Category Archives: Random Topics
Rewriting The Record For The Electric Guitar Again
One sentence. “On September 23-25, 1935, Leon McAuliffe, a brilliant player from Tulsa, Oklahoma, whose phrasing could have well influenced Charlie Christian, featured both electric steel and electrically amplified Spanish guitar on the first recordings of Bob Wills’s Texas Playboys.” … Continue reading
Rewriting The Record For The Electric Guitar
The book was called: Discography Of Western Swing And Hot String Bands, 1928-1942 by Cary Ginell and Kevin Coffey. It had been published in 2001. I found it one afternoon a few months ago in the Performing Arts Reading Room, … Continue reading
A Photo a Week Challenge: Music
This is my first time entering a photo challenge. But when I found the nancy merrill photography blog and the topic of her weekly photo challenge, one image immediately came to mind. I took this photograph on Father’s Day in … Continue reading
A Day In Boston, Highlights & Traditions – a no-str story
Boston, Massachusetts. Friday, June 22, 2018. Morning: looking up from the deck of the U.S.S. Constitution. Afternoon: looking down through a window at the top of the Bunker Hill Monument. Snacking under a tree on the Rose Kennedy Greenway in … Continue reading
“Deep River Blues” – Page 1 & Page 2
On April 7, 2013, I wrote a post about the song “Deep River Blues.” In that post, I included a transcription – in standard musical notation and guitar tablature – of my Doc Watson-inspired, finger-picking arrangement of “Deep River Blues.” … Continue reading
A Belated Birthday Celebration
The Library of Congress was established on April 24, 1800. On that day, “President John Adams signed an act of Congress providing for the transfer of the seat of government from Philadelphia to the new capital city of Washington. Part of the … Continue reading
No. 8
sixstr stories was born on Sunday, April 18, 2010 in Somerville, Massachusetts. I was visiting my daughter and casually mentioned to her that I was thinking of starting a blog. (At the time, she had a blog.) Before I knew … Continue reading
Two Kings, Two Birthdays, Two Songs
Lead Belly and Sam Cooke. The “King of the 12-String Guitar” and the “King of Soul.” Last week, as I read the birthday entries for those two artists on my January list of “Historic Days In Music” – January 20, … Continue reading
A Little Christmas Polka
Must Be Santa! The Rounder Christmas Album is one of my all-time favorite Christmas collections. Released in 1995 by Rounder Records – the legendary-and-still-going-strong Cambridge, Massachusetts-based label – this 19-track album contains a recording that is one of my family’s … Continue reading
