6/26/2014 Martin Grosswendt with Susanne Salem-Schatz Thursday, June 26th 7:30pm Martin Grosswendt is an extraordinary instrumentalist and powerful singer who covers a wide range of American roots music, particularly well known as an interpreter of the country blues of the 20’s and 30’s. His performances encompass the breadth and depth of American roots music, from classic Delta and East Coast blues, to early country music of the 20’s and 30s from the upland South, to Creole and Cajun music from Southwest Louisiana. His singing and mastery of numerous regional styles on guitar, mandolin, five-string banjo, and fiddle make his concerts events that audiences don’t soon forget. “He’s one of the best fingerpickers I ever heard play.”  –David Bromberg Martin began his musical career in the early 1970’s as a session player at the original Philo Records in Vermont, recording with and accompanying musicians including Utah Phillips, Jim Ringer, Mary McCaslin, and Rosalie Sorrells. At the sametime, he pursued his passion for pre-war blues and created a solo career playing the music of legendary bluesmen such as Charley Patton, Blind Blake, Robert Johnson and Blind Willie McTell. His first recording, Dog on a Dance Floor, was released by Philo in 1979. “Martin Grosswendt is one of America’s great natural musical resources.  He’s been one of the best on an amazing variety of instruments for over 40 years. Grosswendt was already a force of nature while serving as a studio musician at Philo Records during the “golden era” when acoustic music legends Utah Phillips, Mary McCaslin and Jim Ringer were recording many of their greatest tracks.  During the 1970s he inspired a whole generation of aspiring blues musicians with his style and grace on guitar and mandolin.  His solo recordings, Dog on a Dance Floor, Call and Response and Payday!, only hint at his ability as a live performer and as an interpreter of classic blues.”     — Robert Resnik, Vermont Public Radio As a solo artist,Martin has shared the stage with legendary performers including Sonny Terry and Brownie Magee, Sam and Dave, Taj Mahal, Paul Geremia, and Henny Youngman. In recent years, Martin has delved even more deeply into Southern roots music. He plays bass (and occasionally fiddle, guitar, and accordion) and sings with the popular Cajun dance band Magnolia, and plays guitar and sings with the Rhode Island Bluegrass super group the Pegheads. A devotee of older country music and Western Swing, he plays Telecaster and sings with the Boston-based band Honky Tonk Masquerade. A gifted and passionate teacher, Martin has private students in bottleneck, flat-picking and finger-style guitar, blues mandolin and old-time banjo. For many years he has been on the core teaching staff music camps, including WUMB’s Summer Acoustic Music Week in New Hampshire, Guitar Intensives in Maine, and Banjo Camp North and Mandolin Camp North in Massachusetts. “A rumor in his own time” –Utah Phillips

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