The Folk Den Project
After nearly a decade in The Byrds, Roger McGuinn felt a solo career beckoning. In 1973, he began to record his five solo albums for Columbia records. In 1978 he joined his old BYRDS band mates, Chris Hillman and Gene Clark for three albums on Capitol Records. David Crosby and Chris Hillman joined him in 1991 on his "Back From Rio" album along with Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers and Elvis Costello on a stellar album which became a worldwide chart topper. In November of 1995 McGuinn began recording a series of traditional folk songs and uploading them to mcguinn.com, in a section called the Folk Den. Since then he has posted a new recording of a traditional folk song on the first of every month. The purpose of the Folk Den project is to use the medium of the world wide web to continue the tradition of the folk process, that is the telling of stories and singing of songs, passed on from one generation to another by word of mouth. McGuinn's 2001 album, 'Treasures from the Folk Den' on Appleseed Recordings, grew out of this project, and features newly recorded collaborations with many of McGuinn's musical heroes: Peter Seeger, Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Odetta and others. The CD was nominated for a Grammy in 2002. In the summer of 2004, Roger released a new studio album "Limited Edition" and in keeping with his "digital pioneer" status he has released it only via the Internet and at his live performances.  In November 2005, McGuinn celebrated the ten-year anniversary of the Folk Den project. To commemorate, McGuinn released a four CD box set of 100 of his favorite folk songs that he has uploaded to the Folk Den over the last decade. THE FOLK DEN PROJECT includes many new recordings, re-mixes and a complete digital re-mastering of the original songs. The CD release concert was held at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, where McGuinn learned to play 12-string guitar, 5-string banjo and first fell in love with folk music.