cover image The Guitar and the New World: A Fugitive History

The Guitar and the New World: A Fugitive History

Joe Gioia. SUNY/Excelsior, $24.95 (254p) ISBN 978-1-4384-4617-2

Gioia begins his account by taking the reader through the life of his great uncle Carmelo Gugino, a Sicilian immigrant and macaroni-factory-owner-turned-luthier. After running through the evolution of the guitar's design and construction, he gets to his real focus: deconstructing early blues and country music, guided by his own theory that those musicians were influenced by Indigenous musical tradi-tion. Gioia offers plenty of evidence including repeated phrases common in all three styles, references by singers like Charlie Patton to the "Nation" aka Oklahoma Indian territory, and similar vocal tech-niques and rhythms. He discusses the work of anthropologists like Charles Peabody, Alice Fletcher, and Alan Lomax, taking the latter to task for his "academic self-righteousness and white guilt" and erroneous, according to Gioia, attribution of African roots in blues music. He also provides interesting insight into the methods of some great guitarists and banjo players like Jimmie Rodgers, Maybelle Carter, and Dock Boggs. Though a bit erratic%E2%80%94he has a penchant for bizarre and questionably-related tangents%E2%80%94and somewhat mistitled, Gioia does offer some intriguing and meticulously researched the-ories on the blending of musical cultures in America. (Apr.)