THANK YOU GEORGE BALKOVEC FOR SENDING WAGRadio THIS INTERESTING THEORY ON WHY SOUTHERN MUSIC BECAME THE MUSIC OF THE WORLD - BEGINNING IN 1908 SEARS, ROEBUCK STARTED SELLING $1.89 - STEEL STRING GUITARS . . . ! !

"While it is certainly true that the music was forged in part by the legacy of slavery and the insults of Jim Crow, the iconic image of the lone bluesman traveling the road with a guitar strapped to his back is also a story about **innovators** seizing on expanded opportunities brought about by the commercial and technological advances of the early 1900s. 


There was no Delta blues before there were cheap, readily available steel-string guitars. 
And those guitars, which transformed American culture, were brought to the boondocks by Sears, Roebuck & Co. ... 
Guitars first appeared in the catalog in 1894 for $4.50 (around $112 in today’s money). By 1908 Sears was offering a guitar, outfitted for steel strings, for $1.89 ($45 today), making it the cheapest harmony-generating instrument available."


**Click on **innovators** in the preceeding paragraphs to take you to the DAILY BEAST story.

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Article taken from The Daily Beast www.the dailybeast.com

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