Singer-songwriter David Shepherd Grossman (www.davidgrossman.com) has been selling his 10-disc box set for about nine months, and next Wednesday he'll finally get around to holding the CD release party.

Hey, he's a busy guy. In addition to playing 30 gigs a month, the ''hardest-working musician in town'' serves as his own business manager, press agent and roadie. So cut him some slack, already.

Clocking in at 7 1/2 hours, the 34-year-old's Complete Works dates to his days as a teenage folk phenom in San Francisco. After remastering his early recordings, originally released on cassette, Grossman realized he had 10 CDs of original music. It was a good round number, perfect for a spur-of-the-moment box set.

''It's like eloping, and then all of the relatives call you up and they go, 'Why weren't we invited?' '' he says. ''So you have a reception later, and sometimes it takes a while to get that together.''

Many of those ''relatives'' will perform at next week's party, including top-notch jam band Honey Child, senior-citizen punks One Foot in the Grave and acoustic rockers Radio Theory. Serving as host will be Mad Coyote Joe, the compost-flinging chef of TV's Sonoran Grill.

While Grossman has composed hundreds of songs and garnered praise from publications including Songwriter's Monthly and the San Francisco Examiner, he still labors in relative obscurity. To earn his daily bread at those 30 gigs a month, he serves as a human jukebox, mimicking the vocal stylings of artists ranging from the honey-smooth James Taylor to the gravel-gargling Tom Waits.

All requests aren't treated equally, however. ''I end up making fun of the songs that I don't like to do,'' he says. ''Stairway to Heaven becomes Stairway to 7-Eleven. 'And she's buying a 7-Eleven. If there's no doughnuts in the front row, try the back row.'

I just make up stuff, especially if I don't know the song. And sometimes people get offended by that, but it usually gets everyone else on your side.

''Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: I said I didn't know it twice, and they kept asking me. So finally I just started making up a song about 'Smoke gets in your eyes, and smoke gets in your drink, and when you smoke you get cancer.' And they walked out all pissed off, but everybody else was laughing hysterically and clapping. So it was like, 'OK, cool, I got a room tonight. Now I can, like, entertain. I don't have to just do Elton John from the hetero years.'

'' Wednesday's party starts at 7 p.m. at Alice Cooper'stown, 101 E. Jackson St., Phoenix. Admission is free. Call (602) 253-7337 for directions.