If you hear a jangly 12-string guitar, you probably get an earworm like “Turn Turn Turn” or “Mr. Tambourine Man.” Roger McGuinn is responsible for that. As a youth in Chicago, he was exposed to the banjo of Bob Gibson. Roger’s wife, Camilla McGuinn, tells the story  on The Roger McGuinn Blog:

“In the winter of 1957, Jim’s (Roger’s) music teacher at the Latin School of Chicago, Miss Ganter, invited her friend Bob Gibson to perform for her students.

Bob Gibson strolled on stage not with a guitar, but with a 5-string long necked banjo.

Miss Ganter told her student that it was folk music and if he was really interested in learning more about it, that a new school had just opened within walking distance of his house, called The Old Town School of Folk Music.” (You can read the rest of this story here.)

The freshly-obsessed young McGuinn restrung a guitar with banjo strings, “put a nail in the neck at the seventh fret and tucked the fifth string under it.” Eventually he took on the 12-string as his signature sound.

We at FolkWorks learned that Roger McGuinn would be playing the Soka Performing Arts Center in Aliso Viejo, California, and we begged for an interview. Okay, it was me. I begged.

I was so stoked because I want to tell you about The Folk Den Project. This is a beautiful preservation of traditional folk music – not just preserving, but making the history accessible. In Roger McGuinn’s words:

In November of 1995 I began a project for the preservation of the music I love, Folk Music. Each month I would record a song, print the lyrics and chords, add a personal note and put it on my web site, mcguinn.com. 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.

This project is a true community service. Please take some time and wallow in old classics like Dry Bones, St. James Infirmary, Streets of Laredo; things you may have never heard like King Kong Kitchie Ki Me O. You can delve into the backstories of songs like The Twelve Days of Christmas or Molly Malone. Each track is a patch in the quilt of America; our cast-iron history. You didn’t think about Pete Seeger while listening to The Byrds, did you?

But every workingman’s song that went into Rock’n’Roll is our legacy, too: the music tells other stories you won’t read in history books. Songs are like finding old letters – you can hear what was important to listeners of that time.

me: Peg & Awl – I love that you brought this song to light. Explain why it’s important to preserve the backstories of these old songs.

RMcG: I feel the old songs and stories behind them are worth preserving because they’re like Victorian architecture. It’s regularly torn down to put up glass and steel buildings which are much less aesthetically pleasing.

me: Tell me a love story: the cheapest guitar you ever loved. Do you still own it?

RMcG: I recently bought a Jasmine guitar that cost less than $100 and sounds beautiful. It’s made by the Takamine company in Indonesia.

me: I often interview musicians who do other things: paint, make pottery or weave; build instruments. What passion–what vocabulary other than music–has stuck with you?

(click here to see 5 webpages of transistor radios Roger has collected over the years.) (especially this one.)

RMcG: I love gadgets of all kinds but especially electronic ones. A favorite pastime is giving lectures using audio/visual software. I do all the programming myself.

me: As far as music equipment (because I know people will want to know) you sit in with people. Do you bring your own favorite microphone or are you comfortable using what each sound engineer gives you?

RMcG: I record in my Pro Tools studio with a great tube condenser microphone, Genelec nearfield speakers on a Mac and send the recording to people I “sit in” with via email. (hint: in the notes for his Folk Den recording of Wade in the Water, Roger tells you about the equipment he used on the road.)

me: What has the journey been like over the years to be able to get a good mix in the monitors to support that harmony singing?

RMcG: Well, it’s sort of like cooking. You keep listening and mixing until it tastes good.

me: Do you have thoughts about AI? Many (ok a guy I know) predict AI will start writing great music in that 60s rock genre again, but humans will be picked to perform it. A next generation of rock star.

RMcG: Chat GPT is useful for songwriting. Just name a subject and style and it pops out in about 10 seconds. Then you can rewrite it to your liking.

me: WHOA. I wasn’t expecting to hear that. You can read the rest of this surprising interview in the INTERVIEWS section on FolkWorks.

Roger McGuinn and his talented wife, Camilla will be driving from Florida via I-40, “America’s Main Street. We really enjoy these road trips. It’s fun to see the scenery changing from farm lands to red mountains,” he said. I don’t think they’re gonna stop.

Check this list of dates and locations to see where their path crosses yours:

Apr 06:    Soka Performing Arts Center, Aliso Viejo CA
Apr 09:    Carriage House Theatre, Saratoga CA
Apr 12:     Livermore Valley Performing Arts Center, Livermore CA
Apr 17:     Vashon Center for the Arts, Vashon WA
Apr 20:    Edmonds Center for the Arts, Edmonds WA
Apr 23:    Patricia Valian Reser Center for the Creative Arts, Corvallis OR
May 01:   the Center for the Arts, Grass Valley CA
May 04:   James R. Armstrong Theatre, Torrance CA
May 08:   Egyptian Theatre, Park City UT
May 11:    Argyros Performing Arts Center, Ketchum, ID
May 23:   Francis Marion University Performing Arts Center, Florence SC
Aug 30:   The Space at Westbury, Westbury NY
Sep 07:    Colonial Theatre, Pittsfield MA
Sep 11:     Isaac Harris Cary Memorial Building, Lexington MA
Sep 14:     SOPAC, South Orange, NJ
Sep 21:     Wall Street Theater, Norwalk CT
Sep 28:     Pablo Center at the Confluence, Eau Claire WI

If I haven’t impressed upon you enough how important the Folk Den Project is, stream or download here. Share it with your children, and your children’s children. That’s what it’s for.

Get a copy of the 10-year anniversary of the Folk Den Project CD here.

Follow the entire road-trip blog of Roger and Camilla McGuinn here. I promise it’s a lot of fun!

debora Ewing writes, paints, and screams at the stars because the world is still screwed up. She improves what she can with music collaboration, peer review for Consilience Science-Based Poetry Journal, and book design at Igneus Press. Find her art and word everywhere, including Jerry Jazz Musician, Shot Glass Journal, Beyond Words Literary Magazine, Cholla Needles, and Dodging the Rain. Follow her on “X” and Instagram @DebsValidation, and into seedy pool halls but probably not dark alleys.