“To label John Renbourn an English-folk guitarist, or Stefan Grossman an American-blues guitarist, amounts to the same: nothing. Renbourn, who's best known for his Pentangle association and fine solo albums, has played medieval, early classical, traditional, blues, regional English folk and contemporary jazz compositions. Stefan Grossman, who's also cut a pile of solo albums, has played classic and contemporary ragtime, delta blues, boogie, and regional American folk compositions, among others. Yet the performers and last Tuesday night's capacity crowd at the Other End shared a single mindedness that makes one music of all this eclecticism: a passion for the acoustic guitar and its infinite expressive possibilities. The evening was not only one of the most musically exhilarating in my experience, but one of the most educational as well – a relaxed class on styles and technique and a distillation of British and American sensibilities...
...They included a few numbers from their elegant new hybrid album, Stefan Grossman & John Renbourn. The album is all instrumental, all – except for a Mingus composition – original. Though it's much more bluesy, lilting, and sly, it reminds me of John McLaughlin’s acoustic album, My Goal's Beyond, with its gentle-jazz whispers and dramatic pauses. If one has ever picked or, plucked, the album is an invitation to figure out new ways to contort the fingers. If one hasn't, the liner notes skillfully decode who is playing which guitar line and when, As the concert did, the album pulls together the improbable and comes up with a surprising complement, rather like ordering a measure of ordering mead to quaff with your hot dog. And why not?”
– Jan Hoffman – The Village Voice
