An American acoustic fingerstyle guitarist and singer, music producer and educator, and co-founder of Kicking Mule Records.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, he began playing guitar at the age of 9, when his father bought him a Harmony f-hole acoustic guitar. Later he moved on to an archtop Gibson guitar which he played between the ages of 9 and 11, taking lessons and learning to read music. For a few years, he gave up playing but resumed again at the age of 15.

Grossman's interest in the folk revival was sparked by attending the Washington Square Park 'Hoots' and he started listening to old recordings of artists such as Elizabeth Cotten, Big Bill Broonzy, Lightnin' Hopkins and Woody Guthrie. He took guitar lessons for several years from Rev. Gary Davis and spent many hours learning and documenting Davis's music, recording much of it on a tape recorder and developing a form of tablature to take down his teacher's instructions.

In the folk and country blues revival of the 1960s, he began to collect old 78rpm records from the 1920s and 1930s, which brought him into contact with other collectors, including John Fahey and Ed Denson. Collecting the 78s developed into searching for the artists who had recorded them, with many successes: during the mid-1960s, Grossman met, befriended and studied guitar with Mississippi John Hurt, Son House, Skip James, Mississippi Fred McDowell and other major blues artists.

In 1964, Grossman and a group of friends formed the Even Dozen Jug Band. Although they only recorded one album on the Elektra label, other members were also to have successful musical careers, including David Grisman, Steve Katz (Blood, Sweat and Tears), John Sebastian (the Lovin' Spoonful), Joshua Rifkin and Maria Muldaur. Following the demise of the EDJB, Grossman rehearsed for a few months with Janis Joplin and Taj Mahal but the project foundered due to contractual complications. Subsequently he spent about 3 months with the Fugs and a further 4 months with a band called Chicago Loop.

At the same time, however, he was beginning his career as a guitar teacher. With his friend Rory Block he produced and released one of the earliest (if not the very first) guitar instructional albums, How To Play Blues Guitar and began the publication of a 5-volume series of instructional books with Oak Publications called the Oak Anthology of Blues Guitar, drawing on his studies with Rev. Davis and the other older blues artists and on his obsessive listening to old 78s.

Following their publication, Grossman travelled to Europe as a first step on a planned journey to India which was not completed. In London he stayed at first with Eric Clapton whom he had met while in Chicago Loop and met guitarists and singers on the British folk scene including Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Davy Graham and Ralph McTell. He began playing in folk clubs around the country and made his first solo recordings for the Philips/Fontana label (Aunt Molly's Murray Farm and The Gramercy Park Sheikh) and then for the Transatlantic label, including Yazoo Basin Boogie and Ragtime Cowboy Jew. He also travelled widely in Europe and eventually settled in Italy, where he lived for 7 years.

Travelling around Europe for gigs brought him into contact with many other fine guitarists, but few of them had record deals. Grossman saw a niche in the market for solo acoustic guitar records which were accompanied by a tablature book to allow the buyer to try playing the arrangements and, with his friend Ed Denson taking care of the US side of business, founded Kicking Mule Records. Over the next few years KM released albums by such artists as John James, Happy Traum, Ton van Bergeyk, Dave Evans, Peter Finger and the late Sam Mitchell. Grossman also released his own original and instructional albums on KM, which had a major influence on acoustic guitarists in Europe, the UK and the USA. During these years Grossman was also touring as a solo artist and in partnership with John Renbourn and continuing to write and publish instructional books, often accompanied by the then new technology of a cassette tape.

In 1987, Grossman returned to live in the US. He toured much less - at least partly due to a painful back problem - and began to consolidate his various teaching and instructional materials under the roof of one company, Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop, working at first in cooperation with the Shanachie Records company. He was quick to see the potential of video as well as audio as an instructional tool. He also began to acquire concert footage of the old blues and country artists who had been rediscovered in the 1960s and had often made TV appearances; this was the basis of Vestapol Videos, which edited and reissued this footage. Vestapol rapidly expanded to include concert footage from living artists too.

Stefan Grossman resumed touring in 2006, since when he has appeared in Europe and Japan as well as the US. He is a frequent visitor to England (where he has family) and conducts well-attended guitar workshops as well as giving concerts. He remains a market leader in making instructional materials available in many formats, most recently online.