With inspirations ranging from Andrés Segovia to Mississippi John Hurt, Ed Gerhard is one of the masters of the steel string fingerstyle guitar. A Philadelphia native, now residing in New Hampshire, Ed was inspired by late guitarist John Fahey to develop his own compositional voice. The Boston Globe writes, "Ed does not write instrumentals. He writes songs that only a guitar can sing." Melodic and cliché-free, his lush playing goes in unexpected directions, conveying classic sensibilities or inflections of the blues. Ed, who can be heard on recordings by Arlo Guthrie and Bill Morrissey, has just released his seventh album, a collection of live performances which he calls "my own private bootleg," featuring evocative solo works for 6 string,12 string, slide guitar, Hawaiian lap steel, and electric mando-guitar.