Pass Terry Robb on a Portland street, and you probably wouldn’t look twice at this soft-spoken, serious-minded guy who easily blends in with the crowd. Catch him in the middle of a gig, however, and you’ll find a passionate, precise player whose ability to grind out hot shot licks makes for a commanding onstage presence. It’s like watching Clark Kent turn into Superman.

Terry Robb has released seven CDs. He first came under the spell of the guitar as a kid; his uncle, a professional swing musician, tutored him in ragtime, blues, country, and jazz.

In the early 1980s, Robb struck up a friendship with John Fahey, who asked him to produce and play on several of Fahey’s recordings. One of these, Let Go, was cited by Rolling Stone as one of the top three releases of 1983, alongside Prince’s Purple Rain and Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA.

In the 1990s, Terry moved to focus on his own career. He toured nationally with rocker Steve Miller, appeared on the Conan O’Brien Show and, in the studio, contributed to a number of Grammy and Emmy award-winning projects.

Along the way, Terry's reputation grew. As he began cultivating an style that combined traditional blues elements with more licks drawn from the jazz world he developed a following of his own, winning the Cascade Blues Association’s Muddy Award a record eighteen times.

Terry will be at the 2007 Port Townsend Slide and Steel Festival, teaching, jamming, and telling stories. He'll take to the stage at McCurdy Pavilion on Saturday, June 30, at 1:30 pm. Following him will be Stacy Phillips, Bobby Black, Joe Wright, and Marley's Ghost.