Doug Young and I are looking forward to share an afternoon of music with our good friend, Celtic and traditional fingerstyle master Steve Baughman. We’ll be at Old St. Hilary’s Landmark in Tiburon, California on Sunday, August 22nd. This is a wonderful venue with great acoustics in a stunningly beautiful setting. Worth a trip from other parts of the Bay Area! Info here: https://landmarkssociety.com/events/concerts/.

We’re really excited to finally have an album releaser show for DUETS, which will also be our first live show in more than a year! Please join us at the Backroom outdoor music series in Berkeley on Sunday, June 13, at 4PM!

TEJA GERKEN & DOUG YOUNG DUO + PETE MADSEN AT THE BACKROOM – OUTDOORS SUNDAY, JUNE 13, 4PM 1984 BONITA AVE., BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA RESERVATIONS AND TICKETS AT WWW.BACKROOMMUSIC.COM

I recently had a request for the music to “5927 California Street,” the opening tune from my Postcards album. This ran in Acoustic Guitar back in 2012, but I found the music file, so I decided to share it for folks who’d like to learn to play the tune. Download the PDF HERE, and you can listen to the tune on Spotify! If you download the music and feel like making a donation, I’m at paypal.me/tejagerken. And if you make a recording or video of the piece, I’d love to hear or see it. Enjoy!

Very pleased to have done a cross-country collaboration with New York guitarist Charlie Rauh. Check out our take on the traditional Swedish lullaby “Vem Kan Segla Förutan Vind?” (“Who Can Sail Without Wind?”)!

The Teja Gerken & Doug Young Duo released its first completely new recording and video with their arrangement of Eric Skye’s “The Locktender’s Reel.”

Also available on Spotify, Apple Music, and other digital music hubs.

I had fun recording a video of my arrangement of Bach’s “Minuet in D Minor,” which I play in DADGAD tuning. Watch for an audio version of this coming to digital platforms soon!

We had a lot of fun expanding the Teja Gerken & Doug Young Duo into a quartet by inviting our friends Marla Fibish and Bruce Victor (aka Noctambule) to join us. The result is an arrangement that is based on the version found on the DUETS album, with Teja playing baritone guitar and Doug playing a high-tuned mini 12-string, but with the addition of ten-string cittern and mandolin. The project was recorded and produced remotely with social distancing in three different locations.

Teja Gerken and Doug Young’s album Duets is now available on CD and high-quality download via Bandcamp! Here’s an introduction to the album:

To order the album, please visit Bandcamp:

 

Teja Gerken and Doug Young are releasing their long-awaited joint effort, Duets. Fitting into the general description of “acoustic fingerstyle,” Duets is all about the organic, honest sound of two guitars. Inspired by the examples set by instrumental guitar duos ranging from folk-baroque legends John Renbourn and Bert Jansch to the sophistication of the Duo Assad, Gerken and Young seek to create arrangements that are larger than the sum of their parts. The duo also takes advantage of the timbres available through a dazzling array of tunings and by pairing a wide variety of guitars, which include steel-string acoustics, low-tuned baritones, metal-bodied resonators, full-size and miniature 12-strings, nylon-string classicals, and even an electric archtop jazz guitar. 

Teja is pleased to announce an International Fingerstyle Guitar Summit at Berkeley’s Back Room on Friday, January 24th. Click HERE for more info and to purchase tickets!

Hailing from Rome, Italy, Alberto Lombardi has toured extensively in Europe and the US, playing major guitar events including Muriel Anderson’s All Star guitar Night, Peter Finger’s International Guitar Night, the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society Convention, Sarzana Festival, and more. Vintage Guitar magazine included him among Eight Guitarists to Watch in 2018, and he was chosen among the best ten emerging fingerstyle guitarists in the world by Poland’s Guitar Masters. His captivating acoustic performances are comprised of elaborate arrangements of great classics both of the Italian and international tradition, incorporating fingerpicking, flatpicking, some looping and singing, but also original songs and compositions.

Mexican-American guitarist Janet Noguera is one of the most exciting young fingerstylists to emerge in the last few years. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, she won the International Lowden Guitars Young Guitarist of the Year competition in 2014, and in 2017, she won the Fretmonkey Records Solo Guitar contest. Janet studied classical guitar performance with Bill Coulter at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and she has also studied with Alex de Grassi, Thomas Leeb, Andy York, and others. Her exciting performances include modern fingerstyle pieces in the style of Andy McKee or Don Ross, as well as originals and classical compositions.

Born in Germany, but a long-time San Francisco Bay Area resident, Teja Gerken is no stranger to fans of contemporary fingerstyle guitar. Weaving together influences of folk, jazz, classical, and world music, he is known for his original compositions, many of which employ alternate tunings, two-handed tapping, percussive effects, and other extended guitar techniques. Teja’s two albums, On My Way and Postcards, have received widespread acclaim, and he has shared the stage with many guitar legends, including Alex de Grassi, John Renbourn, and Andy McKee.