Stefan Grossman (born April 16, 1945) is an American acoustic fingerstyle guitarist and singer, music producer and educator, and co-founder of Kicking Mule records. He is known for his instructional videos and Vestapol line of videos and DVDs.

Early life and influences

Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Herbert and Ruth Grossman. Grossman described his upbringing, in Queens, New York, as "lower middle-class", and his parents as "very leftist", valuing education and the arts. He began playing guitar at the age of nine, 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 nine and eleven, 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, Lead Belly, Josh White, Lightnin' Hopkins, Rev. Gary Davis, Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Boy Fuller, Son House, Charlie Patton, Skip James, Blind Blake, Blind Lemon Jefferson and Woody Guthrie.

Silver Swan may refer to:

The Silver Swan is an automaton dating from the 18th Century and is housed in the Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, Teesdale, County Durham, England. It was acquired by John Bowes, the museum's founder from a Parisian jeweler in 1872.

The swan, which is life size, is a clockwork driven device that includes a music box. The swan sits in a "stream" that is made of glass rods and is surrounded by silver leaves. Small silver fish can be seen "swimming" in the stream.

When the clockwork is wound the music box plays and the glass rods rotate giving the illusion of flowing water. The swan turns its head from side to side and also preens itself. After a few moments the swan notices the swimming fish and bends down to catch and eat one. The swan's head then returns to the upright position and the performance, which has lasted about 32 seconds, is over. To help preserve the mechanism the swan is only operated once each day at 2pm.

The mechanism was designed and built by John Joseph Merlin (1735-1803) in conjunction with the London inventor James Cox (1723–1800) in 1773.

The Silver Swan is a fictional character appearing in DC Comics publications and related media. A major adversary of Wonder Woman, the Swan possesses the superhuman ability to fly, as well as to generate a destructive sonic cry. She first appeared in 1982 in Wonder Woman #288 (volume 1), written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Gene Colan. Since then, the character has undergone several updates as comic book continuities have evolved and shifted. Indeed, there have been three different Silver Swans since the character's debut, including Helen Alexandros, the original Silver Swan; Valerie Beaudry, the second Silver Swan, debuting in 1988 in Wonder Woman #15 (volume 2); and Vanessa Kapatelis, the third Silver Swan, debuting in 2001 in Wonder Woman #171 (volume 2). The backstories of all three characters are inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale The Ugly Duckling; similar to the tale's titular protagonist, Alexandros, Beaudry and Kapetelis all believe they are undesirable or unwanted, only to find themselves transformed into extraordinarily beautiful (and vengeful) super-powered women.