Kanahwa County Flatpicking

Kanawha County Flatpicking (Grant Central Records, 2018) is a two-guitar duet album from Tyler Grant and Robin Kessinger, recorded in a West Virginia cabin with the informal feel of a session between equals. Grant plays guitar; Kessinger plays guitar, both singing throughout. The album takes its name from Kessinger's home territory — he is a grandnephew of legendary old-time fiddler Clark Kessinger and a nine-time Winfield National Flatpicking Championship finalist. Grant, who won the same Winfield title in 2008, brings a Colorado-rooted bluegrass approach that complements Kessinger's Appalachian old-time grounding. The repertoire — Kessinger family fiddle tunes transferred to flatpicking guitar, Celtic pieces, and bluegrass songs including Monroe's "Farewell to Long Hollow" — presents two distinct regional guitar traditions in productive conversation across the album's eleven tracks.