Stefan Grossman - Early Career

Early Career

In 1964, Grossman and a group of friends formed the Even Dozen Jug Band. Although they only recorded one LP on the Elektra Records label (long since out of print but available at iTunes), other members were also to have successful musical careers, including David Grisman, Steve Katz (Blood, Sweat & Tears), John Sebastian (The Lovin' Spoonful), Joshua Rifkin and Maria Muldaur. In the early summer of 1966 there was an effort by Elektra’s Paul Rothchild to put together a folk rock group (like The Mamas & the Papas) with Grossman, Taj Mahal, guitarist Steve Mann and a recently returned folk singer from Texas named Janis Joplin. They actually had a rehearsal in Berkeley, sometime in June (Joplin’s first show with Big Brother and the Holding Company was at the Avalon Ballroom June 10, 1966, but she had been in the Bay Area for about 10 days). However, Janis would not abandon her new band and the deal was scuttled. Subsequently Grossman spent about three months with The Fugs and a further four months with a band called Chicago Loop. At the same time, however, he was beginning his career as a guitar teacher. With his friend Rory Block and also Mike Cooper, he produced and released one of the earliest (if not the very first) guitar instructional LPs, How To Play Blues Guitar and began the publication of a five volume series of instructional books with Oak Publications called the Oak Anthology of Blues Guitar. These drew on his studies with Rev. Davis and the other older blues artists and on his obsessive listening to old 78s. The Country Blues Guitar, Delta Blues, Texas Blues, Ragtime Blues Guitar and Rev. Gary Davis/Blues Guitar have remained in print through various editions. They were well received by other guitarists seeking to learn the various styles of acoustic blues.

In the mid 1960s, Stefan Grossman recorded a number of cuts for Joe Bussard and his Frederick, Maryland based Fonotone Records and performed at the Jabberwock coffeehouse in Berkeley under the nom du folk of "Kid Future". The origins of the name Kid Future date back in the 1930s where there were a number of country blues artists called Willie Brown, the best known of these, and a friend of Son House, recorded a song called Future Blues, using an open G tuning. The song was considered very difficult to master and puzzled many experienced blues players but Grossman, when still in his teens, figured out how to play it. Given Bussard's penchant for creating noms de plume, as he did famously for John Fahey when recording him as Blind Thomas in the 1950s, it seems likely that the origins of the name Kid Future lie in Federick, MD and a talented teenager who had mastered Future Blues. Grossman also played on Pat Kilroy's Light of Day album released in 1966.

In 1967, Grossman travelled to Europe as a first step on a planned journey to India which was not completed. In London he stayed at first with Eric Clapton whom he had met whilst in Chicago Loop and met guitarists and singers on the British folk scene including Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Davy Graham and Ralph McTell and The Young Tradition. He began playing in folk clubs around the country and made his first solo recordings for the Philips/Fontana label (Aunt Molly's Murray Farm and The Gramercy Park Sheikh) and then for Nathan Joseph's Transatlantic label, including Yazoo Basin Boogie and Ragtime Cowboy Jew (see discography). He also traveled widely in Europe and eventually settled in Italy, where he lived for seven years. Travelling around Europe for gigs brought him into contact with many other fine guitarists, but few of them had record deals; Grossman saw a niche in the market for solo acoustic guitar records which were accompanied by a tablature book to allow the buyer to try playing the arrangements and, with his friend Ed Denson taking care of the US side of business, founded Kicking Mule Records. Over the next few years KM released albums by such artists as John James, Happy Traum, Ton van Bergeyk, Dave Evans, Peter Finger and the late Sam Mitchell. Grossman also released his own original and instructional albums on KM, the latter including seminal works such as Fingerpicking Guitar Techniques, How To Play Ragtime Guitar and Famous Ragtime Guitar Solos which had a major influence on acoustic guitarists in Europe, the UK and the US. During these years Grossman was also touring as a solo artist and in partnership with John Renbourn and continuing to write and publish instructional books, often accompanied by the then new technology of a cassette tape.