Acoustic Guitar’s Blair Jackson wrote a great review of Teja and Doug’s “The Water is Wide.” Here’s a nugget: “With fingerstyle guitar duos, it’s all about touch, timing, tonal variation, and telepathic communication—and Gerken and Young are clearly masters of all those skills. They effortlessly weave their lines in and out of each other’s parts—trading leads, occasionally finishing each other’s phrases, and always contributing subtle harmonic and rhythmic support. You’ll hear everything from harmonic pings to glistening strums to grounding low-end lines that function as bass. They make it all sound natural and easy—but of course, it’s anything but. Even the most consonant and familiar tunes are arranged with great care, and the pristine, ultra-clear mix (courtesy of Young) allows every nuance to be heard.” Check out the full review HERE!
We’re very happy to receive this wonderful review of Teja and Doug’s new album of duets from Germany’s premier acoustic guitar magazine, Akustik Gitarre:
“Tears of joy! Almost 50 years ago, John Renbourn and Stefan Grossman’s epochal instrumental duo album knocked us out with its mix of groove, ease, and poetry. In 2025, a new duo pays unsurpassable homage to this dream album: Grossman’s jazzy, catchy fingerstyle earworm “Bermuda Triangle Exit” wasn’t originally worked out as a duet, but Teja Gerken and Doug Young now make up for it – exactly in the spirit of the original, even a bit jazzier and breathtakingly beautiful. This sentiment can be applied to the entire album: fingerstyle, renaissance, Erik Satie, folk – everything culminates in a perfection that simply leaves you speechless. At times, Gerken and Young barely change the original, and yet they manage to elevate Duane Allman’s “Little Martha” – the most enchanting little etude since the invention of guitars – to a new level. And while it could be said that no new version of “Greensleeves” needed to be added to the millions of existing arrangements, one can happily welcome this thoroughly modernized version: Perhaps the first to feature slide guitar, an interlude in a jazz-waltz groove, and an improvised bottleneck solo of intoxicating beauty and deeply lyrical character. Throughout the album, the two guitars interweave effortlessly and inventive; a strict separation between accompaniment and solo is rare, and despite the detailed, polyphonic arrangements, the two guitars never get in each other’s way. Gerken and Young play unbelievably relaxed, and the tone is smooth and clear. Everything is just right here – this is what a dream (duo) guitar album sounds like.” – Michael Lohr, Akustik Gitarre
Teja Gerken and Doug Young recently recorded a video version of “Josefin’s Waltz,” which is also featured on their new album The Water is Wide. Written by former Väsen guitarist Roger Tallroth, “Josefin’s Waltz” has become a folk standard, with Teja and Doug arranging it with both guitars in DADGAD tunings, though Teja is playing out of Capo V position, while Doug is playing open.
Teja Gerken and Doug Young are excited to be releasing their second album as a duo, The Water is Wide. Having released their first joint album, DUETS in the spring of 2020, is was right before the world shut down due to the COVID pandemic. The praise the album received from the press (Acoustic Guitar said it offered “Modern fingerstyle guitar at the highest level”), fans, and peers was bitter-sweet, as the duo was unable to perform the album’s material live for almost a year after its release. However, not long after the initial adjustment to the reality that was 2020, Teja and Doug began discussing new pieces to arrange, working via video calls and recordings in their respective home studios to start adding to their repertoire. Several of the tunes on this album got their start during this time, while others were worked out in real time and road-tested at the gigs that eventually returned. All the tunes on this album continue Teja and Doug’s approach of creating interlocking guitar arrangements that take advantage of the sonic possibilities offered by pairing different types of guitars, tunings, and capo positions. The repertoire on The Water is Wide represents new interpretations of some old favorites, standards from the folk/Celtic tune book, some pop tunes, a bit of classical, a piece written by a dear friend, and more. In other words, the album is not unlike a typical Teja and Doug concert, which is bound to be more about presenting a varied program of tunes that the duo enjoys playing than about any particular genre.
San Francisco Bay Area guitarists Teja Gerken and Doug Young are releasing their second album as a duo. Following their acclaimed debut DUETS (which Acoustic Guitar magazine praised as “Modern fingerstyle guitar at the highest level”), THE WATER IS WIDE continues the duo’s path of creating interlocking arrangements that take advantage of the sonic possibilities offered by pairing different types of guitars, tunings, capos, etc.
Opening with an arrangement of Eric Skye’s contemporary fiddle tune “The Locktender’s Reel,” the album moves on to two standards of the instrumental folk repertoire, Turlough O’Carolan’s timeless “Si Bheag, So Mhor,” and Roger Tallroth’s more recently penned “Josefin’s Waltz,” before landing on Gerken’s Leo Kottke-inspired original “Takoma.” In the span of four pieces, Teja and Doug already demonstrate their finesse at expanding the range of what two guitars can sound like together, eschewing common “rhythm” or “lead” roles, instead crafting cohesive performances that sound like one voice. Teja and Doug find creative ways to navigate fingerpicking classics “Little Martha” (Duane Allman), “Bermuda Triangle Exit” (Stefan Grossman), and “Embryonic Journey” (Jorma Kaukonen), they tackle Erik Satie’s famous “Gymnopedie No. 1” (with Teja’s baritone guitar lending a piano-like quality to the arrangement), play the Renaissance piece “A Toye for Two Lutes” (Thomas Robinson) on steel-string and classical guitars, navigate their way through Gordon Lightfoot’s “If You Could Read My Mind,” and give “Greensleeves” a slide guitar treatment. Do they play “The Water is Wide,” you ask? Indeed they do, and their version has become an audience favorite at the duos live shows.
THE WATER IS WIDE was recorded using a stunning collection of acoustic guitars: Six-string steel-strings by Martin, Lowden, Ed Claxton, and Kent Hamblin, a Kenny Hill nylon-string classical, Mario DeSio baritone, a metal-bodied National Tricone Resonator, and an Eastman archtop jazz guitar.
Teja recorded his composition “Takoma” as a solo 12-string piece on the Test of Time album, and more recently, he and Doug Young also recorded a duet version, which is available on Apple Music, Spotify, and other streaming services. Teja and Doug gave the piece its live debut at the Side Door in Sacramento, California, and the performance was captured on video.
Please join the Teja Gerken & Doug Young Duo in a double-bill with Boston-area fingerstyle jazz guitarist Peter Janson at Berkeley’s Back Room on Thursday, May 30th! Click HERE for tickets, and check out this video for more info!
Teja is the featured guest on the Fretboard Journal podcast! Tune in to hear Teja and Fretboard Journal publisher Jason Verlinde talk about “Test of Time,” the guitar used on the album, Teja’s fingerstyle influences, Peghead Nation, and more!
