Earl Klugh, an acoustic guitarist recognized for his appealing tone, has never regarded himself as a jazz musician and instead regards Chet Atkins as his foremost influence. At fifteen he contributed to a Yusef Lateef album, then earned wider notice in 1971 through his playing on George Benson’s White Rabbit. He performed regularly alongside Benson in 1973, spent a brief period with Return to Forever in 1974, and began leading his own sessions by the mid-’70s. After issuing a pair of favorably received solo albums on separate Capitol imprints, including Blue Note, he achieved commercial success with the 1979 release One on One, a Grammy-winning partnership with pianist Bob James. Additional solo projects appeared before the follow-up Two of a Kind arrived in 1982. Changing labels in 1984, he delivered one of his most popular recordings, Soda Fountain Shuffle, on Warner Bros. His strongest artistic statement to that point came in 1989 with the aptly titled Solo Guitar. Two years later he revisited the “serious jazz” repertoire of that album, this time joined by bassist Ralphe Armstrong and drummer Gene Dunlap on the acoustic bebop set The Earl Klugh Trio, Vol. 1. Cool, issued in 1992, again paired him with Bob James and preceded three further smooth releases on the Warner Bros. roster before he moved to Windham Hill for 1999’s Peculiar Situation. Compilations, live albums, guest appearances, and reissues occupied the years leading to 2005’s Naked Guitar, a stripped-down, standards-heavy album issued by the Koch label. The Spice of Life followed in 2008. For the next four years Klugh concentrated on touring and producing his Weekend of Jazz concerts at the Broadmoor Hotel & Resort in Colorado Springs and the Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina. He resumed recording in 2013; the resulting album, Hand Picked, appeared on Heads Up that summer and included guest contributions from Bill Frisell, Vince Gill, and Jake Shimabukuro.
