The Early Years
Stefan George came from a music loving family. His mother Emilie George plays early classical music and is an international folk singer and guitarist. She specialized in French folk music and the French diaspora in America, making two record albums for the Folkways label of Moses Asch that are now available through the Smithsonian Audio Catalogue.

Early Music
He was born in Detroit, but moved to the Mid-Hudson Valley in the early 60's. There he took up the guitar at age eleven and started playing in local garage bands. His group played all the available venues for under age musicians, VFW halls, Veteran's Hospitals, Grange Halls, High School "Battle of the Bands", and even prisons. 

Pete Seeger
With Pete Seeger living nearby, he accompanied Emilie to many outdoor festivals and fund raisers for Seeger's "Clearwater" project, a successful grassroots campaign to clean up the Hudson River. Occassionaly, he found himself backing or singing with Pete and met a budding folk singer/songwriter named Don McLean at one such event, years before his "American Pie" fame. He also formed a band in High School named "Lucius" which played instrumental jazz fusion music, and had a small, but devoted following.

The Blues and NYC
Taken by the spell of the old original bluesmen being rediscovered at Newport and other important folk festivals of the day, he began to seriously study the acoustic blues styles of John Hurt, Brownie McGee, Doc Watson, and the Reverend Gary Davis in the mid 60's. Attending NYU in the early 70's, he had the opportunity to see many of his heroes in person in Greenwich Village and to audition at some of the famous clubs there.

Travel – Europe and A Turkish Band
Stefan left school to embark on a six month trip to Europe and beyond, hitchhiking with backpack and guitar and supporting himself playing in cafe's and bars along the way. He finally wound up in Turkey, where he had a house gig in Ankara with a Turkish band playing five nights a week and six hours a night, backing a Vegas style Turkish ballad singer and a sword dancer. Upon his return to the states, he headed west to the San Francisco Bay area, again playing cafe's and open mikes. It was there he met his life mate, Lavinia White.

Stefan & Lavinia
Lavinia and Stefan moved to Arizona that Fall and took up an apprenticeship in pottery together, while still making music at private parties and ranch functions. He did a brief run of "The Spoon River Anthology" in Tubac as the play's sole musician. The couple moved to Tucson in '76 to start their own pottery business, and it was in this rich creative town he began to make musical associations that led to his first professional band.

The Swingtones
Stefan formed The Swingtones with Tim Barrett, George Liggins, and Ken Erickson. The band played all over the region and became a hit on the wedding circuit. He also did his first pro recording with them. After holding down a series of house gigs at resorts and clubs, the band broke up and Stefan and Lavinia founded another more outrageous group.

Brain Damage Orchestra – A 10 Year Run
The Brain Damage Orchestra was an eight piece, world beat dance band, featuring mostly original tunes written and arranged by Stefan, who sang lead and played lead guitar, lap steel, and timbale, with Lavinia on alto sax and backing vocals. "Brain Damage" was the right band at the right time and they exploded on the Tucson scene. They broke club attendance records all over town and played dozens of music festivals and concerts, opening for the likes of Queen Ida, Clifton Chenier Jr., Big Twist and the Mellow Fellows, and many more. They had a prolific recording output of six releases in their ten year life span.

Songtower
With the songwriting experience of that group under his belt, Stefan returned to the acoustic guitar and formed Songtower, a singing band with Lavinia and Jan Daley. He wrote all the material and delved into his country blues roots to make lyrical and complex guitar arrangements, with the rhythm section of Jay Trapp and Will Clipman. This group also attracted a lot of attention and went on to win TAMMIE Awards (Tucson Area Music Awards) for Best Acoustic Ensemble, Best Songwriter, and Best Acoustic Guitarist for several years. They also released three highly acclaimed CD's on the Blue Bhikku record label. They performed at the Tucson Folk Festival, Kerrville Folk Festival, and SXSW (South By Southwest) as featured artists and opened for David Wilcox, Loudon Wainwright lll, John Martyn, and Norman & Nancy Blake.

Stefan solo and as a duo with Lavinia
In more recent times, Stefan has become a serious solo, slide guitarist, acoustic blues musician, often accompanied by Lavinia on backing vocals. He's opened for or appeared on stage with a virtual who's who of acoustic blues artists including: Mose Allison, James Cotton, Rory Block, Junior Lockwood, Honey Boy Edwards, Guy Davis, Dave Van Ronk, Eric Bibb, John Hammond, Taj Mahal, Elvin Bishop, Little Feat, Steve James, Del Ray, Paul Geremia, John Jackson, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Beau Soliel, Left Over Salmon, and Gov't Mule, to name but a few.

Festivals
He's played a multitude of blues festivals like the Mesa Blues Blast, Lawton, OK International Festival, the Payson Blues Fest, the Bisbee Blues Fest, the Tucson Blues Fest, The Silver City NM Blues Fest, the Ruidoso NM Blues Fest, the Telluride Blues and Blues Fest in CO, the Bluzapalooza in Mammouth Lakes, CA, the Leverkusen Jazz Fest, Verden Jazz Tage, and Mettamnn Blues Woche in Germany. 

Hawaiian Concerts and German Tours
He's also performed at the prestigious Atherton Hall in Honolulu, Hawaii to a sold out house three times and toured Germany and Europe five times. His blues rock trio "The Conrads" has also accompanied him to Germany and released three CD's for the Music Network label in Bremen.

Teaching
Stefan is a teacher as well and has done workshops on blues guitar and songwriting in a seven states as well teaching private lessons at home in Tucson. His solo/duo recording releases include six recent CD's. He's also done "live" radio broadcasts in Germany, Hawaii, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, and for Beale Street Caravan, a syndicated program to over 200 stations worldwide.

BK Special with Bobby Kimmel
Currently, Stefan performs solo or duo with Lavinia, plays with his electric trio The Conrads, and is a member of the acoustic trio BK Special with Lavinia and Bobby Kimmel. That group just released their debut CD which includes a guest vocal appearance by Linda Ronstadt.

The AZ Blues Hall of Fame
He also recently released a CD compilation of festival performances with his mother Emilie George. Stefan is honored to be a member of the Arizona Blues Hall of Fame and the Tucson Musicans Hall of Fame.

Blue House
Who knows what the future holds, but Stefan continues to grow and develop his talents as a songwriter, singer, and guitarist and remains as committed and prolific as ever. His last CD release is titled "Blue House", a collection of twelve original country/bluegrass songs performed with a band of excellent Tucson musicians. His CD's are available on www.cdbaby.com.