String Theory: Or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Guitar

The guitar. By far the rock's most emblematic trophy. Whether you sling it low, with attitude or sling it high over your head, the guitar is rock's weapon of choice.

But the guitar's cultural impact runs deeper. From Leadbelly to Robert Johnson to Woody Guthrie and the Carter Family the guitar is an instrument with a distinct connection to American history. The stories of our past and our musical legends are picked and grinned on wood and wire. The guitar is a gateway to a better life. You put a guitar in a kid's hands and they will become a rock star, if only in their bedroom.

All of my heroes have always been guitar players. From Eddie Van Halen in 5th grade to John Lee Hooker last week. To me, the guitar is a raunchy, angry and elegant instrument that, depending upon whose hands you place it in can be an instrument of redemption or retribution.

My friends at Act 3 Studios feel the same way about the guitar and music as I do and to celebrate the guitar, they have released String Theory:

. . . a podcast series that celebrates music's most iconic instrument -- the guitar. For this project, an audio documentary series that explores the history, mythology and impact of the guitar, we've been interviewing some great guitar players, including Brian Henneman and John Horton of the Bottle Rockets, Daniel Lanois, Bo Ramsey, Cosy Sheridan, and Keller Williams.

The podcast series will include several different shows, including My First Guitar, with stories about people's first guitars; Alternate Tunings, which explores influences and inspiration; and Keep Your Day Job, which profiles "civilians" who also play guitar.

The podcasts, produced in collaboration with the New York Guitar Festival, are available free from iTunes. (Direct download here.)

We also have a website for the series at http://guitarstories.com/. There, you can listen to additional audio from the interviews, find out more about the featured artists and their music, see images from our photo shoots with the artists, and download some cool wallpaper and other goodies.

The first episode features a local favorite, The Bottle Rockets. Check it out. Act 3 has done a stellar job on these podcasts. Partly because they are kick ass audio producers (think This American Life quality material) but mostly because they too love the music.