Join Eric Wright for an illustrated talk about the steel guitar featuring interviews with industry insider and musician Mike Lemley and a rare screening of “Heartworn Highways” (1976).
Doors 7pm, Entry Free
Far flung expeditions, Kingly taboos and invisible cows all figure in the creation of the instrument that as much as any defines the sound of country music. Its journey from back-yard curiosity to nation-wide craze to a vehicle of musical innovation is a story that highlights the very nature of the genre. Along the way we will see how countrys’ strange mixture of influences and drivers makes it a music that is impossible to separate from its own mythology.
Join Eric for an illustrated talk about the steel guitar featuring interviews with industry insider and musician Mike Lemley. Mike was born into the “business” of the steel guitar in West Virginia as the son of “Jiggs” Lemley who played for Hawkshaw Hawkins. Hawkins is more known now as a fellow passenger with Patsy Cline and Cowboy Copas on the crashed flight where all were killed, but he was a top star in the 1950’s.
Also will be a rare screening of “Heartworn Highways” (1976) in which director James Szalapski gives a fly-on-the-wall view of a group of singer-songwriters that were working outside the confines of the Nashville system. Featuring performers both destined for success and bound for obscurity it offers a poignant look at the reality behind the lore of the music.