A SELKIRK music club is celebrating their 20th anniversary with a concert to remember.

The String Jam Club is kicking off with a special weekend featuring a South African guitarist.

Derek Gripper is fast becoming one of the most celebrated guitarists on the planet. 

Grammy Award Winner John Williams has said that what Gripper does is ”absolutely impossible!” and is one of the most interesting things he has heard on guitar in 20 years. They have shared the stage together in sold out shows around the world.

At the String Jam Club, Derek will be playing a solo show of dazzling musical beauty. 

The 38-year-old started on violin at aged six then wound up with one of the few classical-guitar professors in his native South Africa. 

Derek’s latest release ‘Libraries on Fire’ is an album’s worth of duets for solo guitar, essentially transposing somewhere between 44 and 46 strings onto six! 

The String Jam Club’s ethos has always been that “magic happens in small spaces” and over its long career, audiences have travelled from far and wide to witness world-class musicians playing live and up close in its intimate and friendly atmosphere. 

Club organiser Allie Fox said: "At String Jam Club Derek will be playing a solo show of dazzling beauty. He has scaled musical Everest by doing something no one has ever even considered attempting, and with incredible results.

"Obsessed by the African traditional instrument, the kora - a 21 string West African lute made out of cowhide – and consumed by heritage music from around the African continent, Derek has managed not only to arrange these traditional songs for the acoustic guitar, but has brought with it the intensity, subtleties and authenticity of the cultures that gave this music its birth.

"For 15 years his passion for the kora, in particular for the music of the great Malian player Toumani Diabaté, drove him to achieve this “staggering achievement on solo guitar.

"Derek Gripper decided that his destiny was to play kora music on the guitar. By using unusual tunings and fretting the strings up and down the neck with his left hand, he evokes the West African instrument's multiple voices simultaneously.

"The miracle is that he figured all of this out just by listening to CDs and checking out music online. None of the original music was written down anywhere, it was passed down through the generations as part of an oral tradition.

"Gripper painstakingly transcribed what he heard onto tablature with the blessing of the most revered kora player alive, Toumani Diabate.  Derek has even recorded an album’s worth of kora duets for solo guitar, essentially transposing somewhere between 44 and 46 strings onto six! 

"Single-handedly he has managed to record one of the most undocumented and vital musical histories on the planet for future generations to study, and in doing so he has made a genuine contribution to the world of music. For this alone, Gripper deserves serious credit."

Allie added: "Derek is without doubt technically brilliant but What really shines through is the beauty of the music, its cascading melodies and rhythms, and the power of Derek’s emotions as he pours his heart out through his guitar. It is an intensely moving experience, and a wonderful way to start to launch our 20th year of bringing the best live acoustic music to the Borders.” 

The String Jam Club will be performing the concert at The County Hotel, 1-5 High Street, Selkirk, TD7 4BZ.

Tickets cost £13, and are available from the venue by calling 01750 721233 (50p card transaction fee), tickets will be reserved for collection on the night. Doors open at 7.30pm.