The Guitar
A big scene in Kicking Up Dust is to picture a Spanish cowboy riding
across the Rio Grande
River on a horse herding some cattle with a guitar tied over his shoulder...hence
came this
insturment to this land. Conquistadors, along with horses and
cattle, brought their version of the
Lute to the New World, which they called the Uihuela, or later know
as the guitarra.
In the 1600s the Spanish settlers brought to the New World a European
style guitar with five sets
of double strings. By 1800 the six string instrument known today to
us had evolved in southern
Europe. The first instruction book to learn guitar was published
in 1818 as the instrument was
becoming more and more popular. They were stung with gut strings.
A strong development of
the guitar began to happen in the Mississippi River delta with the
blacks and ex-slaves around
the time of the Civil War.
Martin Guitar was founded in 1833 and Gibson guitar was founded in 1894,
and offered steel-
string guitars. They were played with a pick and the guitar began
to become a central instrument
at Barn Dances and other music events. Down the musical trail
Sears-Roebuck and Wards
began to sell more and more verities of guitars, some as low as $2.50.
With time the playing
and tuning of guitars changed as the instrument got more and more important
in music. There
were different styles of playing being developed all over the country.
With time the guitar entered into all styles of music from Jazz to Mexican,
Blues to Gospel, and
hillbilly as it evolved into country music. Down the road a major
innovation was to amplify the
guitar. The exectric Hawaiian guitar by Rickenbacker in the 1930s
was one of the first. By the
late 30s jazz guitars like Eddie Durham and Charley Christian were
using amplified guitars. In
1946 Paul Bigsby built the first solid-body electric guitar for Merle
Travis. In 1948 the Fender
"Broadcaster" was ready for sale. The "Telecaster" was the successor
to the "Broadcaster"
and was used by Muddy Waters, B.B. King and T-Bone Walker. Les
Paul was a early
innovator and Muddy Waters was a big part of taking the electric guitar
to Chicago and start
blazing the trail to rock and roll.
to be continued
Les Paul
© 1998-09 Benford
E. Standley. All Rights Reserved.
This can in no way be copied
or distributed.
We would love your help
continuing this story...if you have any important dates or
information that helps
us tell the story of the evolution of the music and
entertainment business
send them to us and we will add to KICKIN' UP DUST
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