McGuinn once testified before a Senate Judiciary Committee about the insufficient royalties that artists receive from internet downloading, but he now sees the benefit of streaming services like Spotify in terms of exposure and advertising. McGuinn is now working on a new project that started over 50 years ago, when he began collaborating with lyricist Jacques Levy on a musical based on Henrik Ibsen’s “Peer Gynt.” He also has used the internet to continue the folk music tradition by recording a different folk song each month on his Folk Den site. ![]() He also pays tribute to the late Petty in his live show. McGuinn said it’s fulfilling to have his music appreciated and played by contemporary artists, many of whom he’s collaborated with over the years. The Beatles, whom McGuinn credits with turning him on to the Rickenbacker, later returned the favor, incorporating elements of the Byrds’ sound on “Rubber Soul” and subsequent albums. The Byrds influenced a wide range of musicians, including Tom Petty, Elvis Costello, R.E.M., Wilco and Lou Reed. They were practically synonymous with Laurel Canyon’s folk-rock scene, thanks in large part to McGuinn’s unmistakable “jangle” guitar style. The Byrds experienced a whirlwind ride in the ‘60s, topping the charts and performing overseas before the original quintet splintered. McGuinn, Hillman and Gram Parsons then joined to create the critically acclaimed “Sweetheart of the Rodeo” album in 1968, pioneering the country-rock genre. McGuinn and his bandmates in the Byrds - Roger Clark, David Crosby, Michael Clarke and Chris Hillman - are credited with launching the folk-rock genre, fusing the folk music exemplified by Dylan with the pop music of the Beatles into a new, signature style. The reason my playing on it is different from anyone else’s is because I use a five-string banjo style of arpeggios, and then I overdub the lead part.” I just loved it, it had such a great sound. So I traded in my acoustic 12-string that Bobby Darin had given me, and I bought my first Rickenbacker 12-string. “In 1964, I heard the Beatles using an electric 12-string by Rickenbacker. “I’m happy with the way it’s all turned out,” he said. It opens with stories from his childhood - buying his first transistor radio, hearing his first Elvis Presley record - and continues through his time as a studio musician in New York, onward to Los Angeles in the mid-1960s when he got the Byrds together and later touring with Dylan on the Rolling Thunder Revue. McGuinn, known as Jim McGuinn early in his career, said the “autobiographical” performance is just him and four instruments: his signature Rickenbacker electric 12-string, seven-string and 12-string acoustic guitars, and a five-string banjo. It’s kind of like the life of Will Rogers, but it’s about my life.” I never quite got to do that, but nowadays what I’m doing is even more fulfilling, because I’m like an actor doing a one-man show. and I wanted to be real folk singer like Pete Seeger. “I was on the outside of folk music as an accompanist. Tambourine Man” and “My Back Pages,” and the Carole King-penned classic “Goin’ Back.” But he’ll also dig down to his musical roots as a sideman in the early 1960s for the Limelighters, the Chad Mitchell Trio, Judy Collins and Bobby Darin. He’ll likely play Byrds classics such as “Eight Miles High” and “So You Want to be a Rock N’ Roll Star,” as well as cover songs very much associated with the Byrds, such as Bob Dylan’s “Mr. So here we are, six decades later, and a fully grown McGuinn is playing a solo show, a musical journey of songs and stories from his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame career. ![]() And I said, ‘Man, that’s what I want to do when I grow up.’” How is he going to pull this off?’ But he got there and used three-part harmonies, he played all these different instruments. “I remember seeing him right after he left the Weavers, and he had just gone solo and was going to do a one-man show, and I was a little bit skeptical, like, ‘He’s just one guy. I used to go to his shows at the Orchestra Hall when I was growing up in Chicago. “I got to know him, and we worked together a few times. “He was an idol, he was also a friend,” McGuinn said of Seeger, whose great-grandparents once lived in Brattleboro and who gave a benefit concert at the Latchis in 2008. 1 hit with the Seeger-penned “Turn! Turn! Turn!” in 1965. ![]() But McGuinn does have a connection with a fellow folk icon who once played the Latchis: Pete Seeger.
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