The guitar fostered great creativity in the South as it evolved from a fragile gut-stringed instrument in polite parlors to the big, loud steel string instrument now found in our homes and onstage. There is no one more knowledgeable about old time American music than Mike Seeger. He s been playing it all his life, and spreading it around the world. Now Mike has put together an amazing survey of traditional guitar styles from the rural South that will teach you twenty-five songs and the guitar techniques that go along with them.  These lessons, based on Mike s Smithsonian Folkways CD, Early Southern Guitar Sounds, are fun to play and will help you develop a full range of repertoire and technique. Included are banjo-like styles, rags, blues, parlor guitar-based pieces, slide guitar tunes, and many song accompaniment styles, most of which Mike has picked up directly from traditional players or their recordings - Maybelle Carter, John Hurt, Leadbelly, Sam McGee, Roscoe Holcomb, John Jackson and Elizabeth Cotten, among others. Each piece is played through, followed by comments on style and a slow split-screen repetition. Some of the songs will be familiar to you while others will add exciting new material to your repertoire: Arizona, Old Chisholm Trail, Johnny Doyle, Kenny Wagner s Surrender, Fishing Blues, Buckdancer s Choice, I m Crazy Over You, Can t Get a Letter From Home, Spanish Fandango, Weary Lonesome Blues, Birmingham Tickle, Worried Blues, White Oak Mountain, Pearly Dew, Shakin the Pines In the Holler, Joe Lee s Tune, John Henry, Guitar Rag, Smoketown Strut, Riley and Spencer, Leaning on the Everlasting Arm, After All Has Been Said and Done, Big Kid s Barroom, Black Jack David. These pieces range in level from easy to challenging. All intermediate and advanced players, as well as some beginners, will get great results from working with this program. Extra! Mike uses twenty-three different guitars to illustrate the variety of sounds that make up the traditional American guitar experience.