featuring: Jo Ann Kelly, Sam Mitchell & Mike Cooper

"Besides being one of the most talented blues guitarists living today Stefan Grossman is also lucky. His luck is combined with a self-determined will to understand, master, and then teach and describe to others, the music that he has learnt first hand from such legendary bluesmen as Skip James, Son House, Fred McDowell, Mississippi John Hurt, Bukka White, Mance Lipscomb and Rev. Gary Davis. His luck helped him to be in the right place at the right time.

But Stefan is unique in another way. Most authors of guitar instruction books can write but are rarely excellent musicians and performers in their own right. Stefan is beyond doubt one of the finest acoustic guitar players performing and recording today. His tours take him throughout Europe, Australia, Japan, South America and the United States. His concerts span a wide spectrum of music. His career has developed in two distinct directions at the same time. Sometimes these roads cross but always they seem to complement each other. What he discovers as a musician he is open to demonstrate and explain as a teacher.

The tunes on this CD were recorded in 1977 in London, England and first appeared on two Kicking Mule albums. This is the music that Stefan loves the most: the Country Blues. It was his first love and is still the music that he is most enthused about. Stefan concentrates on the guitar playing along with his close comrade in arms, Sam Mitchell. The singing is left to several friends: Jo Ann Kelly and Mike Cooper.

I think the combination of all these elements has produced an album of country blues unsurpassed. I'm sure you will enjoy it as much as I have. Plus Stefan has prepared a tab/music booklet that appears on this enhanced CD as PDF files."

Enjoy,
ED Denson

Song Samples:

1. Special Rider Blues
Jo Ann Kelly - Vocal
Stefan Grossman - Guitar

2. Pallet On Your Floor
Stefan Grossman - Guitar
2nd guitar: Sam Mitchell

3. One Kind Favor
Jo Ann Kelly - Vocal
Stefan Grossman - Bottleneck Guitar

4. Hollerin' for My Crow Jane
Mike Cooper - Vocal and 2nd Guitar
Stefan Grossman - Guitar

5. Hard Time Killin' Floor
Jo Ann Kelly - Vocal
Stefan Grossman - Guitar

6. If You Haven't Any Hay Get On Down The Road
Jo Ann Kelly - Vocal
Stefan Grossman - Guitar

7. Ragtime Mama Blues
Sam Mitchell - Slide Guitar
Stefan Grossman - Guitar

8. Someday Baby
Jo Ann Kelly - Vocal
Stefan Grossman - Bottleneck Guitar

9. Weeping Willow
Mike Cooper - Vocal
Stefan Grossman - Guitar

10. Brownsville Blues
Jo Ann Kelly - Vocal
Stefan Grossman - Bottleneck Guitar

11. Man Of My Own
Jo Ann Kelly - Vocal
Sam Mitchell - Slide Guitar
Stefan Grossman - Twelve String Guitar

12. Rainy Day Blues
Sam Mitchell - Vocal, Twelve String Slide Guitar

13. Strange City Streets
Mike Cooper - Vocal
Stefan Grossman - Guitar

14. Easy Street
Jo Ann Kelly - Vocal
Sam Mitchell - Mandolin
Stefan Grossman - Guitar

15. Nobody's Fault But Mine
Sam Mitchell - Vocal, Twelve String Slide Guitar

16. Come Back Baby
Jo Ann Kelly - Vocal
Stefan Grossman - Guitar

17. Moon Goin' Down
Jo Ann Kelly - Vocal
Sam Mitchell - Guitar
Stefan Grossman - Guitar

18. Motherless Children
Sam Mitchell - Vocal, Twelve String Slide Guitar

19. Wake Up Mama
Jo Ann Kelly - Vocal
Stefan Grossman - Bottleneck Guitar

20. Mourning Music
Mike Cooper - Vocal
Stefan Grossman -Guitar

21. Pallet On Your Floor
Jo Ann Kelly - Vocal
Sam Mitchell -Slide Guitar
Stefan Grossman - Guitar

22. Jubilee Jamboree
Sam Mitchell - Slide Guitar
Stefan Grossman - Guitar

23. Good Morning Little Schoolboy
Jo Ann Kelly - Vocal
Stefan Grossman - Bottleneck Guitar

All tunes are included in the tab/music PDF booklet on this CD.You will need Adobe Acrobat (a free download) to open and print this file from your computer.

