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.
THE WATER IS WIDE will be available on all major streaming services in January 2025, and the duo will celebrate the album with a special release concert at Berkeley, California’s Back Room on February 9th.