Peghead Nation co-founder and Advanced Fingerstyle Workshop host Teja Gerken has just released Duets, an album of guitar duets with long-time collaborator Doug Young. 

Teja and Doug have played countless co-bills together in the San Francisco Bay Area and they share a love for acoustic guitar music from powerhouse duos like the legendary folk-baroque pairing of John Renbourn and Bert Jansch and the sophisticated Duo Assad, so forming a duo of their own was a logical step. On Duets, they dip into material from each of their individual repertoires as well as pieces they’ve collaborated on over the past few years. The project also highlights Teja and Doug’s shared guitar aficionado status, pairing steel-string acoustics, low-tuned baritones, metal-bodied resonators, full-size and miniature 12-strings, nylon-string classical guitars, and even an electric archtop jazz guitar on various tracks of Duets (click here for a video demo of all 12 guitars used on the album).

The 11 cuts on Duets include originals, traditional folk tunes, and classical pieces, an adaptation of a Beatles song, and a tune penned by banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck. Teja’s contributions include the beautiful ballad “Her Red Hair” and the African-inspired “Nairobi,” and Young’s “Autumn Roads” opens the album with the rich sounds of baritone guitar and fluid steel-string, while his “Red Snapper” features Gerken playing electric jazz guitar. The duo twists 18th-century Spanish composer Francisco Tárrega’s classical guitar “Study in E Minor” into a range-expanding interplay between low-tuned baritone guitar and high-strung miniature 12-string, a combination of instruments also featured on George Harrison’s “Here Comes the Sun.” 

You can purchase CDs or digital downloads of Duets on Bandcamp or email Teja directly at teja@tejagerken.com for a copy signed by both artists. Duets is also available on Apple Music, Amazon, and other streaming services. www.tejaanddougguitar.com.

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