artist: Alex De Grassi country of origin: USA style(s): New acoustic, folk, blues essential releases: Southern Exposure (1980, Windham Hill) Alex De Grassi: A Windham Hill Retrospective (1992, Windham Hill) The Water Garden (1998, Tropo)

During the 80's and 90's De Grassi was regarded in some quarters as America’s finest acoustic guitar virtuoso. His speed and dexterity is indeed at times startling, and his music is often more dense and less impressionistic than his guitar-playing peers on the Windham Hill label such as William Ackerman and Michael Hedges.

While his technical abilities on the instrument are undoubted, this virtuosity sometimes proves his downfall however: De Grassi’s music sometimes lacks the compositional depth to do his virtuosity justice. For all their sustained busyness, some of his pieces really don’t go anywhere. His solo-guitar effort Southern Exposure is a great album because his harmonies and melody lines are pronounced enough to fully engage the attention of listeners not simply looking for displays of technical prowess. This release combined with his Retrospective album and the more recent The Water Garden make for an excellent showcase of De Grassi’s appeal to the non-technically minded.

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