Making Their Own Jam : Pop Music: Guitarists Dan Crary and Beppe Gambetta bring a blend of American and European folk to Shade Tree Stringed Instruments.

What can fans of Dan Crary and Beppe Gambetta expect when the two master flatpickers team-up Sunday at Shade Tree Stringed Instruments in Laguna Niguel?

“A two-guitar extravaganza,” Crary said. “Except for maybe one or two solo tunes, we’re going to play all duet stuff. We’ve done short tours together at least once a year for the past eight years or so, and I think our styles coalesce pretty well.”

Both musicians are disciples of Doc Watson, the influential blind guitar ace from Deep Gap, N.C. The Italian Gambetta’s love affair with American folk music began when he was 11 and heard his first Watson record.

Crary, who plays with Watson on Crary’s 1994 release, “Jammed If I Do,” considers Watson to be ‘one of the Top 10 traditional artists of the 20th century.”

But while they have the same love of Watson, and the two complement each other musically, it is their difference in styles that ignites sparks when they play, said Crary, 59.

“We both play this flatpicking style, which is inherently a punchy, in-your-face, high dynamic kind of approach to (using) the instrument,” said Crary, who has been in the bluegrass bands Sundance and California. “Beppe brings to it this sort of spaghetti flavor. . . . Lots of basil and chili mixed into his playing. . . . Plus, he’s learned a lot of these cross and open tunings, so he plays a whole range of music that is uniquely his own.”

Each musician is interested in moving beyond his roots. Crary also has explored Celtic, flamenco, classical and new age guitar stylings. Gambetta, a chef who published 22 of his favorite dishes in the cookbook “Beppe Cooks! Recipes From the Homeland,” draws from a repertoire of world music, including Italian, Ukrainian, Sardinian, Appalachian and Celtic influences.

“It’s good to know that flatpicking was born in America, but I don’t see why it must stay within any kind of geographic or stylistic borders,” said Gambetta, 44. “Some of my variations on the form have been inspired by unexpected sources, like Hungarian folk melodies.”

Gambetta recently returned to his musical roots for 1997’s ‘Serenata.” Featuring mandolinist Carlo Aonzo, the import-only release re-creates the music of turn-of-the-century Genoa, the northern Italian harbor town where Gambetta was born and still lives. The mix includes traditional folk and classical styles such as mazurkas, tangos, serenades, boleros and czardas.

While rap, rock and pop dominate the charts and airwaves, there is still a core audience devoted to folk music, said Crary, who’s worked as a full-time speech communications professor at Cal State Fullerton since 1974 and has researched bluegrass as a social phenomenon.

“People have this tremendous attachment to roots,” he said. “The other big finding was that there’s this strong sense of community within folk circles. Some vacations are organized around going to folk and bluegrass festivals, where people tend to sit around campfires . . . sharing food and drink. . . . Impromptu jams will form and play into the night. There’s this real, human connection that has become all too rare in modern times.”

It’s been more than two years since Crary’s last release, a collection of reworked seasonal tunes titled “Holiday Guitar” (Sugar Hill Records.) He’s about half done with his next solo album, to be titled “The Renaissance of the Steel-Stringed Guitar.”

In the meantime, Crary enjoys playing live, especially at places such as the Shade Tree, which he calls “an oasis in a sea of electronic music.”

“There was nothing like this when I started out in ‘52,” he said. “This cozy little place is the spine of the acoustic music scene. The support of the owners (Greg and Margie Mirken) for what Beppe and I--and so many others--are doing is such a boost.”

* Dan Crary & Beppe Gambetta play Sunday at Shade Tree Stringed Instruments, 28062 Forbes Road, Laguna Niguel. 5 p.m. $20. (949) 364-5270.