Southern Exposure (Solo Guitar)

A superb fingerstyle guitarist with a mix of harmonic adventure and metaphysical trappings similar to that of steel-string legend John Fahey, California native de Grassi moves ably from dense chordal work to vibrantly ornamented lines. Ethnic touches abound: The urgent motion of "36" is undercut with sunny flamenco gestures, while Brazilian bossa inform the taut rhythms and key changes of "Cumulus," foreshadowing de Grassi's later Bolivian influences. While it's hard to separate acoustic guitar's early-'80s reinvention from the hands of the late innovator Michael Hedges, Southern Exposure reveals de Grassi as an integral part of that creative cauldron, and his work has dated little--still proof that meditative moods can coexist with accomplished instrumental skill. --James Rotondi