Kid on Mountain

When American guitar finger pickers graduated from ragtime and started looking for new musical territories to explore in the Seventies, there were several paths that seemed like obvious choices. Moving ahead in Jazz history led to the world of swing, a particularly animated region where one could stay happily occupied indefinitely. Or you could stop along the way to study the work of the stride piano masters like James P. Johnson and Fats Waller, as Guy Van Duser did to great effect. Another challenge that many found appealing was arranging the Beatles' tunes. And then there was the world of traditional music, that stretched back from Bluegrass through old-time Mountain Music to England, Scotland, and Ireland.