Review: Recorded in England and originally released in 1977, Stefan Grossman's Country Blues Guitar Festival is simply a marvel. Beginning in the early 1960s, Grossman befriended and learned the secrets of the trade from Reverend Gary Davis, Son House, Fred McDowell, and Bukka White, among others, and he has released over 30 albums since his 1966 debut How to Play Blues Guitar. With the exception of three songs, including two Blind Willie Johnson tunes (Motherless Children and Nobody's Fault but Mine), Grossman appears on every track on Country Blues Guitar Festival and he shows his dexterity and sensitivity as a guitarist-he is equally adept at playing rhythm, bottleneck, and 12-string guitar. He is joined by Jo Ann Kelly (vocals), Mike Cooper (vocals, guitar) and Sam Mitchell (vocals, guitar, bottleneck, 12 string guitar, and mandolin). Kelly's tone and phrasing are near-perfect. Her interpretation of Hard Time Killin' Floor is especially powerful and wrenching, nearly rivaling Skip James' 1931 original performance. Both Cooper and Mitchell are effective on vocals, and Mitchell's mandolin work on Easy Street is a nice added dimension on a disc dominated by acoustic and bottleneck guitar.

The 23-song set (69 minutes) consists mostly of cover songs, including Special Rider Blues, Weeping Willow, Wake Up Mama, Ragtime Mama Blues, Moon Goin' Down, and Good Morning Little Schoolboy. It is doubtful that any musician can outperform the original versions, but Grossman comes close on several occasions. He sounds like two different guitarists on Special Rider Blues and If You Haven't Any Hay Get On Down the Road, flexes his bottleneck skills on Brownsville Blues and Wake Up Mama, and knows how to intertwine his guitar lines with Cooper and Mitchell. The guitar interplay, particularly on Pallet on Your Floor, is something to behold. While the sound of ringing, intersecting guitars is entrancing, Grossman's duets with Kelly are the most memorable and powerful aspect of the release. Her sympathetic reading of these songs both accompanies and emphasizes Grossman's guitar work.

This reissue includes informative liner notes and Grossman's own description and analysis of each song. Grossman has written a number of guitar instruction books, so it's no surprise that he devotes some time to discussing some guitar techniques (placement of the pinky finger as well as different types of bottleneck slides that guitar players should experiment with). Owners of this disc can access transcriptions of every song and Grossman even invites listeners to email him with questions about how he approached songs on Country Blues Guitar Festival.

He learned from the masters and now is passing that knowledge to a new generation of aspiring blues guitarists. He is paying it forward and you should pay it back by purchasing this very accomplished disc of acoustic blues songs. – Living Blues/Stephen A. King

Review: The records of Fred McDowell, Son House, Skip James, Mississippi John Hurt and Rev. Gary Davis taught legions of aspiring guitarists how to play country blues. Fred McDowell, Son House, Skip James, Mississippi John Hurt and Rev. Gary Davis also taught Stefan Grossman how to play country blues " face to face. (Yeah, salivate over that.) Always in the right place at the right time back then, the New York prodigy absorbed it all " their quick licks, their slide slurs, their dour six-string moods " instantly becoming a walking storehouse of songs, styles and temperaments. Originally minted on 1977 vinyl, his Country Blues Guitar Festival continued the old masters' tradition of enthralling listeners by wringing all shades of blue out from old wooden Stellas and steely old Nationals while teaching turntable students how to do it (thanks to a tab/music booklet still accompanying this CD upgrade). Now doubly fortified by also including the complete How To Play Blues Guitar Vol. 2 album, 23 total cuts let Grossman's broad spectrum chops roam from popcorning Piedmont-style notes ("Hollerin' For My Crow Jane") to flipping summersaults ("Ragtime Mama Blues") to doing the Delta drag through the bottleneck bruiser "Brownsville Blues." Sometimes singer/guitarist Mike Cooper or slide extraordinaire Sam Mitchell tag team stunning duets, like playing the Willie Brown to Charley Patton on the "Moon Goin' Down" tangle. Yet Grossman's secret weapon is Jo Ann Kelly's balled-fist of a vibrato. Quivering through Skip James' monumentally bummed-out anthems of "Special Rider Blues" and "Hard Time Killin' Floor," it's like the second coming of Geeshie Wiley. - Dennis Rozanski/Blues Rag