Otis Grand and I had been working on this project for a few years before his untimely death. What we have here is a part of a magnificent body of work. Otis was guitarist, producer, bandleader, songwriter and key figure on the blues scene.

In the mid 1980s I was busy touring some great U.S. Blues acts in the U.K. when out of nowhere comes this American guitarist. Otis Grand became the biggest thing on the British circuit and in Europe too. Later we spent time at the first Burnley Blues Festival. Otis had the headlining spot and it's that show which is Disc A here released in its entirety. Our first artistic collaboration was the Guitar Shorty album. Otis was the perfect bandleader to back Shorty playing real blues, not 'commercial' or blues/rock. Next came legend Phillip Walker - Texas Blues with an L.A. twist. And then Joe Houston who virtually invented honking tenor. We also have Otis with Joe Louis Walker at the top of their game.

Otis Grand was a man and artist much more than the sum of his parts and talents. Otis was Lebanese/American and a many faceted person who had roots in different cultures. It is our luck and honour that one of them was the Blues.

John Stedman