All Episodes

July 12, 2021 62 mins

Intro - 0:00

  • Tune called Planxty Sir Festus Burke | Randal Bays/fiddle, Chris Smith/tenor banjo, Roger Landes/bouzouki | composition by Turlough O’Carolan, from the album “Coyote Banjo” by Chris Smith
  • Part I, Path to the Electric Guitar in Academia  - 01:10

    Part II, Research into Amplification  - 21:03

    Part III, Current Projects & Scholarship - 25:30

    Part IV, Talking About Bill Hanley  - 28:15

    Part V, New Technology in Live Performances  - 32:34

    Part VI,  Perceptions of the Electric Guitar - 44:34

    Part VII, The Electric Guitar in American Culture Conference - 52:38

    Outro - 01:01:07

  • Planxty Sir Festus Burke
  •  

    Elsie Irwin Sweeney Professor of Music at Smith College

    Scholar of U.S. popular music and popular culture, with particular specialty in the study of live music, music genres, music technology and musical instruments (especially the guitar).

    Instruments of Desire: The Electric Guitar and the Shaping of Musical Experience (Harvard University Press, 1999) 

    This Ain't the Summer of Love: Conflict and Crossover in Heavy Metal and Punk (University of California Press, 2009)

    Contributor to the Cambridge Companion to the Guitar, the Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Listen Again: A Momentary History of Pop and Metal Rules the Globe: Heavy Metal Music Around the World

    Keynote speaker at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's American Music Masters event honoring the legacy of musician and inventor Les Paul. In 1998 Waksman's dissertation on the electric guitar won the Ralph Henry Gabriel prize awarded by the American Studies Association.

    New project:  

    Live Music in America: A History, 1850–2000 

     

    Full Playlist for EP 18
    VVMC Book Club
    VVMC: Friends & Voices, a Collaborative Playlist
    Voices from the Vernacular Music Center

    Mark as Played

    Advertise With Us

    Popular Podcasts

    24/7 News: The Latest
    Therapy Gecko

    Therapy Gecko

    An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.

    The Joe Rogan Experience

    The Joe Rogan Experience

    The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.

    Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

    Connect

    © 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.