Album Notes

"Postcards is a very versatile album with varied skilled techniques, brilliant melody lines, appealing moods of a superb guitarist who knows to absorb a listener."

Henk te Veldhuis
Bridge Guitar Reviews (www.xs4all.nl/~guitars/)

San Francisco guitarist Teja Gerken is pleased to announce the release of his second CD, Postcards. A collection of solo compositions for acoustic fingerstyle guitar, the album continues the direction of Gerken's critically acclaimed debut, On My Way (1999, LifeRhythm Music). A tireless advocate of the genre-he hosts a monthly Acoustic Guitar Showcase at San Francisco's Bazaar Café, frequently introduces international talent to local audiences, and writes for Acoustic Guitar magazine-Gerken has chosen to use the opportunity of a new release to offer a glimpse into the current state of the Bay Area fingerstyle guitar scene. In this spirit, Postcards features originals, as well as tunes penned by five of Gerken's local colleagues: fingerpicking legends Duck Baker and Dale Miller, Celtic guitar sensation Steve Baughman, San Francisco Guitar Quartet member Patrick Francis, and bluesman Pete Madsen.
Recorded with steel-string, classical, and 12-string guitars, Postcards blends myriad influences into a musical style that hovers around the perimeters of folk, contemporary classical, and world music. As true solo instrumental pieces (captured without overdubs), the album's compositions highlight the polyphonic qualities of fingerstyle guitar in a beautifully intimate recording.

ABOUT TEJA GERKEN
Born in Germany in 1970, Teja Gerken began his journey on the guitar at the age of six and became a serious student of the instrument after his family moved to California in the mid-'80s.
Today, Teja is no stranger to those familiar with contemporary steel-string fingerstyle guitar. Weaving together influences of folk, jazz, classical, and world music into a style that is uniquely his own, Teja's playing reflects his diverse musical interests. While many of his compositions employ alternate tunings, two-handed tapping, percussive effects, and other extended guitar techniques, others simply rely on his keen sense of melody and movement.
Teja has shared the stage with such guitar visionaries as John Renbourn, Alex de Grassi, Peter Finger, and Henry Kaiser, as well as with his mentors, Duck Baker and Peppino D'Agostino.