Cited as one of the world’s top fingerstyle, steel-string acoustic guitarists, Alex de Grassi makes his only Boston area appearance at the Me&Thee. De Grassi is widely known for his innovative and unique guitar artistry. His original compositions as well as his distinctive interpretations of others’ work are applauded all over the globe.

Guitar aficionados have had the pleasure of listening to de Grassi recordings since his Windham Hill debut entitled “Turning: Turning Back” in 1978. Acoustic Guitar magazine cites this album among the top ten essential fingerstyle recordings. By the time de Grassi’s second album, “Slow Circles,” was released, he was firmly launched into a career as one of the most innovative fingerstyle guitarists and composers of guitar music. Born in Yokosuka, Japan and raised in San Francisco, Alex was exposed to many different styles of music throughout his childhood. His own musical adventures started off with the trumpet, but by age 13 he clearly selected the guitar as his instrument of choice. Largely self-taught, de Grassi’s main influences were John Renbourn, Leo Kottke, and John Fahey.

In his 14 recordings, Alex has explored an incredible variety of musical idioms including folk, jazz, and world music. He has consistently gained high praise as a pioneer and innovator in the solo guitar genre. “His touch is as exquisite as his lyricism, and his improvisational / compositional consciousness is a intricate and subtle as a sparkling crystal,” says Down Beat magazine. Alex’s tenth recording, “The Water Garden,” garnered both Grammy and Indie Award nominations and was named Crossroads magazine’s Best Acoustic Instrumental Recording of the year. Another of de Grassi’s albums, “Shortwave Postcard,” received the distinction of being chosen as one of Acoustic Guitar’s Top CDs of 2002.

De Grassi’s lastest release, “Now and Then: Folk Songs for the 21st Century” is an exceptional offering. He takes 11 tunes that are firmly ingrained in American hearts and souls and makes them his own by arranging them in a contemporary manner. When recording this sumptuous CD, de Grassi came to the realization that many of America’s most well-known folk songs resonated with their own individual cultural and musical overtones. He says, “Many of those songs that we tend to think of as American, and I say that in the North American sense, have melodies derived from two main currents: the British Isles and the Afro-American tradition — blues, gospel, spirituals, and so forth.” DeGrassi takes the original songs as written but then manages to spin them into an even more diverse international pastiche full of magical bossa-nova, reggae, samba and rhythm and blues touches. Vintage Guitar lauds de Grassi’s arrangements as “nothing short of brilliant.”