Biography

Geoff Hansplant plays a groove centered style of Piedmont Blues guitar and writes songs exploring every facet of the human condition. His latest album, "Pilgrim's Progress," examines the journey of life from many different sides. Love, loss, faith, self-realization, hope and death all make their due appearances. The tunes are presented in a loose format of guitar, bass, drums, vocals and occasionally violin, but always with a driving groove at the heart of the song.
Geoff has been playing guitar for well over thirty years and came to the blues in a roundabout fashion, starting as a progressive rock oriented guitarist in the mid seventies. His early influences included the Beatles, Moody Blues, Procul Harum and Pink Floyd. But it was the explosion of English folk music in the late sixties and early seventies with artists like Lindisfarne, Fairport Convention, Pentangle, the Strawbs and Steeleye Span which eventually turned him toward roots music. Seeking out his own country's heritage, he moved backward in time from Hot Tuna and Taj Mahal to Reverend Gary Davis, Blind Blake, Jesse Fuller, Willie McTell and the ragtime era of New Orleans. This music has become his passion and it is his mission to bring the sound and feel of this music to new generations of listeners with a mixture of the classic repertoire and original material which weds the roots of yesterday's music to the psychology of the 21st century person.
"Pilgrim's Progress" is a collection of original songs, professionally recorded at the Forge Recording Studios in Oreland, Pennsylvania. On the album, Geoff blends foot stomping blues with intricate fingerstyle guitar and tosses in some ragtime soloing and contemporary folk for good measure. In January of 2011, "Pilgrim's Progress" was named Album of the Month on LLew Garner's Blues Show on RadioWarrington in the UK and has been heard across Europe and in many American markets. "Signs and Wonders" has been featured on Gerrit Caspers' "Goodno(i)se Radio" out of the Netherlands and "Under A Winter Moon" has been featured on the NPR syndicated show, "Undercurrents."
Visit Geoff's website (www.geoffhansplant.com) for more information and song lyrics. "Pilgrim's Progress" is available through Amazon.com, Itunes, CDBaby, and about fifty other retailers world-wide.