Craig Ventresco - Past Is Yet to Come [CD]

Acoustic guitarist Craig Ventresco's style is a unique combination of ragtime, rural blues, early jazz guitar and traditional string band influences. His playing is at once fiery, melodic and inventive. Ventresco's tastes are unfettered by music in the modern era; he has instead concentrated on early 20th Century vaudeville, ragtime, and popular songs as recorded on obscure 78s and cylinders from the dawn of recorded music. This CD includes music written by Eubie Blake, Scott Joplin, Big Bill Broonzy, James Scott, Lucky Roberts, and a Ventresco original as well. He learns most of his repertoire by ear, and his raucous yet sensitive playing style is a welcome alternative to the scholarly, delicate approach that usually characterizes ragtime guitar recordings.