| Roger McGuinne | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Roger McGuinne An American Favorite | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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April 9, 1999 James Joseph McGuinn III, better known as Roger McGuinn, is co-founder of The Byrds and a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee. His roots are in folk, and he is now using the Internet to further the folk tradition. He has several vintage and recent tracks posted on his own Web site, as well as on his MP3.com page, where "McGuinn's Folk Den Vol. 1" CD is also now available. This reporter is a first-generation Byrds fan who met McGuinn in 1978 while serving as editorial director in the press department at Capitol Records. I had the honor of writing the liner notes for the "McGuinn-Clark-Hillman" album. I recently discovered Roger's MP3.com page and his own homepage while researching another story, and had to re-connect with him. Knowing his history, I wasn't surprised to see that he was into bleeding-edge technology, right along with all the youngsters just starting out. We swapped e-mails, Roger in Orlando, Florida, and yours truly in Santa Clarita, California... PEEPLES: Those who know your background know what a gadget/tech nut you are, and the story behind you adopting "Roger" as your first name. When we first met, in 1978 at the Capitol Tower, I recall you had a big, bulky cell phone, and that it was your latest gadget. Am I remembering correctly? McGUINN: It was a briefcase telephone, a 25-watt VHF full duplex transceiver that connected to the commercial land mobile telephone service. I could make calls to, and receive them from, anyone in the world. I did then what people do now with cell phones, but back then you could use them on airplanes. I have some great road stories of how the phone saved the show. I got my first one in 1971. PEEPLES: When did you get into computers and the Internet? McGUINN: My first computer was a gift from my mother, in 1980, a small Radio Shack TRS-10. Then I was given a Color Computer, based on Motorola's 6809e chip set. I hacked that to do all of our [accounting] books. Then I got an IBM Convertible, one of the first laptops. There has been a succession of 286, 386, 486, and Pentium machines since. Most of them still work. I got on-line in the early '80s with a commercial service called Easy Street. We used that to communicate from home to the road, even from Europe. Then I got on CompuServe, Prodigy, and America Online. I discovered the Internet in the early '90s using usenet and email, then the Web a year or so later. I found that a good ISP was better than the services I'd been using. PEEPLES: At what point did you create your own Web site? Who hosts and manages it? It covers all aspects of your past, present, and future... McGUINN: After writing a Byrds FAQ and posting it on alt.music.byrds, I got an offer from Kenton Adler at the University of Arkansas to host a Byrds Home Page. I contributed to that for a year or two, then gradually built my own home page. My domain name, http://mcguinn.com, is hosted by a local Orlando ISP. That's a funnel to my Web site hosted by the University of North Carolina's MetaLab. UNC's Paul Jones offered me Web space on their site so that I would be able to present my Folk Den songs in streaming technology by RealMedia. I'm the Webmaster of my site and do all the HTML work and media updates myself. PEEPLES: Tell us more about the Folk Den--its mission, and how you have posted a "new" folk song there each month for the last few years. McGUINN: The idea of preserving traditional folk songs on the Internet came to me after I began to develop a concern that these songs might get lost in the strict formatting of the commercial music business. Very few radio stations were playing these wonderful songs, and the new breed of "folk singers" were writing their own material. I wondered what would happen when Pete Seeger and Odetta passed away. So I decided to do my part, continuing the folk process--that is, the singing of songs and telling of stories in the oral tradition, but on the Internet. So each month I record a traditional folk song in my digital home studio. I format these songs as .WAV, RealAudio and sometimes MP3 files. They are free. I've made a CD of some of these songs available through MP3.com, and plan to release more CDs in the months to come. PEEPLES: Is it fair to say that some of your recent recordings sound a lot like your earliest recordings? McGUINN: Yes, and actually one of the songs on my "McGuinn's Folk Den, Vol. 1 CD," "John Henry," was recorded in 1959. PEEPLES: A-HA! No wonder it sounded so adenoidal! Back to the tech stuff -- at what point did you get into streaming audio/video and MP3? McGUINN: As soon as I got on the Web, I found RealAudio. It took me a while to get it working, but now I use it every day. In 1995, a friend's son came to my house and downloaded my first MP3 encoder for me. I loved the idea of being able to compress CD quality files into such a small space. PEEPLES: Tell us how you connected with MP3.com. McGUINN: Someone from the site contacted me and asked if I had anything I wanted to post. My first "McGuinn's Folk Den" CD has been on MP3.com for just over a month [as of 4/2/99]. The first week I was Pick of the Day! Already my track "James Alley Blues" has reached the MP3.com Weekly Top 10. I'm very honored to have reached this position on the foremost MP3 Web site! The exposure is tremendous. My songs get thousands and thousands of downloads! And MP3.com has been great to work with. PEEPLES: What kind of e-mail are you getting? McGUINN: Both fan mail and industry invitations have resulted from my being on MP3.com. Lots of old friends have discovered where to find me. PEEPLES: Are you seeking a major label deal right now? McGUINN: The idea of being told what to do by a record label is repugnant to me at this point in my life. I really love being able to create whatever music I like and post it. Some record company would have to come up with an awful lot of money to get me to sign with them, and they aren't going to do that. PEEPLES: What's your take on SDMI and similar efforts to curb illegal digital copying of music on the 'Net? What do you think will happen? McGUINN: There are too many ways for MP3 files to get around on the net for anyone to be able to regulate them. I enjoy being on the legal side of the MP3 wars. We'll just have to see how it all plays out. This reminds me of FM radio in the late '60s when the free-form format was starting. It was an exciting time for music! PEEPLES: What do you think about the convergence of media on the 'Net? McGUINN: It's inevitable, and I like it very much! I like the idea of a one-stop box that will cover all of your communication needs. PEEPLES: A couple Byrds questions...Sony's releasing a remastered "Byrds Greatest Hits" collection with three bonus tracks... McGUINN: ..."It Won't Be Wrong," "Set You Free This Time," and "Have You Seen Her Face." PEEPLES: How well do you think Legacy has handled the Byrds catalog? How involved have you been? McGUINN: I'm very happy that the Sony SBM reissues are coming out now, and are of such high quality! I have been involved in the mixing of the last eight CDs. Bob Irwin does an excellent job with the remastering. "Untitled," "Byrdmaniax," and "Farther Along" will be out this summer. They all sound great, complete with bonus tracks! PEEPLES: What's your plan for the next several years? McGUINN: Andres Segovia was scheduled to play Carnegie Hall the month he died. He kept doing what he loved until he couldn't do it any longer. That's what I plan to do! | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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