Michelle Kaplan

Roger McGuinn: Artist, Guitarist and Techie

Roger McGuinn is a bit of a paradox. It’s a rare occurrence when art and technology find a home in one heart, but here it dwells.

The front man, the guitarist, the folk rocker, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, is best known for being a member of the Byrds, back in the day. Today, as a solo artist, McGuinn is on the road a lot. However, he is not touring solo. His wife Camilla and he are very much partnered on this venture.

One has only to read her blogs to feel a part of this journey. Camilla has blogged their adventures and the people they tour with, as well as strangers met along the way. Her descriptions of the places they go are very much postcards from the road. McGuinn likens it to the On the Road segments with Charles Kuralt.

“We always liked Charles Kuralt. He made it romantic and fun to travel the back roads of America. We prefer to be on the road …it’s more fun, there’s room service, maid service…at home it’s a lot of work.”

While Camilla has her blog, McGuinn finds time to curl up in his den, the Folk Den that is. An interesting place on the web dedicated to preserving folk music. McGuinn’s avid interest in technology led him to create one of music’s first websites long before most people knew what going online was all about.

The Folk Den Project www.folkden.com was created back in 1995. The den is a place where McGuinn showcases one folk song a month. He records it, posts the lyrics, and also writes a little interesting tidbit about the piece.

“The point of folk den is to keep these old songs alive.” As he states on his webpage, “I wanted everyone to have the opportunity to learn the songs and to be able to sing them with their families and friends. So,downloads were offered free of charge.”

Ten years into the project, he released The Folk Den Project 1995-2005, a compilation of 100 of his favorite songs. Another earlier album, Treasures from the Folk Den, nominated for a Grammy in 2002, features some of his famous compadres in folk:Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Eliza Carthy, Pete Seeger, Josh White Jr., Jean Ritchie, Odetta, Tommy Makem, and Frank and Mary Hamilton.

McGuinn has released solo albums himself, his last three CDs on April 1st Productions. The name was taken from his and Camilla’s wedding date. McGuinn has taken the decision-making power away from the big record labels, simply because he can.

“The big record companies had all the power, now musicians are producing, printing, pressing and purveying their own material… artists record, master and send it to press, selling it on Amazon.com. In so doing, musicians make more actual money… the old system didn’t give you that. We’ve done better financially from that than from any record deal.”

In 2000, McGuinn testified before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing because artists were not getting their fair share of royalties that the record companies promised in contracts because of downloading on the Internet.
Including the Folk Den Project there are three different CDs for sale on his website: Roger McGuinn Live from Spain and Roger McGuinn Limited Edition, which feature much of what the rock legend is best known for, the McGuinn signature sound, the “jinglejangle” of his Rickenbacker guitar.

While guitar playing is considered an expression of art, McGuinn’s technical side intervened early on when he discovered that if he used a compressor with his Rickenbacker, he could sustain notes forming the distinctive “jingle-jangle” sound. He took it a step further actually reconfiguring guitars with seven strings, adding an extra G string an octave higher, so that they sounded more like a 12-string, yet allowed him the versatility of a 6-string guitar.

“When you play melodies up and down, it’s a more flexible to do bends and to do runs that are difficult on a 12-sting.”

The idea was born of ingenuity as well as accident.

“I was carrying two acoustic guitars, and the airline broke one on a trip back from France. I thought it would be better to carry one on the plane.”

The quirky idea worked, and the famed CF Martin & Company (maker of Martin guitars) honored him with the Special Edition HD-7 Roger McGuinn. The honor was not a new one; Martin had done so before with the Limited edition D12-42 RM Roger McGuinn 12-String guitar back in 1999. It was that signature sound that made Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” and the Byrd’s own “Eight Miles High,” and “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better,” classics as well as “Turn! Turn! Turn” which many would agree was the anthem of an entire generation coming of age in the 1960’s.

The Song holds a place in McGuinn’s heart.

“It’s one of my favor songs, Pete Seeger wrote it, the lyrics say that everything is kinda under control, and that’s a comforting thought…a time for this and a time for that, but these times are appointed.”

As for this tour, McGuinn is mixing it up.

“It will be a mixture of new and old…hits by the Byrds, songs from the Folk Den, some solo and then some new things that I haven’t recorded. I tell stories in between the songs. It makes it more interesting. I got the idea from Pete Seeger, 45 years ago. It creates an atmosphere.”

Go on tour with Roger McGuinn, or feel like you are by reading his blog: http://rogermcguinn.blogspot.com Visit Roger’s Home Page at: http://www.ibiblio.org/jimmy/mcguinn

- April 1, 2007

See the Article as it Ran - Click Here