Terry Robb

Name: Terry Robb
Start: 2026-06-05T20:00:00-07:00
Location: Talent Club

Schedule

Fri, 05 Jun, 2026 at 08:00 pm

UTC-07:00

Location

Talent Club | Talent, OR

Terry Robb is hailed as a blues guitar virtuoso and one of the finest acoustic guitarists on the international scene. His signature fingerpicking style has earned him international acclaim from worldwide audiences, esteemed music critics and his distinguished peers. Incorporating elements from Delta blues, ragtime, country, swing and jazz, Robb has built a unique blues sound that has made him a legend in his prolific music career spanning four decades.

The multitude of awards Terry Robb has received speak to his seminal talent as a blues guitarist. Robb has been inducted into both the Oregon Music Hall of Fame and the Cascade Blues Association Hall of Fame. He single-handedly defined the Muddy Award for Best Acoustic Guitar, winning the prize for 19 consecutive years from its inception in 1992. In 2011, the award was renamed the “Terry Robb" Acoustic Guitar Muddy Award to honor his landmark contributions to blues music. In 2017, he received the Muddy Award for Lifetime Achievement. And Robb’s latest album, Confessin’ My Dues, garnered him a 2020 Blues Music Award nomination for Acoustic Blues Album.

Robb was born in British Columbia, raised in the United States and resides in Portland, Oregon. He achieved greatness at an early age, performing with Ramblin’ Rex of Frank Zappa / Captain Beefheart fame, Canned Heat’s Henry Vestine, and steel-string guitar icon John Fahey. At age 24, Robb’s collaboration with Fahey led him to produce several of Fahey’s critically-acclaimed recordings, including Let Go which earned Fahey a four-star review by Rolling Stone. As an acclaimed producer and session guitarist, Terry Robb has contributed to numerous award-winning projects, including Alice Stuart’s Grammy- and Blues Music Award-nominated album Can’t Find No Heaven.

With more than 15 albums under his name, Robb’s award-winning, blues-chart topping discography features collaborations with John Fahey, Eddy “The Chief” Clearwater, Maria Muldaur, Ike Willis (Frank Zappa) and Curtis Salgado. His albums have soared to #1 on the Living Blues Radio Report and charted in the Billboard Blues Album Chart, IBBA Blues Album Chart (UK) and Roots Music Report Blues Chart. He has performed as a solo artist at festivals, theaters and clubs across the United States, Canada and Europe; toured with John Fahey, Buddy Guy, Steve Miller and Robin Trower, and shared the stage with B.B. King, Albert Lee, Joe Cocker, Bo Diddley, John Hiatt, David Crosby, George Thorogood, Leo Kottke, Johnny Winter and countless more all-stars. He has appeared as a guest of “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” the NBA Trail Blazers and the Oregon Symphony.
Steeped in Americana ethnomusicology, Robb is a sought-after educator, giving workshops and master classes in fingerstyle and slide guitar at universities, festivals and arts organizations across the United States and Canada. He is featured in numerous films, TV programs, books and articles profiling American roots and blues music and the luminaries with whom he has worked. These include “Game of Thrones,” “The Horse Whisperer,” "Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot," "Portland Mojo: How Stumptown Got the Blues," and Dance of Death: The Life of John Fahey, American Guitarist.
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Selected Reviews
“The matter is clear: Terry Robb is one of our finest acoustic guitarists today. He’s not just technically sublime; he plays with unrestrained passion that you will feel deep down inside.” Frank Mathis, Living Blues magazine, reviewing Confessin’ My Dues
“It is impossible to overstate the significance and sheer delight of this outstanding, clever and creative album from a true blues legend at the top of his game.” - The Bishop, Blues Matters magazine, reviewing Confessin’ My Dues
"As if to remind us of his virtuosity, he opens with a jaw-dropping instrumental, “Butch Holler Stomp”. He follows that with a very different but equally amazing “Still On 101”...“Now Vestapol” is an instrumental medley, one of whose pieces is the traditional “Prodigal Son” by Rev. Robert Wilkins, which may well be the best played version you’ll ever hear..." - John Valenteyn, Toronto Blues Society, reviewing Confessin’ My Dues
“One of the best players, on acoustic and electric, embracing a range of blues styles and then some.” - Dan Forte, Vintage Guitar magazine, reviewing Cool On The Bloom
“A bonafide blues guitar star.” – Mark Bialczak, The Post-Standard, live at the New York State Blues Festival
“What distinguishes this LP is Robb’s superb production.” - Kurt Loder, Rolling Stone, reviewing Let Go by John Fahey
"It's the rare guitarist who can whip off a killer 12-bar blues solo, then turn around and fingerpick Travis-style with speed and subtlety. Yet Portland, Oregon, guitarist and singer Terry Robb does just that." - Ian Zack, Acoustic Guitar magazine, excerpt from “Roots Player Spotlight”
“Eight Acoustic Blues Masters…from classic masters to current blues wizards, here we’ve rounded up an inspiring assembly of blues masters really laying it down on acoustic guitar…Buddy Guy, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix, Tommy Emmanuel...and Terry Robb. – Acoustic Nation, Guitar World
"Much of the blues press places Robb at the top of the heap of acoustic and electric pickers globally....a force to be reckoned with." - Tee Watts, Blues Blast, reviewing Cool On The Bloom
“From the first listen, Robb's guitar playing can blow you away...he's a favorite player in the Northwest, and a former buddy of John Fahey. Then it all makes sense.” - John Heidt, Vintage Guitar magazine
Whether sliding or fingerpicking, his technique is clean and articulate; no matter how busy the material gets...it never sounds crowded or overblown." - Genevieve Williams, Blues Revue
"Much to the delight of the crowd, [Steve] Miller took the stage halfway through the Curtis Salgado-Terry Robb set and joined in on acoustic guitar. He picked some and grinned a lot but mostly seemed content playing rhythm behind Robb's searing blues finger-picking...Robb is a virtuoso on the acoustic blues guitar." - Don Hamilton, The Oregonian, live at the Chiles Center, Portland, Ore.