Now you do a CD and put a PDF into it, so whoever wants can print out as much material as they want. Videos we’re doing, next year the whole catalog will go online because there is a whole audience that wants to download the footage, the lessons or concerts,” Grossman proffers.

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o Grossman has become to countless guitarists what Davis was to him. El McMeen is a perfect example. His Celtic and religious playing is far removed from Grossman’s style. Yet, McMeen, who has released 11 CDs, an instructional DVD and two books, credits Grossman with helping him take the step from amateur to professional. “I think that if Stefan hadn’t been born, there would be thousands and thousands fewer motivated and skilled guitarists on the planet,” McMeen says. Vol. 53 #4 • Sing Out!

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Photo courtesy Stefan Grossman’s archive

Grossman’s mentor: Rev. Gary Davis

© David Gahr

t’s also true that many of Stefan’s releases are meant to be instructional, simply because his philosophy is that the best way to learn to play blues guitar is first to hear the songs being played. His first album, recorded by the same company (Elektra) that had signed the jug band, had a title that would sum up his career: How to Play Blues Guitar. (This was 1966, and he was joined on the album by fellow blues guitarist Rory Block.) In 2008, he rereleased the album as part of a CD called Country Blues Guitar, a compilation of rare archival recordings originating from 1963 to 1971. The new album includes previously unreleased material and a digital PDF tab/music booklet. In 1968, while living in Italy, Grossman founded Kicking Mule Records, using the then-novel approach of including music instruction with the records. The albums served to give exposure to some of his friends and colleagues – like Happy Traum, Eric Schoenberg, John Renbourn and Dave Laibman – and the accompanying notes transcribed the music on the records into Grossman’s unique tabulature system, enabling amateur guitarists, even those who couldn’t read music, to learn the songs. Of course, one of the artists Grossman first chronicled during the Kicking Mule era was Rev. Gary Davis. “He’s very important to my life,” says Grossman, while playing back old recordings of sessions at Davis’ home and church in the Bronx, where the bluesman used to introduce Grossman as “my humble, white friend.” While still a teenager growing up in Brooklyn, Grossman took lessons from Davis, the blind fingerpicking genius known for blues classics like “Candyman,” “Cocaine” and “Samson and Delilah.” Grossman’s calling, in a nutshell, was to learn, enjoy and share Davis’ music. The impact of those early lessons forever sealed Grossman’s fate as a guitar player, and started him on a road that would lead to the doorsteps of Davis’ contemporaries, such as “Mississippi” John Hurt, Big Bill Broonzy, Blind Blake, Fred McDowell, Son House, Skip James and others. But Grossman learned much more than how to play the blues. Davis taught him to forge his own way, to develop his own style and, perhaps most importantly, to share his gift. Kicking Mule lasted until the mid-1980s, after which Grossman teamed up with Shanachie Records, returning to America to work for the

