Fred Sokolow's name is well-known to guitarists because he's the author of over a hundred guitar instruction books and DVDs that are sold worldwide. A versatile "musician's musician," he's often seen playing jazz guitar and singing in LA nightspots, and he's just as likely to turn up playing 5-string banjo at bluegrass festivals or rock or slide guitar at studio sessions. You may even spot him playing Dobro or mandolin on those folk revivals seen on cable and public television. Besides soloing as a jazz guitarist/vocalist, Fred has fronted his own jazz, bluegrass and rock bands (including the 60s Bay Area hippie band, "Notes From the Underground"). He has also toured with Bobbie Gentry, Jim Stafford, Tom Paxton, the Limeliters and Ian Whitcomb...always armed with an arsenal of stringed instruments. He has played in such diverse clubs and concert halls as the Fillmore, the Fairmount Hotel and the Boarding House in San Francisco, the Denver Folklore Center, The Alladin, Sahara and Harrah's in Vegas, Tahoe and Reno, and the Coffee Gallery, UCLA’s Royce Hall and McCabe's in LA. There is a jazz CD, a jazz performance DVD and a bluegrass CD that showcase Sokolow's incredible technique, all of which received excellent reviews in the US and Europe. As articulate in person as he is in print, Sokolow presents guitar and banjo seminars across the US. You can read reviews of these seminars and of his instructional books and tapes in Guitar Player and other music magazines. If you think Sokolow still isn't versatile enough, know that he accompanied a Russian balalaika virtuoso at the swank Bonaventure Hotel in LA, won the Gong Show, played lap steel on the Tonight Show, picked Dobro with Chubby Checker, played mandolin on Rick James' last CD,and was the official banjo player for "The Survivor" TV show. His playing has been heard on numerous TV shows, commercials and feature films, including the recent Bogdanovitch movie “The Cat’s Meow.” Anyone who loves jazz standards and great guitar and sax playing (the great LA-based Mike Rose is very present here) will love this album. Fred's jazz vocals are very likeable and warm, and his chord-style soloing is unique and very musical.