Album Notes

It was a time when every kid with a guitar wanted to be either Bob Dylan or a Beatle. Ted Estersohn was busy hanging with Mississippi John Hurt, Doc Watson, and Jerry Ricks. Philadelphia during the Great Folk Scare of the 60's was fertile ground for such pursuits and the blues muse ran deep with Ted. Before the age of 21, he had played with such blues greats as Son House, Bonnie Raitt, Miss. Fred McDowell, Mance Lipscomb, and John Jackson.
[Web only bonus: hear a sample of Ted backing Mississippi Fred McDowell at http://www.wavechair.com/download.html#McDowell]

Over the decades a wide-ranging musical curiosity has taken Ted to ragtime guitar, klezmer and Cajun, New Orleans, Russian, Italian, classical, swing, and jazz; picking up some mandolin, banjo, and fiddle along the way. Yet somehow, the blues has stayed closest to his heart, a certain rhythmic touch, a sliding and snapping of strings, a habit of viewing the world in twelve bars that insinuates itself even into more abstract moods laden with counterpoint and modern harmony.

On his new CD Root and Branch (Wave Chair CD 777) Ted Estersohn brings it all back home---bottleneck blues and fancy fingerpicking; blues original and traditional, some heartfelt, some humorous; a little jazz and even a bluesy take on an old modal mountain tune.

While most of the album reflects what one guy in a chair can do on a stage, there is an occasional overdubbed mandolin, tenor banjo, or mandocello. On the St. James Infirmary, they all come together as The Greater South Philadelphia String Quartet Glee and Perloo Society.

Ted Estersohn Root and Branch; still growing, still spreading, still playing the blues


Ted is the archetypical funky revivalist blues guitarist! He is well known in Philly from his work with the Wild Bohemians and countless solo performances over the past two [sic] decades. He is also an exciting slide/bottleneck guitarist, strongly influenced by Son House. His performances combine the skills of a musicologist with those of a minstrel show interlocutor...GOOD STUFF!!!!!
Steve Senderoff --- The Bothy Folk Club