Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Today, I saw the PBS show, "American Soundtrack: This Land Is You Land". Basically, a live concert of folk artists such as Kingston Trio, Brothers Four, etc. Roger was on stage with his 370RM, doing "Mr. Tambourine Man" & "Turn, Turn, Turn".

Richard: While I am grateful for your comments,this is a bit of a tease. Please take a few moments to give us a review of this performance. Did you notice his setup beyond the 370/12RM? I would also like to know of the reception he received relative to the other artists. Hopefully the local PBS will rebroadcast this concert at some point.

I couldn't tell what his exact setup was. However, I would only describe the sound as vintage McGuinn. I believe that the audience was quite receptive to his performance. Whenever the audience was panned, you could see several singing along. Also he received a standing ovation, as did several other artists.

I caught the latter half of "Turn, Turn, Turn"--man it sounded COOL!! Roger had his JC-120 on the stage and played the 370/12, naturally. At the end of the song he received a standing ovation.

Yeah, I caught this too. It was amazing. I thought that McGuinn was the example of how Folk music had advanced as art form in the '60s. Before him it seemed (with the exceptions of the Guthries, Seeger, Dylan, Baez and Paul Simon) folk music was for people content to just sit around and have a hootenanny. I saw the entire broadcast and was amazed by the whole thing, I also laughed because it was a little corney hearing stuff like "MTA" and "Green, Green". I don't know-maybe if I was from that generation I would have appreciated that music a little more. Afterwards I went and listened to "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" for a kind of folk music that I can understand.

I thought that in the end, McGuinn's offering was amazing and sounded even better than it had in the days of the Byrds. I loved "Turn! Turn! Turn!" because from my background it is a song with a two-fold meaning-God's Love and unfailing plan for us and a reminder to mankind to respect one another as a sacred creation. I also noticed in a segment that wasn't shown (PBS showed this on the video they are selling), McGuinn also played "Eight Miles High" on his Martin twelve string. It was an amazing concert and it seemed that he was more at ease playing than most of the other folks that evening.

I get PBS over here in Hawaii, but this show has not aired here, at least if I can believe my TV program that comes with the Sunday paper, which usually has a fairly comprehensive description of what's on.I wanted to see it!

I taped it, but haven't seen it yet. If it came out okay, I don't mind making copies on VHS as long as you guys pay for postage.

Roger was the highlight of the show. Some of the other acts were pretty good, although some are gettin' older in the years and probably aren't used to playing out like that much anymore. Roger is getting older too, but he doesn't look too bad. That hat though, is he trying to cover his thining hair? I don't know. But it was great to see him on tv. Roger was the main attraction. He had a good band backing him up and background vocalists doing harmonies. His Rickenbacker 12-string shimmered and shined! It was Great! The crowd really got into "Turn! Turn! Turn!", and "Mr. Tambourine Man". These two songs were shown in their entirity, but PBS only showed a brief snippet of the Martin 12-string acoustic version of "Eight Miles High" (they want you to send money to get the rest of it). I liked the parts with Roger, including his brief interview that featured him discussing the benefits of Public Television. I think it's cool that they at least showed both "Tambourine Man" and "Turn! Turn! Turn!" in their entirity. That was pretty cool, and it was cool to see so many people smiling and enjoying it.

I wish I could've been there. I think Judy Collins was talking to the Smothers Brothers and said something about the show being at Carnegie Mellon University too! Is that true, or was this show recorded in New York somewhere? But, MAN, if this show actually Was at Carnegie Mellon, then it was right here in Pittsburgh PA! ARGHH!! What the heck, there were totally no advertisements for this show, which leads me to wonder if this was by invitation only to those who are members of Public Television. ARGHH!! I would've given them some money to have been there. We just drove two hours up to Cleveland Ohio last month and saw Roger, but I would've seen him again. Especially if he was right here in town! He didn't even tell me he was going to be in town (but maybe he's getting tired of hearing from me about shows) Haha. It's still a shame I wasn't there too, I could've started doing a dance routine and created a big scene with the crowd like the ones at the classic Byrds shows from the mid 1960s. Haha! This is well documented in Johnny Rogan's book: The Byrds actually had Go-Go dancers that followed them to shows, and they would unexpectedly mix into the crowd in order to help start a WILD scene! Wouldn't that be great if Byrds fans like us would revive the wild Go-Go dancing that used to go on at Byrds shows? Haha, I can almost hear some of your hips cracking at that very thought. Now THAT was dancing! This current **** these hoity toity Dead people call dancing at those Other Ones shows just look like they're trying to stay afloat in a fish bowl. Bring back the WILD dancin' and prancin' !! As the old song goes, "Keep On, Dancin' and a Prancin'! Keep On, Dancin' and a Prancin'!"

It was on channel 22 in the Washington DC area today Jan 11, 2026 at 4:30 pm. McGuinn's Rick sounded a lot like what was on the studio album from the 60's. There was a signature on the pick guard so it must have been his Roger Mcguinn Signature model.

Behind the Guitar Roger McGuinn-Part I on PBS39
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ez7VFDwfhU