The Three Kingdoms

Stefan Grossman, John Renbourn | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Shanachie
• ASIN: B000000E8S
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #475,661 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Produced by Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones in 1987, this is the third studio album that John Renbourn and Stefan Grossman recorded together. It features original compositions as well as unique arrangements of Thelonious Monk's Round Midnight and Dollar Brand's Cherry. The music ranges further - from a Bach minuet to an ode to Charlie Mingus to the folk favorite Old Gloryland. A diverse and exciting album by two of the foremost fingerstyle guitarists in the world. This is an enhanced CD that features a PDF tab/music of all the arrangements. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Acoustic Guitar. A bit monochromatic, June 15, 2005

By 

B. Marold "Bruce W. Marold" (Bethlehem, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Three Kingdoms (Audio CD)

`The Three Kingdoms' with John Renbourn & Stefan Grossman and `Jerry Garcia / David Grisman', both released in 1991 continue a great tradition of superstar duet albums. In fact, John Renbourn may be the all time star of this genre, having done issues with Grossman, Robin Williamson, and the very notable 1960's album with Burt Jansch.

Grossman is also no slouch at duets, as my first encounter with his music was on another 1960's duet album paired with Danny Kalb which specialized in acoustic blues pieces. I was so pleased at discovering this album that I made a point of attending Stephan Grossman's performance at the Bethlehem Musikfest in 1986 or 1987 in the pouring rain. As there were but three people in the audience, Mr. Grossman had us all pull our chairs up from the open air house to the covered stage where he performed for at least 40 minutes of his 50 minute set. I point this out simply to indicate that Stephan Grossman is a nice man as well as being an exceptionally accomplished musician.

As I play none of the instruments on which these four very important musicians perform and my only claim to knowing anything about their music is that I have listened to a lot of it over the years, my primary source of insight is to compare two similar albums to determine why one may prefer one to the other.

For starters, `The Three Kingdoms' is entirely instrumental, entirely acoustic, and almost entirely collected from compositions by the two named performers. Both Grossman and Renbourn are playing guitar on most cuts. And, almost all cuts are guitar duets with, I imagine, the composer taking the lead part on each tune.

In contrast, the `Garcia / Grisman' album mixes instrumentals with several vocals from Garcia. It also mixes compositions by Garcia and Grisman with pieces by Hawkins-Darnell, Irving Berlin, Hoagy Carmichael, and `traditional'. Garcia performs on guitar while Grisman performs on mandolin. Thus, this album has a much wider range of styles and textures in the music.

My very novice ear for technical skill says that the instrumental work on the two albums is very close, with a slight edge going to Grossman and Renbourn.

As I have bought both and enjoy both albums, I have to believe there is very little to choose between the two unless you happen to be an avid Grateful Dead Fan or an avid Pentangle / John Renbourn fan. If you simply happen to like good guitar music, buy them both. They are certainly closer to the tastes of the general audience than similar recordings by Robin Williamson.