A People's History of the Guitar

UNREDACTED! Guitars and the Epstein Files

This episode is about guitars in unexpected places. Like...the Epstein Files. Yes. There are guitars in the Epstein Files. There are also dishwashers. Does this mean

Broken Guitars and Broken Hearts

I've been thinking more and more about people and their relationships with their guitars (and their guitar-adjacent instruments), and what happens when those relationship

INVASION OF THE LUTES!

This episode is about Lutes. Not the Lute we know, but the Lutes we call Lutes that aren't the Lute we know, which came before the Lute we know, which is a Lute that led

The Lute of Har-Mose

From The Lyres of Ur in episode 10, this episode takes us 1,000 years into the future, and 1,000 miles to the west of Mesopotamia, to ancient Egypt. Once we're there, we'

Ur U Experienced?

In this episode we uncover the oldest existing examples of the kinds of string instruments that led to the guitar. They're called The Lyres of Ur, they're over 4,000 year

Where Does Guitar Come From?

Episode nine about the word guitar. That's not bad grammar, its a question: what is the origin of the word, guitar? It's an odd word with deep roots, and the evolution

Sinners: People & Vampires & their Guitars

This episode goes off-road a little. I'm late to the party, but when I recently (finally) saw Ryan Coogler's Sinners, I couldn't not do an episode on this movie. Sinners

Strung Theory II: The Musical Bow

This is the second in a short series of episodes and interviews about that thing we made, that if we hadn't made, there would be no guitar. Episode six is about how we

Strung Theory I: Cordage/Chordage

This is the first in a short series of episodes and interviews about how we turned cordage into chordage. According to the Hornbostel-Sachs System for Musical Instrumen

Some German Guys Figured it Out

Episode five is about one of the ways we organize human knowledge. It's also about two German musicologists who created a system for categorizing musical instruments, bef

Why Music?

This episode takes us from the evolution of human musicality into the realm of music itself, and its origins. That story is big, controversial, and messy. So, I've sorted

Hit It! (About Hitting Things)

You don't make musical sounds by just sitting there. You have to fight for them. Music begins with little acts of violence, and we've been learning how to do that for a v

Walk This Way

This episode is about one of the things that launched us on our journey toward making music, which would eventually get us to the guitar. That one thing is our feet. Wh

There is No Origin Story

In this episode we'll go back in time, into a cave with a Greek God, where a mythical stringed instrument was created, and on to Wisconsin, California, and Mississippi, i

Intro to A People's History of the Guitar

A People's History of the Guitar is about people, the guitar, people and their guitars, and the guitar and its people. In this introductory episode, you'll find out abou

Trailer

A taste of the sound and purpose of the show. If you want to see and hear where this goes as much as I do, I hope you'll think about supporting the project with a one-ti