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tefan Grossman, the it Friends Forever and feaA SELECTED D ISCOGRAPHY performer, was coaxed turing Larry Coryell, Rory out of a long self-imposed reBlock and John Renbourn, How to Play Blues Guitar, 1966, Shanachie #98001/2 tirement in 2006 by his friend among others. Aunt Molly’s Murray Farm, 1969, Sonet #640 Crosscurrents, 1969, Cotillion #9007 (with Danny Kalb) and former student Japanese “Playing with friends is Gramercy Park Sheik, 1969, Sonet #627 guitarist Tokio Uchida. Their sort of a natural thing that Ragtime Cowboy Jew, 1970, Transatlantic #223 tour of Japan, and a subsehappens,” Grossman says. Yazoo Basin Boogie, 1970, Shanachie #97013 quent tour in the U.S., re-en“There’s a wide variety of How to Play Blues, 1971, Elektra #324 ergized Grossman for the musicians (on the album), in Those Pleasant Days, 1971, Transatlantic #246 stage and, he’s been performthat the music itself can go Hot Dogs, 1972, Line #9012370 Live, 1973, Transatlantic #264 ing, both abroad and in the from country blues to origiMemphis Jellyroll, 1974, Kicking Mule #118 U.S., ever since. In this case, nal tunes, really contempoBottleneck Serenade, 1975, Kicking Mule #3911 the student led the teacher rary compositions to jazzy How to Play Ragtime Guitar, 1975, Kicking Mule #172 back to the stage. types of music.” How to Play Ragtime, 1975, Kicking Mule #115 “The teacher doesn’t find At 65, Stefan is enjoying My Creole Belle, 1976, Transatlantic #326 the student, the student finds a renaissance of sorts at home, Country Blues Guitar, 1977, Kicking Mule #145 Finger Pickin’, 1977, Kicking Mule #173 the teacher,” Grossman says. thanks both to reasonably How to Play Blues, Vol. 2, 1978, Kicking Mule #148 “Tokio found me, the way I good health and the wonders Stefan Grossman and John Renbourn, 1978, Stefan found Rev. Davis. And Rev. of modern technology. “I Grossman #119 (with John Renbourn) Davis wasn’t interested in never really did have the Perspective, 1979, Atlantic #19230 me being a mirror of him. In ‘proper’ job ... never had to Thunder on the Run, 1980, Stefan Grossman #129 the same way, Tokio found struggle doing work I didn’t Under the Volcano, 1980, Kicking Mule #3910 (with his own style and voice.” like. I’ve always been really John Renbourn) The Three Kingdoms, 1986, Shanachie #95006 (with In England, Grossman anfortunate that my hobby has John Renbourn) nually performs a series of been able to pay the bills. The Shining Shadows, 1988, Shanachie #97020 concerts in the spring, many hobby’s actually my profesGuitar Landscapes, 1990, Shanachie #97010 accompanied by his popular, sion and in our society that’s Love, Devils and the Blues, 1992, Shanachie #97001 usually sold-out workshops. a hard one to juggle someNorthern Skies, Southern Blues, 1997, Shanachie This year, his England stay times,” Grossman says. #97026 (with Duck Baker) Shake That Thing: Fingerpicking Country Blues, was preceded by perfor“I just do what I do,” he 1998, Shanachie #97027 mances in Los Angeles, back continues. “It’s sort of like I Flowers on the Wall, 2007, Él / Cherry Red #108 in Japan with Uchida, at the created a field that wasn’t Bermuda Triangle Exit, 2007, Stefan Grossman’s Guitar Auckland Folk Festival in there before. And people are Workshop #101 (with Tokio Uchida) New Zealand and at Jorma interested in it. It’s like a magPlayed a Little Fiddle, 2007, Stefan Grossman’s Guitar Kaukonen’s Fur Peace Ranch net for certain types of people. Workshop #102 (with Danny Kalb and Steve Katz) Country Blues Guitar, 2008, Stefan Grossman’s Guitar in Ohio. And his comeback I didn’t create it on purpose. Workshop #103 (with Rory Block) could be considered comIt’s just my passion. That type Friends Forever, Guitar Collaborations, 2008, Stefan plete in June, when he perof music is what I love. I lisGrossman’s Guitar Workshop #111 formed at Eric Clapton’s ten to Charley Patton, Skip Crossroads Guitar Festival in James, Son House ... every For a complete list, including samplers and compilations on which Grossman appears, try . Bridgeview, Ill. day of the week.” In 2007, Grossman did a “It all balances out,” he ON THE WEB: couple of brief tours with two says. “The difference is I’m old friends, Blues Project able to be on both sides of founders Steve Katz and Danny Kalb. The venture highlighted the table, as an artist and as a producer, and I’m very well each musician’s individual talents and styles, later reflected in aware of the juggling that has to be done.” the CD Played a Little Fiddle, featuring Kalb’s gritty, earthy Of course, playing is his passion. “Learning a new piece blues, Grossman’s more sophisticated fingerpicking and Katz’s on the guitar is the most exciting thing, especially as we pure, folksy voice, reminiscent of his days with Blood, Sweat get older, because it keeps the brain ticking,” he says. and Tears. Today, Stefan and Jo (his wife of 31 years and also a multi“That was good fun. It wasn’t meant to be a touring band dimensional artist) derive solace and inspiration from the specto play for the next 10 years. It was just a bunch of friends tacular view from their great room overlooking the lake. At getting together. The CD was a natural progression. Now peace in a spacious lakefront home he calls “a playground,” Danny’s done a solo CD and Steve’s back with Blood, Sweat Grossman still looks back fondly on the 20 years he spent in and Tears, being the only original member,” Grossman says. Europe, raising a family and playing guitar, a passion that has Indeed, Grossman has spent relatively little time in bands, led to a new adventure every day of the week. yet a great deal of time playing with friends. In 2008, he re( A S TEFAN G ROSSMAN T EACH -I N ☞ ) leased an album of some of his favorite collaborations, calling

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TEACH-IN: FINGERPICKING GUITAR by Stefan Grossman

Helpful hints & suggestions from instrumental masters

John Renbourn (l) and Stefan

CAPRICORN FIVE

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put together “Capricorn Five” while touring and recording with John Renbourn. John has several exquisite arrangements of Celtic melodies played in an Open Gm tuning (D G D G Bflat D). I started to play around with this tuning and, for “Capricorn Five,” tried to blend some blues textures with the dark quality that the Open Gm tuning can produce. There is nothing too difficult as far as left-hand fingering; the right-hand technique uses the alternating bass. I focused on this tuning for a year or two and wrote quite a few compositions using it that can be heard on my CD, Shining Shadows (Stefan Grossman’s Guitar Workshop #125; available from P.O. Box 802, Sparta, NJ 07871; Ph: 973-729-5544; Web: ). Have fun playing “Capricorn Five” and dig into those opening blues phrases. (T URN

THE PAGE FOR

“C APRICORN F IVE ”

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Capricorn F iv Fiv ivee Music by Stefan Grossman © Shining Shadows Music (BMI)

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