More astounding stories of rare guitar finds and the music legends who owned them.Do you dream of finding a 1954 Stratocaster or 1952 Gibson Les Paul online; at a garage sale; or in the local penny saver? How about virtually rubbing elbows with one of your favorite rock legends? Following up his first-of-its-kind The Strat in the Attic; musician; journalist; and "guitarchaeologist" Deke Dickerson shares the stories behind dozens of more astounding finds including:A rarer-than-hens-teeth 1966 Hallmark Swept-Wing that originally belonged to Robbie Krieger of the Doors; stashed away in an attic in Alaska for forty years!A crazy-valuable 1958 Gibson Flying V belonging to a Chicago bluesman--who; it turns out; also happens to have an equally rare 1958 Gibson Explorer!An out-of-the-blue; a "to whom it may concern" email leads the author to a trailer park in Salem; Oregon; where one of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys original 1940s Epiphone Emperor archtops is waiting to be purchased for a song!Luthier R.C. Allen relates the tales of buying Nat "King" Cole Trio guitarist Oscar Moores Stromberg Master 400 archtop and of being gifted a 1953 Standel amp from Merle Travis!Buddy Merrill; the amazingly talented guitarist from the Lawrence Welk show; gives his 1970 Micro-Frets Huntington to the author; but only if he "promises to PRACTICE."Photos of the guitars and other exciting memorabilia round out a package that no vintage-guitar aficionado will want to be without!
#362402 in eBooks 2015-05-18 2015-05-18File Name: B00PSSBFR6
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy Rita M. YeastedI love this book. Use it for class.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Thats EntertainmentBy AllegrippusThe author skillfully presents the development of Pittsburgh theater in step with concurrent social trends; both local and widespread. She reveals that the early respectable theatrical achievements; subsidized by the cultural establishment; were later purposely concealed to the point of denial. She chronicles the voracious local commercial theater patronage at the end of the 19th Century; resulting from the unprecedented prosperity; leisure time; and enormous population growth fueled by the Industrial Revolution. Centralized efficient theatrical syndicates thereupon first overpowered and drained off local theatrical expertise; and then rendered Pittsburgh an inconvenient by-way for touring companies.Captivation by motion pictures first took hold in Pittsburgh; legitimate live theater came to an abrupt halt with popularity of talking motion pictures; a form of entertainment which lent itself to industrialized mass-production. The remnants of stagecraft degenerated into prurient enterprises. However; legitimate theater was recognized to have propaganda value; as well as some vestigial demand; and therefore began to be subsidized and promoted at a reduced scope akin to its pre-industrial status. It soon joined forces with the rest of the socialistic cultural establishment (including its onetime adversary motion pictures) to revive the Western medieval ideal of resurrecting the primitive wholesome pre-agricultural utopia of the Garden of Eden; sidetracked in favor of the worldly; artificial; decadent; individualistic; classical Renaissance and its abhorrent spawn the Industrial Revolution.As the quintessence of advanced industrial aggressiveness; its name aptly commemorating the Winston Churchill of the Seven Years War and the architect of British world domination; Pittsburgh was a prime candidate for emasculation and depopulation; its theatrical heyday forgotten; it was easily derided as a contemptible benighted materialistic commercialized uncultured backwater. The very cradle of commercial radio broadcasting; it atoned as a pioneer demonstration project for public broadcast television. Since the mass audience was no longer expected to defray more than a token fraction of the high production costs; commercial considerations being out of the question; funding was extracted from the very institutions being undermined by the subversive drama. Clearly industrialistsrsquo; wealthy heirs who controlled the foundations were not averse to this development; in their avidity to disavow any affinity with their vilified industrial background; and to ally themselves with untainted patricians among the cultural establishment; the few nonconformists; typified by Helen Frick; were ostracized as a warning to anyone with social aspirations. An influential "kinder and gentler" Republican donor placed his bets on developing information technology as the next phase of the Industrial Revolution and a replacement for manufacturing. Substantial taxpayer subsidies to cultural groups naturally subject them to government scrutiny and intervention. Impressionable schoolchildren became a significant audience.Subsidized entertainment emerged triumphant in the guise of a savior to fill the manufacturing vacuum which it had been instrumental in hollowing out in the first place. The author merely hints at some of the foregoing observations without expanding upon them any further than is necessary to explain her topic of theatrical advances. As a theatrically-oriented professional herself; she demonstrates thorough familiarity with obscure theatrical lore; past as well as contemporary.
