With this show, we start Part 30 in our 250-part series dedicated to the history of “How Music Changed”. This is an entirely new series, and it will be dedicated to the history of the electric guitar, BUT… Before all of you rock and roll fanatics start jumping up and down on your couches, I need you to understand that this series is dedicated to the development and stylization of playing electric guitar, but only up to 1963, which is the year that the guitar suddenly became the single most important instrument in modern times.

The reason for stopping there may feel like a cruel joke, but it is essential if we really want to tell this story. If we were to cover the electric guitar after 1963, we would find it necessary to cover virtually every famous rock and roll/blues/R&B/jazz/name whatever style you wish guitar player who left a legacy for themselves during the era when guitar players reigned, and that series could take a lifetime of one hour shows.

Even then, we’d still be skimming the surface. Instead, we intend to cover the early artists in the first half of the 20th century who popularized the guitar against the odds, at a time when the instrument was considered to be unusual, impractical, and as hard to believe as it may sound in today’s culture, unessential. Somehow, the guitar grew from an obscure instrument used in classical Spanish music to becoming the instrument that changed the world. This is that story.

Featured tracks include:

Recuerdos de La Alhambra – Andres Segovia

Diferencias Sobre un Teme del Folklore Español – Andres Segovia

Single Girl, Married Girl – The Carter Family

I’m Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes – The Carter Family

Screamin’ and Hollerin’ the Blues – Charley Patton

A Spoonful Blues – Charlie Patton

Down the Dirt Road Blues – Charlie Patton

See That My Grave’s Kept Clean – Blind Lemon Jefferson

Corinna Blues – Blind Lemon Jefferson

Diddie Wah Diddie – Blind Blake

Police Dog Blues – Blind Blake